Mennonites in Vietnam: light and shadow

Recent reports from Vietnam are a mix of good news and indications of ongoing hostility between government authorities and Mennonite churches at various levels. 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 told him that his long-standing application for national legal status for the denomination has progressed to a new stage.

Meanwhile, however, in July, a building in District 2 of Ho Chi Minh City that has served as a place of worship and an office for the Vietnam Mennonite Church was partially demolished by local authorities. Five days later, officials conducted two raids on prayer meetings held by the group.

Vietnam has been under international scrutiny over its intrusive monitoring of religious groups. 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.

The Vietnam Mennonite Church experienced a schism in late 2004, and the two groups have not yet found a way to reunite. In June the largest group chose Le Thi Phu Dung, wife of the imprisoned church leader Nguyen Hong Quang, who was released August 30, to serve as president.

—from reports by Mennonite World Conference and Compass Direct