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YouTube
Vietnam
LOS ANGELES, June 27 (CDN) — Vietnamese
officials in Muong Cha district, Dien Bien Province, destroyed two new
church buildings of ethnic minority Hmong Christians this month and
threatened to tear down a third. The Ho He Church, erected in April
by the unregistered ....
HANOI, Vietnam, November 22 (CDN) — Three
Christians seriously injured during a savage attack near Hanoi on Nov.
13 have been evacuated to an undisclosed hospital in Ho Chi Minh City
after several hospitals in the region refused to examine and treat them.
The attack on a church ....
HANOI, Vietnam, November 16 (CDN) — A
gang of men attacked leaders of a Baptist house church network near
Hanoi on Sunday (Nov. 13), leaving one pastor unconscious and seriously
injuring several others, including women and teenage children. Leaders
of the Agape Baptist Church were ....
HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam, November 3 (CDN) — Thugs
said to be doing the bidding of local authorities attacked a pastor and
his family with iron bars and wooden clubs in central Vietnam on Oct.
23, seriously injuring the heads and arms of the church leader’s father
and other relatives, sources ....
HANOI, Vietnam, May 6 (CDN) — The
government tried to portray several thousand Hmong followers of a
sub-Christian messianic cult as orthodox Christians while the military
forcibly disbanded their gathering yesterday and today. The cult
members recruited from orthodox Christian ....
HANOI, Vietnam, April 18 (CDN) — Authorities
in Vietnam prevented much-anticipated public Easter celebrations in
Hanoi planned for Friday and Saturday (April 15-16) after giving a
verbal promise to organizers that the events would proceed. An
interchurch organizing committee had ....
HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam, April 11 (CDN) — The
first appearance by a U.S.-based evangelist preaching at a major event
since the 1975 communist victory in Vietnam helped the country’s
Protestants to celebrate their centennial last weekend after government
officials gave last-minute approval. ....
HO CHI MINH CITY, December 29 (CDN) — Granted
permission only five hours before a scheduled Christmas event, house
church leaders turned an empty field into a rudimentary stadium and
welcomed some 20,000 people for a time of worship and evangelism on
Sunday (Dec. 26) in Vietnam’s ....
HANOI, Vietnam, December 20 (CDN) — In
what appeared to be part of a central government crackdown on
Protestant Christianity in Vietnam, hundreds of Christians from 10
northern provinces were locked out of a Christmas celebration that was
supposed to take place here yesterday. The ....
HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam, December 17 (CDN) — An
estimated 500 soldiers and police here cordoned off the church
headquarters and home of the Rev. Nguyen Hong Quang on Tuesday (Dec.
14), and then heavy equipment operators quickly demolished the two-story
building, sources said. Mennonite ....
HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam, November 30 (CDN) — Two
Christian evangelists, Ksor Y Du, 47, and Kpa Y Co, 30, were sentenced
this month to six and four years in prison respectively for “undermining
national unity.” Ksor and Kpa, of the Vietnam Good News Mission
(VGNM) church, received the ....
HO CHI MINH CITY, July 23 (CDN) — A
gang of youths on Sunday (July 18) attacked a house church as the
congregation worshiped in Xi Thoai village in Phu Yen Province on
Vietnam’s south central coast, Christian sources said. The local
youths smashed the walls of the home and ....
HO CHI MINH CITY, April 1 (CDN) — Suffering
severe abuse from villagers and local Vietnamese officials, Hmong
Christian Sung Cua Po fled into the forest with his family on March 19.
An expulsion order had been issued to his family, an area Christian
leader said. Since ....
DUBLIN, March 30 (CDN) — Vietnamese
officials have in recent months tightened control over those they
regard as dissidents, and the temporary release of Catholic priest
Thadeus Nguyen van Ly on March 15 was a rare exception, according to
Amnesty International (AI). ....
HO CHI MINH CITY, March 30 (CDN) — A
Protestant prisoner of conscience who had called for democratic
freedoms in Vietnam was released earlier this month after serving a
three-year sentence for “propagandizing to destroy the Socialist
Republic of Vietnam.” Attorney Le Thi Cong Nhan’s ....
