Indo wedding & religion

[spicynoodles]

I hope I am posting in the right section. Ok, here is my situation. I am a US citizen, with an Indo fiancee. We are trying to get married in the coming year. Indo law requires that marriages occur between same religion couples. She is a baptized Christian with all her papers and baptize letters intact. I, on the other had am a non practicing Christian with no document whatsoever for "proof of religion."

Is it possible for me to find a priest that would marry us, despite my having lack of proof of my religion? From what Ive gathered so far, this is impossible to find in Jakarta, but may be possible in Bali. I need a valid marriage certificate fully recognizable by the Indo government, such that it can be converted to an international marriage license. We intend to eventually immigrate to Australia as a married couple. Can anyone provide any help or insight on this? Anything will be greatly appreciated.

-Bert

 

[spicyayam]

Is she Protestant or Catholic? If you are open to converting then that is probably the easiest way to go. I believe converting to Protestant is not too difficult.

 

[Jimbo]

I think a simple declaration will be enough at the Kantor Cipil when you register your marraige to make it legal..

 

[gilbert de jong]

If you're looking for a protestant dominee (referent i think it's called?), who will declare you two married including the marriagebook (wich you bring to the kantor cipil, to register the marriage) there's one overhere in north bali who will do this no questions asked, just pay as you go
friendly greetings, gilbert.

 

[spicynoodles]

She and I are both Protestant Christian. We would rather not go through the baptism process to get a cert for me as this can be pretty lengthy. We also feel its rather disrespectful for me to do that just in order to get a certificate to get married. Ive asked around to some wedding organizers in Bali, most of them seem to feel there wont be any problems getting a protestant priest to marry us without my (the foreigner's) baptism cert. Im feeling alot better about this. Thanks for all your input everyone.

-Bert

 

[db_aussie]

She and I are both Protestant Christian. We would rather not go through the baptism process to get a cert for me as this can be pretty lengthy. We also feel its rather disrespectful for me to do that just in order to get a certificate to get married. Ive asked around to some wedding organizers in Bali, most of them seem to feel there wont be any problems getting a protestant priest to marry us without my (the foreigner's) baptism cert. Im feeling alot better about this. Thanks for all your input everyone.

-Bert

FYI Bert, last year I (a Bule) declared 'No Religion' on the marriage paperwork when marrying my Christian Fiancee from Java, here in Bali. Our wedding organizer told me this was quite OK to write down on the paperwork and in the end she was right as there were no questions raised. I was informed this wouldn't have been possible outside of Bali or if my Fiancee was/is Muslim.

One other thing that might have helped is my wife holds a Bali ID, which she has had for about 5 years now. This may or may not be necessary to marry under such circumstances in Bali; I'm really not sure.

Regards,

DB.

 

[gilbert de jong]

FYI Bert, last year I (a Bule) declared 'No Religion' on the marriage paperwork when marrying my Christian Fiancee from Java, here in Bali. Our wedding organizer told me this was quite OK to write down on the paperwork and in the end she was right as there were no questions raised. I was informed this wouldn't have been possible outside of Bali or if my Fiancee was/is Muslim.

One other thing that might have helped is my wife holds a Bali ID, which she has had for about 5 years now. This may or may not be necessary to marry under such circumstances in Bali; I'm really not sure.

Regards,

DB.

surely this was a marriage 'adat', cuz there's no way (even on Bali and having loads of money to smoothen things) one can legally register a marriage with the groom having no religion and the bride XXX religion.
The Republic of Indonesia doesn't allow a mixed religion marriage to be registered.
I would appreciate you checking your weddingbook/certificate issued by the government, not the one issued by the Kelian Desa Adat or in your case the church providing the services and get back on this.
thanks, gilbert

 

[db_aussie]

surely this was a marriage 'adat', cuz there's no way (even on Bali and having loads of money to smoothen things) one can legally register a marriage with the groom having no religion and the bride XXX religion.
The Republic of Indonesia doesn't allow a mixed religion marriage to be registered.
I would appreciate you checking your weddingbook/certificate issued by the government, not the one issued by the Kelian Desa Adat or in your case the church providing the services and get back on this.
thanks, gilbert

We have both the Surat Nikah (which has no mention of our individual religions), from the Church and the Kutipan Akta Perkawinan (Excerpt of Marriage Certificate) from the Registry Office. On the application paperwork required before issuance of the Surat Nikah I declared 'No Religion', but the ceremony was officiated and 'blessed' by a Protestant Pastor. The wedding script, incidentally was put together / written by my fiancee (at the time) and I, as I wanted religious talk to be kept to a bare minimum (and no, there wasn't 'loads of money' exchanged because the Pastor was/is from my wife's Church).

