Mennonites in Vietnam: Light and Shadow

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Mennonite World Conference release by Vietnamese Ministries
For Immediate Release
July 23, 2005

Recent reports from Vietnam give some hope of lowering tensions between government authorities and Mennonite churches at various levels, while at the same time hostile actions continue elsewhere. Church leaders interpret the signs of the times differently as well, and tensions over these issues continue within the church.

A pastor on the central Vietnam coast was called in to the local security police office in June and told that city and provincial officials do not want to hinder their house churches' worship, which has long gone on illegally. Officials now stand ready to respond in positive ways to lessen the difficulties the churches have faced.

Pastor Nguyen Quang Trung reports that in July the Ho Chi Minh City Office of Religious Affairs told that his long-standing application for national legal status for the denomination has progressed to a new stage. Trung has submitted a constitution as the next step toward recognition, to be followed by an official organizing conference. The same notification has been extended to three other groups: Baptist, Seventh Day Adventist & World Evangelization Crusade.

Meanwhile, on July 19, a building in District 2 of Ho Chi Minh City which has served as a place of worship and an office for the Vietnam Mennonite Church was partially demolished by local authorities. They have long maintained a portion of it was built illegally. Mrs. Le Thi Phu Dung, wife of imprisoned church leader Nguyen Hong Quang, lives on the second floor with her three children.

A baptistry at the rear of the building now lies in ruins, and a large hole gapes in the back corner of the structure. The leaders of this house church are distraught at this evidence of ongoing hostility to the Mennonite church. They are asking for the prayers and support of the international Mennonite and evangelical communities.

Vietnam has been under international scrutiny over its intrusive monitoring of religious groups. Since November 2004, the government has proclaimed several national-level changes intended to lessen criticism of its heavy hand in "managing" organized religion.

Conversations with officials indicate that a major concern of the government is political insecurity over rapid growth in the number of evangelical believers among ethnic minority groups, who have long been at the margins of Vietnamese culture. A majority of the Mennonites in Vietnam are ethnic minority peoples.

Strong public advocacy for the plight of minority groups and minority Christians by pastor Nguyen Hong Quang and several other Mennonite leaders in recent years may be a major underlying factor in government hostility toward some Mennonite churches.

Of the six Mennonite leaders and church workers arrested in 2004, two remain in prison: pastor Quang and evangelist Nguyen Ngoc Thach. Four have been released, some after serving their full sentences. An amnesty in April 2005 resulted in the release of Miss Nguyen Thi Lien, whose prison experiences led to serious mental illness. She has experienced a return to health, for which her family and church are grateful to God.