Study of Ornaments in the Inkulturatif Pangururan Catholic Church in Samosir, North Sumatera

In the early 1900s, Catholic missionaries arrrived on Batak land in North Sumatera, Indonesia and initiated the process of inculturation, which was subsequently marked by the adaptation of Catholic teachings with the Batak traditional culture. The adaptation involved the liturgy, music and others, inculding the architecture and interior design of their places of worship that continued even to the Modern times. This research aims to discover the meaning behind the ornaments on the exterior and interior of the Inkulturatif Pangururan Catholic Church in Samosir, North Sumatera, as a result of this inculturation process, through Panofsky’s research method known as Iconology. The elements analyzed include the façade, enclosure elements, transitional elements and filling elements. Results show that the ornaments contain various meanings inculturated from Catholic culture having biblical and theological themes incorporated into Batak Toba stylized ornamental forms. This shows that the goodness, truth and beauty of the Catholic faith had honored and adapted their teachings to the local wisdom and culture such that what appears in the implementation of the ornaments is a novel creative beauty and an embodiment of inculturation.