Marriage requirements

[Digitarius]

I met a Christian woman here in Indonesia and we want to get married. Anyone have any idea of the requirements for a Christian Indonesian to marry a Christian American. I can't seem to find anything or a church for that matter. She is from Makassar but living in Yogyakarta. Any help of point in the right direction would be appreciated.

 

[ChrisTex]

Finding a pastor to marry you is the main thing and each church will have their own requirements: be a member for so long, x amount of marriage prep, where(city) you are going to get married etc...

Then you have the normal paperwork for the government. The local government can supply that information that.

 

[Digitarius]

Finding a pastor to marry you is the main thing and each church will have their own requirements: be a member for so long, x amount of marriage prep, where(city) you are going to get married etc...

Then you have the normal paperwork for the government. The local government can supply that information that.

ok thanks!

 

[atlantis]

I met a Christian woman here in Indonesia and we want to get married. Anyone have any idea of the requirements for a Christian Indonesian to marry a Christian American. I can't seem to find anything or a church for that matter. She is from Makassar but living in Yogyakarta. Any help of point in the right direction would be appreciated.

Ideally marry in a church your future spouse is a member of. It will be quite straightforward.
I was a Catholic and my wife was a Protestant. We went to her church organized my "conversion" and 2 or 3 weeks after we got married. I think I provided a baptism certificate and that was it. Procedure has been simplified because her whole family was well known in the hood and the church. It was almost 20 years ago so it may have changed. I may have gone a couple of time only to Church since then so I can't really claim to be up to date.

 

[Digitarius]

Ideally marry in a church your future spouse is a member of. It will be quite straightforward.
I was a Catholic and my wife was a Protestant. We went to her church organized my "conversion" and 2 or 3 weeks after we got married. I think I provided a baptism certificate and that was it. Procedure has been simplified because her whole family was well known in the hood and the church. It was almost 20 years ago so it may have changed. I may have gone a couple of time only to Church since then so I can't really claim to be up to date.

You actually had to convert from a Protestant to a Catholic hahaha wow and here I was thinking they were mostly the same except for the worshipping of Mother Mary and all the Saints. What if you had not converted?

 

[atlantis]

You actually had to convert from a Protestant to a Catholic hahaha wow and here I was thinking they were mostly the same except for the worshipping of Mother Mary and all the Saints. What if you had not converted?

Very simple. Not converted, not married.
By law in Indonesia a marriage must be done within the same faith.

Like you, before settling in Indonesia two decades ago, I thought that Catholic and Protestant didn't have much differences. Then I came to Manado. Situation here is probably how it was a couple of century ago or more in Europe, or at least in France where I am from. Catholic and Protestant are very well aware of their differences and are estranged cousins.
In my family we have Catholics and Protestants. Everything goes well until it comes to religious discussions or religious affairs. Then you can see that the two communities tolerate each others but don't mix more than necessary.
One of my cousin, a Catholic, was engaged to a young chap who happened to be a Protestant. Came the time to discuss marriage but no agreement got reached, both of the would-be spouse wanted to remain officially in their religion. They broke up and my cousin wrote on her FB account (in English) "Born Catholic, Raised Catholic, and Die Catholic". The whole Catholic branch of the family cheered up inundating her post of "like" while the Protestant branch of the family stayed away from the post, just bitching privately on how stupid she was and that she would die alone...etc

I may be the exception tolerated by the two side of the family. The Protestants are happy with my "conversion" despite the fact that I don't attend Church and the Catholics of my family consider me "one of them" in spite of my "conversion". As long as I don't turn Muslim, all is fine. Buddhist would be borderline but probably still OK since I have a strong social influence within the family. If they knew I am atheist, quite a few would faint, or worse, for sure.

Don't underestimate the weight and influence of Religion in Indonesia. It's probably beyond anything you have experienced, and this in all faith.

 

[Helpful Herbert]

I wonder how they classify other branches of Christianity, such as Greek Orthodox, Russian Orthodox or Anglican. They are neither Catholic nor Protestant. My guess is they would put them as Protestant anyway. Also why isn't Islam divided into Sunni and Shia, or Buddhism divided into Theravada and Mayahana etc etc. I guess it's a win for Christianity - 1/3 of the official religions in the country are Christian, whereas only 1/6 are Islam.

 

[ChrisTex]

Ideally marry in a church your future spouse is a member of. It will be quite straightforward.
I was a Catholic and my wife was a Protestant. We went to her church organized my "conversion" and 2 or 3 weeks after we got married. I think I provided a baptism certificate and that was it. Procedure has been simplified because her whole family was well known in the hood and the church. It was almost 20 years ago so it may have changed. I may have gone a couple of time only to Church since then so I can't really claim to be up to date.

That is what happened with my wife and I. We used my mother in law's church to do the wedding and the pastor there was 'we know your family so it is okay.'

 

[fastpitch17]

We married in a US Territory. Asked the Governor of Guam to marry us and she did after we finished a formal dinner. Wife had Budah on her KTP and Passport because she had to choose something, I was raised Catholic. Wife baptized Catholic in US. When moved to the continental US, filed at an Indonesian Consulate. When moved to Indonesia filed at Catsip. All good. Before filing wife's sister helped her get a new KTP. Now listed as Islam. Since sister did that, sister and her husband started demanding we marry again in Indonesia and of course I convert. We were already married for years and had all the documents to show it. Told sister where she could stick her idea.

 

[Digitarius]

Very simple. Not converted, not married.
By law in Indonesia a marriage must be done within the same faith.

Like you, before settling in Indonesia two decades ago, I thought that Catholic and Protestant didn't have much differences. Then I came to Manado. Situation here is probably how it was a couple of century ago or more in Europe, or at least in France where I am from. Catholic and Protestant are very well aware of their differences and are estranged cousins.
In my family we have Catholics and Protestants. Everything goes well until it comes to religious discussions or religious affairs. Then you can see that the two communities tolerate each others but don't mix more than necessary.
One of my cousin, a Catholic, was engaged to a young chap who happened to be a Protestant. Came the time to discuss marriage but no agreement got reached, both of the would-be spouse wanted to remain officially in their religion. They broke up and my cousin wrote on her FB account (in English) "Born Catholic, Raised Catholic, and Die Catholic". The whole Catholic branch of the family cheered up inundating her post of "like" while the Protestant branch of the family stayed away from the post, just bitching privately on how stupid she was and that she would die alone...etc

I may be the exception tolerated by the two side of the family. The Protestants are happy with my "conversion" despite the fact that I don't attend Church and the Catholics of my family consider me "one of them" in spite of my "conversion". As long as I don't turn Muslim, all is fine. Buddhist would be borderline but probably still OK since I have a strong social influence within the family. If they knew I am atheist, quite a few would faint, or worse, for sure.

Don't underestimate the weight and influence of Religion in Indonesia. It's probably beyond anything you have experienced, and this in all faith.

Interesting and informative, thanks.