People

Indonesian church leader, politician Willem T. P. Simarmata dies at 68

Willem T. P. Simarmata, Indonesian politician and moderator of the Christian Conference of Asia, died June 17 at the age of 68.

Simarmata, widely seen as one of the most influential leaders of the Asian ecumenical movement, also served as head of Indonesia’s largest non-Catholic denomination, the Batak Christian Protestant Church, from 2012 to 2016.

In a statement, Mathews George Chuna­kara, general secretary of the Chris­tian Conference of Asia, called Simar­mata’s death a great loss to the Asian ecumenical movement.