HANOI, Vietnam, January 18 (CDN) — A
Vietnamese man violently forced to recant his fledgling Christian faith
faces pressure from authorities and clansmen to prove his return to
traditional Hmong belief by sacrificing to ancestors next month.
Sung Cua Po, who embraced ....
HANOI, December 21 (CDN) — For
the second time in 10 days, Protestant history was made in Vietnam
yesterday when 12,000 people gathered for a Christmas rally here. The
event, which took place in the large square in front of the entrance to
My Dinh National Stadium in the ....
HO CHI MINH CITY, December 14 (CDN) — On
Friday evening (Dec. 11), history was made in communist Vietnam.
Christian sources reported that some 40,000 people gathered in a hastily
constructed venue in Ho Chi Minh City to worship God, celebrate
Christmas, and hear a gospel message – an ....
HO CHI MINH CITY, October 23 (CDN) — The
Assemblies of God (AoG) in Vietnam on Monday (Oct. 19) received an
“operating license,” which the government described as “the first step .
. . before becoming officially legal.” This operating license
gives permission for all of the ....
August 7 (CDN) — HANOI,
Aug. 6 (Compass Direct News) – Local authorities in Vietnam have balked
at registering house churches, contributing to a recent uptick in
sometimes violent harassment of congregations. Four police officers and
two government officials broke ....
HANOI, August 6 (CDN) — Local
authorities in Vietnam have balked at registering house churches,
contributing to a recent uptick in sometimes violent harassment of
congregations. Four police officers and two government officials broke
up the Sunday morning worship service ....
HANOI, June 18 (CDN) — Police
invaded the Sunday service of the Agape Baptist congregation in
Vietnam’s Hung Yen Province on June 7 and beat worshippers, including
women, and arrested a pastor and an elder. Christian sources said
police put the two church leaders ....
June 18 (CDN) — HANOI,
June 18 (Compass Direct News) – Police invaded the Sunday service of
the Agape Baptist congregation in Vietnam’s Hung Yen Province on June 7
and beat worshippers, including women, and arrested a pastor and an
elder. Christian sources said ....
LOS ANGELES, May 11 (CDN) — A
Hmong man in Vietnam’s Northwest Mountainous Region who murdered his
mother in February because she had become a Christian has assaulted
another Christian, leaving him critically wounded, according to area
Christian sources. Lao Lia Po on ....
May 11 (CDN) — LOS
ANGELES, May 11 (Compass Direct News) – A Hmong man in Vietnam’s
Northwest Mountainous Region who murdered his mother in February because
she had become a Christian has assaulted another Christian, leaving him
critically wounded, according to ....
HO CHI MINH CITY, April 23 (CDN) — In
what religious freedom advocates regarded as a breakthrough in Vietnam,
authorities granted rare permission to unregistered house church groups
to hold a large, public Easter-related service here last night. More
than 15,000 people gathered at ....
April 23 (CDN) — HO
CHI MINH CITY, April 22 (Compass Direct News) – In what religious
freedom advocates regarded as a breakthrough in Vietnam, authorities
granted rare permission to unregistered house church groups to hold a
large, public Easter-related service here ....
April 10 (CDN) — HO
CHI MINH CITY, April 9 (Compass Direct News) – Just hours after the
prime minister’s office assured denominational leaders that there were
no plans to destroy their Protestant church building, authorities in
Banmethuot last month demolished the ....
HO CHI MINH CITY, April 9 (CDN) — Just
hours after the prime minister’s office assured denominational leaders
that there were no plans to destroy their Protestant church building,
authorities in Banmethuot last month demolished the historic structure
in the Central Highlands city. ....
December 17 (CDN) — HO
CHI MINH CITY, December 17 (Compass Direct News) – Local government
officials in Dak Lak Province this morning made good on their threat to
destroy a new wooden church building erected in September by Hmong
Christians in Cu Hat village. At 7 a.m. ....
November 21 (CDN) — HO
CHI MINH CITY, November 21 (Compass Direct News) – In violation of
Vietnam’s new religion policy, authorities in Lao Cai Province in
Vietnam’s far north are pressuring new Christians among the Hmong
minority to recant their faith and to ....
