Indonesian President Megawati Sukarnoputri promised Christian leaders on Tuesday that police would capture the gunmen responsible for killing a woman preacher in the eastern city of Palu and urged them to stay calm.
Gunmen burst into a church on Sunday in Palu, the capital city of Central Sulawesi province, and shot dead Protestant minister Susianti Tinolele as she was delivering a sermon. Four teenage churchgoers were also wounded in the attack.
Palu is near the regency of Poso, where more than 2,000 people have died in Muslim-Christian clashes since 1999.
Indonesia, the world's most populous Muslim nation, is rushing to prevent a possible wider conflict as a result of Sunday's shooting.
Indonesia's national police chief arrived in Palu, 1,500 km T(900 miles) northeast of Jakarta, hours after the incident, and a cabinet minister was due to attend the funeral later on Tuesday.
Indonesia's top church leaders, who attended the meeting with the president in Jakarta, said she urged Christians to stay calm and allow police to do their work.
"She has ordered the police to catch the criminals. There is no religious motive. We should not be provoked," reverend Nathan Setiabudi, head of the Communion of Churches in Indonesia, which is the nation's coordinating Protestant body, told reporters.
Another leader said Megawati was clearly worried.
"She said the incident was an action that really hurts a religious congregation. She has sent the religion minister to attend the funeral on behalf of the government," Ruyandi Hutasoit, a popular minister and head of the Christian-based Peace and Prosperous Party, told reporters after the meeting.
Churches in Palu have called on followers not to retaliate as the identities of the gunmen were still not known. Police in Palu have a physical description of one of the five attackers, but are hesitant to put the blame on any group.
"I think these are people who want to destroy the secure situation after the Poso riots. There are certain groups that we suspect, but we still need more evidence," said Central Sulawesi police spokesman Victor Batara.
Some 85 percent of Indonesia's 220 million people are Muslim. In some eastern parts, such as the Poso-Palu area, Christian and Muslim populations are about equal in size.
Since the Asian economic crisis of the late 1990s, Indonesia, the world's fourth largest country, has experienced political turbulence and sporadic ethnic and religious clashes.