only three selected church groups permissions to operate in Ho Chi Minh City.
The Ho Chi Minh City Bureau of Religious Affairs granted a request for registration to a faction of the Vietnam Mennonite Church led by the Reverend Nguyen Quang Trung, the small Grace Baptist church led by the Reverend Le Quoc Chanh, and one grouping of the Seventh-day Adventist church in Vietnam, reported Christian news agency Compass Direct.
In published letters dated March 6, the bureau also pledged to guide the three church bodies in preparing paperwork to apply to the central Bureau of Religious Affairs in Hanoi to hold their organizing conventions, a condition to receive legal recognition.
An unidentified source cautioned however the "Ho Chi Minh City Bureau of Religious Affairs has jurisdiction only in Ho Chi Minh City, and all three of these church groups have some congregations scattered throughout the country," Compass Direct said. The churches are especially strong in southern Vietnam and these congregations remain illegal until they too receive the local permission necessary before national registration can take place.
SMALL PART
In addition house church leaders have said in published remarks that the three church organizations represent "only a part" of church traditions in Vietnam as several Baptist house church groups are larger than the recognized Grace Baptist Church.
The government is believed to have chosen the smaller, more compliant Mennonite faction led by the Rev. Nguyen Quang Trung over the larger one led by activist Pastor Nguyen Hong Quang, who was released from prison only last August.
The Seventh-day Adventists, too, have at least two factions, and the city government excluded the newer one, news reports said.
The Baptist, Mennonite and Seventh-day groups excluded from these recent measures were reportedly informed that they can only be considered for registration under the approved factions within their traditions, a move expected to add to tensions between church groups.
"SIGNIFICANT SETBACK"
One Vietnamese Mennonite missionary told Compass Direct that this development was a “significant setback” for the Mennonite churches led by Pastor Quang. Authorities raided his home and church headquarters in the city’s District 2 dozens of times, once partly dismantling the facility, while he was imprisoned during 2004 and 2005.
Since Quang’s release from prison, the District 2 church apparently has again grown and
Local Christians suggest the government actions is aimed at undermining attempts by Pastor Quang’s influential organization to seek government guidance on how to function legally.
The three organizations to which the government has responded have in common that they and their leaders were active before 1975, Compass Direct said. (With reports from Vietnam).