November 20 (CDN) — LOS
ANGELES, November 20 (Compass Direct News) – At a chapel on the
remaining patch of Thai Ha Redemptorist property in Hanoi that the
Vietnamese government had yet to confiscate, at 10 p.m. on Saturday
night (Nov. 15) an official came to summon the ....
September 27 (CDN) — HANOI,
September 26 (Compass Direct News) – Authorities in Hanoi have
responded to months of Catholic prayer vigils and demonstrations over
disputed land by destroying the one-time residence of the papal nuncio
in central Hanoi. In suddenly ....
May 16 (CDN) — HANOI,
May 16 (Compass Direct News) – Local officials in Lao Cai province have
confiscated the land and home of a former opium addict because of his
phenomenal success as an evangelist, local Christian sources said. Sua
Yinh Siong of Lau Chai ....
April 21 (CDN) — HO
CHI MINH CITY, April 21 (Compass Direct News) – An unprecedented prayer
appeal by the Evangelical Church of Vietnam (South) indicates that the
government has stonewalled quiet, persistent attempts to obtain redress
on confiscated church ....
February 12 (CDN) — HO
CHI MINH CITY, February 11 (Compass Direct News) – Imprisoned Christian
lawyers Nguyen Van Dai and Le Thi Cong Nhan, their sentences reduced by
one year due to international pressure, received a rarely granted visit
from non-family members when ....
August 13 (CDN) — LOS
ANGELES, August 13 (Compass Direct News) – A school in central Vietnam
has denied entry to a fifth-grade boy because he is Christian, according
to a letter from an elementary school principal to the ethnic minority
child’s parents. Tran Van Ha, ....
June 26 (CDN) — HO
CHI MINH CITY, June 26 (Compass Direct News) – A young Hroi ethnic
minority man who refused to recant his Christian faith died from
injuries received while under official interrogation, Compass confirmed
as Vietnamese President Nguyen Minh Triet ....
May 16 (CDN) — LOS
ANGELES, May 16 (Compass Direct News) – After a trial of only four
hours last Friday (May 11), a Vietnamese court convicted Christian
attorneys Nguyen Van Dai and Le Thi Cong Nhan of “propagandizing against
the Socialist Republic of Vietnam” and ....
April 23 (CDN) — HO
CHI MINH CITY, April 23 (Compass Direct News) – Christian attorneys
Nguyen Van Dai and Le thi Cong Nhan are scheduled to be tried on May 11
in a case that appears to have fallen short even of Vietnam’s limited
requirements for due process. As of ....
April 18 (CDN) — Nguyen
Van DaiHO CHI MINH CITY, April 18 (Compass Direct News) – Following the
March 29 sentencing of Father Nguyen Van Ly to eight years in prison
for distributing “material harmful to the state,” two Protestant lawyers
charged with the same ....
March 9 (CDN) — LOS
ANGELES, March 9 (Compass Direct News) – The arrest in Hanoi on Tuesday
(March 6) of human rights defender Nguyen Van Dai, an elder in his
Christian & Missionary Alliance Church, along with the arrest last
month of former prisoner of ....
January 9 (CDN) — January
9 (Compass Direct News) – Police burst into the Vietnam Mennonite
church and residence of the Rev. Nguyen Hong Quang here at 8:20 this
morning, broke up a prayer meeting and arrested 17 people, including his
son and elderly mother-in-law. ....
October 31 (CDN) — October
31 (Compass Direct News) – Vietnamese authorities advised the U.S.
Embassy in Hanoi that 18 Vietnamese churches had been registered while
not informing the churches themselves. Observers believe this is an
indication that the country has ....
September 18 (CDN) — September
18 (Compass Direct News) – Church leaders in Vietnam expressed surprise
at U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for International Religious Freedom John
Hanford’s statement at a briefing on Friday (September 15) that “Vietnam
has turned the corner and ....
