"The death of Susianti strengthened us to move forward and serve others, replacing our hatred, anger and fear with love and compassion to build brotherhood and sisterhood among us," says Rev Jetroson Rense, the church's current pastor.
Rita Aryani Kupa shares Rense's spirit of forgiveness and Tengkende's leap of faith. "It's through God's grace and guidance that I have learned to cope with that tragedy," says Kupa in an interview.
Kupa, mother of three, is referring to another tragedy - the 26 October 2006 assassination of her husband, Rev Irianto Kongkoli, the then Synod general secretary of the Christian Church in Central Sulawesi, two years after Tinulele's killing.
Kupa, a policewoman, sees hope in her three children, two of whom have chosen to follow in the footsteps of their late father by enrolling in seminary.
"I have to stretch my salary as a policewoman because the Synod has no funds to pay for the pension of my late husband, but with God's help my eldest son will be graduating in a year or so," she says.
Rebuilding ties
The violence in Central Sulawesi essentially had run its course before the government authorities intervened, notes the International Crisis Group. Authorities did not try to suppress the well-armed Laskar Jihad and other irregular forces but sought to mediate an agreement between the combatants.
In January 2007, the police launched operations, reportedly driving away teachers of radical Islam in Poso who came from Java, and arresting perpetrators of jihad-related crimes without any backlash, at least up to this time.
With the relative peace in Poso, Christian and Muslim leaders have sought to pick up the pieces from the rubble of the conflict by renewing ties, establishing dialogues and rebuilding what they said was a long tradition of cooperation between members of the two faith communities.
"The conflict has challenged us to teach young Christians to learn and understand more about Islam in order to avoid Islamophobia (fear of Islam)," says Rev. Ishak Pule, first chairman of the Christian Church of Central Sulawesi Synod. "It is this lack of understanding that separates us from one another."