On the Excerpt from the Registry Office there is also no mention of our individual religions, but it has a line that says: which is conducted in acceptance with a clergyman: Protestan and then the Pastor's name, with his titles etc.

Unless someone fraudulently altered my application, it would appear that the Republic of Indonesia does in fact allow such a marriage, as long as the Indonesian marrying the Bule is Christian and the Clergyman performing the ceremony in Bali is happy to sign off on the union.

I guess it just depends on the Clergyman and whether or not he/she is willing to sign off on the Surat Nikah for the couple to be married.

DB.

 

[gilbert de jong]

Thanks DB,
In the process of getting things in order my self, so really appreciate your feedback

I don't think your application has been changed by anyone, but what you say here "" On the Excerpt from the Registry Office there is also no mention of our individual religions, but it has a line that says: which is conducted in acceptance with a clergyman: Protestan and then the Pastor's name, with his titles etc. ""

This little line means that the wedding is registered as protestan..
Indeed like many things on Bali, it's not what one knows, but who one knows,.. in your case your wife knows/knew the pastor :icon_wink:

Again thanks for replying DB..
fr.gr.gilbert.

 

[tintin]

Spicynoodles, db, you may fool the Indo Government, but how do you plan to avoid the wrath of God for your duplicity?:icon_lol:

 

[db_aussie]

Thanks DB,
In the process of getting things in order my self, so really appreciate your feedback

I don't think your application has been changed by anyone, but what you say here "" On the Excerpt from the Registry Office there is also no mention of our individual religions, but it has a line that says: which is conducted in acceptance with a clergyman: Protestan and then the Pastor's name, with his titles etc. ""

This little line means that the wedding is registered as protestan..
Indeed like many things on Bali, it's not what one knows, but who one knows,.. in your case your wife knows/knew the pastor :icon_wink:

Again thanks for replying DB..
fr.gr.gilbert.

Gilbert,

You're definitely right about the 'who you know' bit because some, but not all clergyman are flexible with such things. I know this because earlier in the planning stages of the wedding I put the 'feelers' out via Email to lots of Wedding Organizers in Bali to see if any had Clergymen who were flexible in regards to the Wedding Script. It turned out that only a few of about a dozen or more seemed flexible in this way. The reason I did this was because I wasn't sure if my Wife's Pastor would be happy to read a mostly non-religious Wedding Script and wanted to make sure I had a 'back-up'. After we presented the Pastor our script, he did suggest some more religious scripts (or liturgies), but I politely insisted we use the one the Wife and I and put together and that is what we ended up with at the Ceremony, followed by a short Christian Blessing at the end.

It wasn't until later, that I found out through the Wedding Organizer that as a Bule marrying a Christian Indonesian in Bali, it is not necessary to declare a religion on the application paperwork.

DB.

 

[db_aussie]

Spicynoodles, db, you may fool the Indo Government, but how do you plan to avoid the wrath of God for your duplicity?:icon_lol:

:icon_lol: Good point Tintin !!
As far as I know, one always has the option of 'Repentance' should they have a change of heart in relation to Godly matters, before their time is up on this rotating rock we all call home :icon_wink:

 

[Tango67]

interesting comments here, im planning to marry my balinese fiance as well, however we will probably marry officially in Hong Kong then do a religious ceremony in Bali.... she is Hindu and i am of no faith in particular...lol

Anybody see any issues in Bali with this?

 

[spicyayam]

Everything I have read on marriage in Indonesia states that you need to have the same religion as your spouse. For many foreigners getting married to an Indonesian person, they often convert to their spouses religion, usually just to keep the family happy. The conversion is more often than not "ceremonial".

If you want to buy property in Indonesia in the future, you should consider getting a pre-nup made.

 

[Jimbo]

interesting comments here, im planning to marry my balinese fiance as well, however we will probably marry officially in Hong Kong then do a religious ceremony in Bali.... she is Hindu and i am of no faith in particular...lol

Anybody see any issues in Bali with this?

Wait until you see what you will have to wear :icon_razz:

 

[Tango67]

Wait until you see what you will have to wear :icon_razz:

ha ha, yeah i dont really care, been to bali about 10 times and lived in asia for 3 years, i have definately more open minded than the avge westener... but thanks for the heads up

just the fact of having temples in every area of the house/land and ceremonies for everything is a blast....lol

biggest issue i have is she wont eat beef....luv a steak and beef curry but getting used to chicken and pork....lol