May 25 (CDN) — Police
attacking construction workerMay 25 (Compass Direct) – An estimated 50
police and other security forces and officials from Binh Khanh Ward in
District 2 converged on the Mennonite church, office and residence of
the Rev. Nguyen Hong Quang on ....
April 3 (CDN) — April
3 (Compass Direct) – Less than a year after believers in Vietnam’s
central Quang Ngai province saw some of their dwellings destroyed, a mob
burned down five homes of other Hre minority Christians in the
legally-recognized Evangelical Church of ....
March 13 (CDN) — March
13 (Compass) – Authorities have granted longstanding requests of three
church organizations to legally function in Ho Chi Minh City, sources
told Compass. The Ho Chi Minh City Bureau of Religious Affairs last week
granted a request for ....
March 3 (CDN) — Pham
Ngoc Thach (right) upon releaseMarch 3 (Compass) – Pham Ngoc Thach, a
Vietnamese evangelist imprisoned for “resisting an officer doing his
duty,” was released today after completing a two-year sentence at Z30A
Prison in Xuan Loc, Dong Nai ....
November 17 (CDN) — November
17 (Compass) – For years Vietnamese church leaders have filed
complaints of religious liberty abuses to government officials and have
almost never received replies. But in an unprecedented shift, pastors
are now petitioning authorities more ....
September 19 (CDN) — Rev.
Than Van Truong September 19 (Compass) -- Committed to a Vietnamese
mental hospital for nearly a year after being diagnosed as “delusional”
for believing in God, the Rev. Than Van Truong was released to his
family on Saturday, September 17. ....
September 16 (CDN) — September
16 (Compass) -- Authorities in the Son Ha District of Quang Ngai
Province incited a mob to burn down the home of evangelist Dinh Van
Hoang on August 21 because he would not sign a paper denying his
Christian faith. Local public security ....
August 31 (CDN) — The
Rev. Nguyen Hong QuangAugust 31 (Compass) -- The Rev. Nguyen Hong
Quang, a Mennonite pastor here convicted of an offense he denied having
committed, walked out of prison on August 30 as part of Vietnam’s
National Day amnesty. Since his arrest on ....
August 30 (CDN) — August
30 (Compass) -- Local authorities shut down a 500-member, international
church here on Saturday, August 27. The church had sought a permit to
meet since its inception eight years ago. Eric Dooley, pastor of the
interdenominational New Life ....
August 15 (CDN) — Rev.
Nguyen Hong Quang August 15 (Compass) -- The Rev. Nguyen Hong Quang was
working at a labor camp machine used to extract cashew nuts on August 9
when he was approached by high prison officials. They told him he would
be moved immediately to ....
July 25 (CDN) — July
25 (Compass) -- While believers met for prayer in the District 2
Mennonite center Sunday evening -- just five days after authorities
demolished half of the building -- officials forced their way in to
disband the meeting. In spite of the ....
July 20 (CDN) — Vietnam
Church Center after the destructionJuly 20 (Compass) -- On Tuesday
morning, July 19, about 200 officials cordoned off the Vietnam Mennonite
Church center in this city’s District 2 and sent in a large work force
that tore down the rear 8.8 ....
June 21 (CDN) — June
21 (Compass) — Three Vietnamese house church leaders submitted written
testimony to the International Relations Committee of the House of
Representatives in Washington, D.C., on Monday, June 20, the first
working day of Vietnam Prime Minister ....
May 11 (CDN) — May
11 (Compass) -- On May 5, John Hanford, U.S. Ambassador for
International Religious Freedom, announced an agreement with the
Socialist Republic of Vietnam regarding issues of religious liberty. The
details of the agreement, outlined privately in ....
May 3 (CDN) — Ms.
Lien after hours of detentionMay 3 (Compass) -- After just two days of
freedom, Vietnamese prisoner-of-conscience Ms. Le Thi Hong Lien was
arrested for attending a Bible study with other Christian believers. On
the evening of Sunday, May 1, a ....
April 29 (CDN) — Ms.
Lien received prayer after her releaseApril 29 (Compass) -- Vietnamese
authorities released 22-year-old* children’s Bible teacher Le Thi Hong
Lien from Bien Hoa Mental Hospital yesterday morning. Ms. Lien’s
unexpected release came two months ....
