Roman
Catholicism
On a beautiful Sunday morning
as we traveled through Ho Chi Minh City to meet a group of Christians,
we passed a large Roman Catholic Church. Gathered on the grounds were
more than 1000 people. The Roman Catholic Church was introduced to Vietnam
in the sixteenth century by French monks. Under French rule in the 1850s,
membership in the Catholic Church became a prerequisite for employment,
particularly in government. Over time, the Roman Catholic Church was composed
of the Vietnamese elite. Converting to Catholicism became a way of demonstrating
loyalty to the government. This held true even up until the reign of Ngo
Dinh Diem in the early 1960s. According to the 2000 Annual Report on
International Religious Freedom, Vietnam has about 6 million Roman
Catholics, representing 8 percent of the population. On February 21, Pope
John Paul installed François Xavier Nguyen Van Thuan, 72, as one
of 44 new cardinals. He had been imprisoned by Communists after the fall
of Saigon when he refused to give up his post as Bishop of Vietnam.
Other
Religions
A much more recent development
in the religious life of Vietnam is the establishment of the Caodai Church.
Caodai began in the early 1920s and grew rapidly through 1941. The name
literally means "high tower or palace." Caodai combines the
compassion of Buddhism with the ethics of Christianity, the spiritism
of Animism and Taoism, and the organizational particularity of Confucianism
and the Roman Catholic Church.
Hoa Hoa is a reformed Buddhist
sect that was established in the 1930s. By the end of World War II it
had over a million adherents. It stresses that virtue is the path to salvation.
Protestant
Christianity
We traveled by van down side
streets until we came to a busy motorcycle repair shop. There were motorcycles
in various states of repair, with mechanics bent over them. No one looked
up as we climbed a set of narrow stairs along the wall to the second floor.
I heard the familiar music of "What a Friend We Have in Jesus"
as I reached the landing. I saw over 200 people standing and singing.
Following the close of the
service, the pastor told me that the French colonial government had resisted
the establishment of Protestant Christianity in Vietnam. However, in 1911,
the Christian and Missionary Alliance (CMA) sent missionaries.
The CMA was originally a missionary-sending
organization founded by a Presbyterian minister. It later became a Protestant
denomination. Today, the Evangelical Church of Vietnam (ECV) carries on
the CMA tradition. The ECV has been in negotiation with the Vietnamese
government for many years over its official status.
On February 9, 2001,Vietnam
officially recognized the southern branch of the Evangelical Church of
Vietnam. The ECV is a network of Tin Lanh (Good News) churches. According
to the 2000 Annual Report on International Religious Freedom, there
are over 300 Tin Lanh churches, primarily south of the Ho Chi Minh City,
with 15 churches in the Hanoi area.
Some leaders of house churches,
many of which are Pentecostal, a small minority of the Protestants in
Vietnam, have been critical of the ECV's quest for recognition by the
government for fear that it will come under the control of the government.
In turn, the Vietnamese government has been suspicious of the house-church
movement because the congregants meet in private homes in secret.
Crossroads
for Mission
When the GBGM team met in
January with Vietnamese Christians, it was the culmination of conversations
among representatives of The United Methodist Church, the GBGM, the Vietnamese
National Caucus of The UMC, and Vietnamese Christians that had been ongoing
since 1998. The initial visit to Vietnam in 1998 included Bishop Roy Sano,
then episcopal leader of the California Pacific Annual Conference. Vietnamese
Christians expressed interest in The United Methodist Church and wanted
to know more about it. One had spent much of his adult life under house
arrest because he had refused to give up his ministry in 1975. He had
read the works of John Wesley and wanted to know more. The Vietnamese
women present were keenly aware that women are an integral part of United
Methodist lay and clergy leadership. Others expressed interest in the
organizational and connectional nature of the church.
Who Are the People Called
Methodists? by Dr. S T Kimbrough offers a concise description of
the history, beliefs, and order of The United Methodist Church. We had
it translated into Vietnamese for the purposes of our visit. We gathered
with 16 Vietnamese men and women for two days. We heard about how they
struggle to practice their faith. We ate together, sang together, learned
from one another, and worshiped together.
Vietnam is undergoing change
as a new generation of leaders is arising. The government of Vietnam is
increasingly recognizing its own constitutional mandates for the freedom
of religion. Now, 25 years after the end of what the Vietnamese call "the
American War," The United Methodist Church is being urged by its
own Vietnamese American constituents and by Vietnamese Christians to bear
witness to Jesus Christ in Vietnam.
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