April 26 (CDN) — Le
Thi Hong Lien April 26 (Compass) -- Vietnam has promised to release
Mennonite church worker Le Thi Hong Lien on April 30, two months short
of completing her one-year sentence on charges of opposing an officer
performing official duties. A report ....
April 13 (CDN) — April
13 (Compass) -- Presiding Judge Nguyen Xuan Phat upheld the three-year
sentence of the Rev. Nguyen Hong Quang and the two-year sentence of
Evangelist Pham Ngoc Thach at an appeal court hearing on April 12.
Co-defendants Quang and Thach were ....
April 4 (CDN) — April
4 (Compass) -- Lawyers acting on behalf of the Rev. Nguyen Hong Quang
informed his wife last week that his appeal before the People’s Supreme
Court of Vietnam has been rescheduled for April 12. The appeal, which
was filed also on behalf of ....
March 10 (CDN) — March
10 (Compass) -- Police raided the Ho Chi Minh City headquarters of the
Mennonite Church of Vietnam on February 27. Of the 23 present, 19
worshippers were arrested, taken to the ward police station and
questioned until the early hours of the ....
January 13 (CDN) — Rev.
Nguyen Hong Quang January 13 (Compass) — Sources in Vietnam have
informed Compass that the People’s Supreme Court in Ho Chi Minh City
will hear the appeals of the Rev. Nguyen Hong Quang and evangelist Pham
Ngoc Thach on February 2. This ....
November 18 (CDN) — November
18 (Compass) -- Le Thi Hong Lien, the sole woman among six Mennonite
church workers sentenced to prison in Vietnam last Friday, is
hospitalized with a “mental disease,” according to prison officials. She
was arrested on June 30 and ....
November 18 (CDN) — Le
Thi Hong LienNovember 18 (Compass) — Le Thi Hong Lien, the sole woman
among six Mennonite church workers sentenced to prison in Vietnam last
Friday, is hospitalized with a “mental disease,” according to prison
officials.Just 21 years old, Miss ....
November 12 (CDN) — Rev.
Nguyen Hong Quang November 12 (Compass) — The People’s Court of Ho Chi
Minh City handed out harsh sentences to six Vietnamese Mennonite church
workers in a four-hour trial which ended at noon today. Rev. Nguyen Hong
Quang and five other ....
November 12 (CDN) — November
12 (Compass) -- The People’s Court of Ho Chi Minh City handed out harsh
sentences to six Vietnamese Mennonite church workers in a four-hour
trial which ended at noon today. Rev. Nguyen Hong Quang and five
colleagues were charged with ....
November 11 (CDN) — November
10 (Compass) -- Authorities in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, ordered the
wife the Rev. Nguyen Hong Quang, a Mennonite pastor imprisoned since
June 8, to appear at a neighborhood “review” meeting tonight. Sources in
Vietnam say the purpose of ....
November 5 (CDN) — November
5 (Compass) -- Vietnamese officials are hindering attempts to prepare
the defense of six Mennonite church workers scheduled for a November 12
trial. The refusal of the court to give the written order for the trial
to the family members of ....
November 2 (CDN) — November
2 (Compass) -- Rev. Nguyen Hong Quang, prominent rights activist and
general secretary of the Mennonite church in Vietnam, is scheduled to be
tried on November 12. His wife was informed of this on Saturday,
October 30. Irregularities and ....
November 2 (CDN) — Rev.
Nguyen Hong QuangNovember 2 (Compass) — Rev. Nguyen Hong Quang,
prominent rights activist and general secretary of the Mennonite church
in Vietnam, is scheduled to be tried on November 12. His wife was
informed of this on Saturday, October 30. ....
September 30 (CDN) — September
30 (Compass) — In an unprecedented move, representatives of Vietnam’s
house church fellowships delivered a petition in Hanoi on September 27,
appealing to Vietnam’s Communist Party leadership to allow for greater
religious freedom in ....
September 7 (CDN) — September
7 (Compass) — The Rev. Tran Mai, a prominent Vietnamese house church
leader, was arrested on August 29 and held for eight days of
interrogation. He was released on September 6, but with orders to appear
for further questioning at the ....
September 1 (CDN) — September
1 (Compass) — The Vietnam Evangelical Fellowship (VEF) has just
released a statement on Vietnam’s new Ordinance on Religion, due to take
effect on November 15. The VEF is an organization of about 30
unregistered house church organizations ....
September 1 (CDN) — September
1 (Compass) -- The Vietnam Evangelical Fellowship (VEF) has just
released a statement on Vietnam’s new Ordinance on Religion, due to take
effect on November 15. The VEF is an organization of about 30
unregistered house church organizations ....
August 26 (CDN) — August
26 (Compass) — On August 23, the mother of Mennonite evangelists Nguyen
Huu Nghia and Nguyen Thanh Nhan was allowed to visit her imprisoned
sons for the first time since their arrest in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam,
on March 2. It took nearly ....
August 16 (CDN) — August
16 (Compass) — Government authorities continue to apply unrelenting
pressure on tribal Christians in the Central Highlands of Vietnam, while
trying to convince the international community that all is back to
normal in the troubled region.The ....
July 30 (CDN) — July
30 (Compass) — Seven weeks after his arrest in a police raid on his
home in Ho Chi Minh City, Mennonite pastor Nguyen Hong Quang has been
allowed his first visitors. The unexpected visit occurred after Quang’s
wife wrote a letter to senior ....
July 30 (CDN) — Pastor
QuangJuly 30 (Compass) — Seven weeks after his arrest during a police
raid on his home in Ho Chi Minh City, Mennonite pastor Nguyen Hong Quang
has been allowed his first visitors.The unexpected visit occurred after
Quang’s wife Le Thi Phu ....
July 8 (CDN) — July
8 (Compass) — Since his arrest on June 8, the Rev. Nguyen Hong Quang
has become the victim of a propaganda campaign. Vietnamese authorities
have been spreading misinformation through Vietnamese diplomats,
newspaper reports and a government ....
June 10 (CDN) — June
10 (Compass) — Rev. Nguyen Hong Quang, a religious liberty activist and
Mennonite church leader, was arrested on June 8. His home at the
Mennonite church and office in Ho Chi Minh City’s District 2 was
ransacked, and officers seized personal ....
May 21 (CDN) — May
21 (Compass) — In spite of efforts by Vietnam to minimize and cover up
their brutal repression of demonstration attempts by the Montagnard
ethnic minority this past Easter, consistent information is emerging
that confirms atrocities. During ....
May 17 (CDN) — May
17 (Compass) — During Easter weekend, April 10 and 11, Montagnards in
Vietnam’s Central Highlands attempted to stage public demonstrations to
call attention to harsh injustices they suffer at the hands of communist
authorities and ethnic ....
March 12 (CDN) — March
12 (Compass) — On the afternoon of March 4, public security police
surrounded the Quoc Thanh Theater in central Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam,
and ordered the electricity cut to the building in an attempt to stop a
joint worship celebration ....
March 8 (CDN) — March
8 (Compass) — Law enforcement authorities in Vietnam are subjecting
house church leaders who confront injustice to relentless harassment,
according to sources in Ho Chi Minh City. On March 2 at the Ho Chi Minh
City home of Rev. Nguyen Hong ....
February 17 (CDN) — February
17 (Compass) — In recent months, Protestants in Vietnam have seen
intense activity on the religious rights’ front and point to four
incidents of government concession that may indicate a change in the
religious liberty climate. After ....
January 13 (CDN) — (Compass)
-- Less than 24 hours before his trial for “resisting an officer doing
his duty” was to begin in Ho Chi Minh City, Rev. Bui Van Ba was served a
notice postponing the trial to a later date, ostensibly because a judge
was unable to attend. ....
January 7 (CDN) — (Compass)
-- The trial of a Vietnamese house church leader arrested in August for
“resisting an officer doing his duty” is set to begin January 13.
Pastor Bui Van Ba, general secretary of the Full Gospel House Church
organization, will be tried ....
January 7 (CDN) — The
trial of a Vietnamese house church leader arrested last August for
“resisting an officer doing his duty” is set to begin January 13,
sources said. Pastor Bui Van Ba, general secretary of the Full Gospel
House Church organization, will be tried ....
December 15 (CDN) — (Compass)
— Public Security police in Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) allegedly
attempted to assassinate the Rev. Nguyen Hong Quang at about 9 p.m. on
December 9 by staging a motorcycle “accident,” according to the
Vietnamese Mennonite Church. Rev. Quang ....
December 15 (CDN) — (Compass)
— News of clashes between Christians and public security police over
Christian tract distribution has been pouring out of Vietnam since the
opening of the 22nd Southeast Asia Games on December 5. The house
churches, often zealous in their ....
December 15 (CDN) — (Compass)
— On November 29, Vietnamese authorities extradited Ma Van Bay from
Binh Phuoc province in the Central Highlands to his former home in Ha
Giang province on the China border. Christians who know the brutality of
government authorities in Ha ....
December 12 (CDN) — News
of clashes between Christians and public security police over the
distribution of Christian tracts has been pouring out of Vietnam since
the opening of the 22nd Southeast Asia Games (Seagames 22) on December
5. The house churches, often zealous ....
November 14 (CDN) — (Compass)
— A researcher analyzing materials just received from Vietnam has found
a “smoking gun” showing that religious rights are still restricted in
the Southeast Asian country. The original copy of a request from a
Christian family of the Hre ....
October 10 (CDN) — (Compass)
— Authorities in Vietnam’s Kontum province have apparently added cruel
symbolism to their persecution of Christians. When Pastor A En of the
Chu Pa Evangelical Church answered a summons from local security police,
they forced him to stand ....
September 12 (CDN) — (Compass)
— Church sources in Vietnam report that persecution against Montagnard
(tribal) Christians in the Central Highlands is so severe that several
hundred have fled to neighboring Cambodia, despite increased vigilance
by military authorities to ....
August 15 (CDN) — (Compass)
— A compromise reached between church and government authorities over
the construction of a small church building in Ho Chi Minh City
(formerly Saigon) appears to have been a ruse to fool the congregation.
“The compromise involved both ....
July 14 (CDN) — (Compass)
— For the second time in three years, authorities in Thu Thiem district
of Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon) halted the construction of a
church building. This time, however, they did not destroy the initial
construction, as Christians ....
June 16 (CDN) — (Compass)
-- In mid March, a 55-year-old leader of the Mnong tribal church in
Vietnam’s southern Dak Lak province issued a plaintive appeal to
Christians worldwide. In a letter smuggled out of Vietnam and translated
into English by missionaries, the ....
April 14 (CDN) — (Compass)
— In what may be a small breakthrough for religious liberty, Vietnam’s
religion authorities invited five leaders of Protestant house church
organizations and non-denominational missions to Hanoi for “informal
talks” on March 5. Such a ....
February 11 (CDN) — (Compass)
-- The powerful Central Committee of Vietnam’s Communist Party
announced at the conclusion of its Seventh Plenum on January 21 that it
had passed a new resolution to better control religion. The issue arose
two years ago when minority ....
February 11 (CDN) — (Compass)
-- Twenty-seven years after forcibly shutting down the Nha Trang
Theological Seminary, Vietnamese authorities on January 3 granted
permission to the Evangelical Church of Vietnam (South), or ECVN (S), to
open a class for training church ....
December 14 (CDN) — (Compass)
— When December 25 rolls around this year, Christmas for some 150,000
ethnic Ede Christians will be a bleak affair. The Vietnamese government
has come down hard on Christians in the last three months. Authorities
have disbanded most of the ....
August 9 (CDN) — (Compass)
— On July 6, Vietnamese authorities arrested Pastor Nguyen Dang Chi of
Phy Ly and held him in a cell for 24 hours. Pastor Chi, who has seen his
Nazarene congregation grow to 800 members since it’s founding in 1995,
sang hymns and prayed, ....
July 18 (CDN) — (Compass)
— The Rev. Pham Xuan Thieu, president of the Evangelical Church of
Vietnam (South), died of a heart attack on June 24 in Ho Chi Minh City.
He was 61. The Rev. Thieu, a professor of theology, had been elected
president of the ECVN (South) ....
June 21 (CDN) — (Compass)
- A delegation of Vietnam's religious leaders visited the United States
May 9-13, denying persecution reports and receiving plaudits from their
Christian hosts. Yet a well-known Vietnam watcher wrote that over half
of Vietnam's one million ....
April 19 (CDN) — (Compass)
- A March 31 Xinhua News Agency release datelined Hanoi published
statements by Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen and Vietnam’s Ministry of
Foreign Affairs that guarantee third country asylum for about 1,000 of
Vietnam’s mostly Christian ....
March 15 (CDN) — (Compass)
- Cambodian authorities forcibly repatriated on March 2 sixty-three
predominantly Christian Montagnards from Vietnam who were seeking asylum
in Cambodia. Sixty-one refugees from a United Nations High Commissioner
for Refugees (UNHCR) camp ....
February 15 (CDN) — (Compass)
- Protests by tribal groups, including many Christians, in Vietnam’s
Central Highlands during February 2001 were followed by a massive
crackdown by military and security forces who targeted Christians. In
December 2001, in an apparent ....
February 15 (CDN) — (Compass)
- An agreement to repatriate to Vietnam nearly 1,000 tribal Christians
who fled persecution in 2001 is causing concern among international
Vietnam watchers. “These refugees are being pressured to go back with
only the flimsiest of ....
November 16 (CDN) — (Compass)
- After 25 years of being alternately harassed, ignored and persecuted,
the Evangelical Church of Vietnam (South), or ECVN, was granted legal
recognition by Vietnamese authorities in April 2001. Six months later,
it is clear that legal ....
August 24 (CDN) — (Compass)
- Legal recognition granted in April has yet to benefit the Evangelical
Church of Vietnam. And while the authorities are \"considering\"
several requests from the ECVN, they are using their recognition of the
southern ECVN as an excuse to ....
May 18 (CDN) — (Compass)
- Following protest demonstrations in February over religious rights
and the loss of tribal lands to lowland Vietnamese farmers, there has
been a marked increase in the ongoing harassment and persecution of
minority Christians in Vietnam’s ....
April 21 (CDN) — (Compass)
- For the first time since the communist takeover in 1975, authorities
in Vietnam have granted legal recognition to a Protestant organization
in the south. \"There’s still well-documented persecution of Christians
in Vietnam, but as a ....
February 16 (CDN) — (Compass)
- Attempts by Vietnam’s Bureau of Religious Affairs to \"regularize\"
the southern Evangelical Church of Vietnam (ECVN) have run into serious
opposition from church leaders. The southern ECVN (also known as Tin
Lanh) is Vietnam’s largest ....
December 15 (CDN) — (Compass)
- As U.S. President Bill Clinton visited with Catholic Archbishop Pham
Minh Man on November 19 to discuss religious freedom issues in the city
formally known as Saigon, security police across town raided the Sunday
worship service of Grace ....
November 17 (CDN) — (Compass)
- Some of Vietnam’s Protestants are hopeful that the government will
officially recognize the largest Protestant body, the southern-based
Evangelical Church of Vietnam, for the first time since 1975. According
to a government plan, a main ....
September 22 (CDN) — (Compass)
- Authorities in Vietnam are jamming Christian radio broadcasts in a
desperate attempt to curb the rapid spread of Protestant Christianity
among the Hmong minority in the country’s northwest provinces along the
China border. The ....
August 18 (CDN) — (Compass)
- On July 1, city officials demolished a crude church structure in a
slum area of Ho Chi Minh City (formerly Saigon). The \"church\" had been
erected only hours before by Christians who were led to believe that
they had permission to ....
May 19 (CDN) — (Compass)
- Vietnam freed more than 12,000 prisoners on Sunday, April 30, its
largest amnesty in history, marking the 25th anniversary of the end of
the Vietnam War. But no Christian imprisoned for religious beliefs was
known to be among those ...
