Christianity in Vietnam
Encyclopedia
Christianity was first introduced to Vietnam
in the 16th century and established a solid position in Vietnamese society since the 19th century. Roman Catholics and Protestants today constitute 7% and 1% of the country’s population accordingly; the newest government census shows that is 8% (7% Catholic and 1% Protestant). Christian
communes still remain under control of state authorities. Foreign missionaries
legally are not allowed to proselytize or perform religious activities without government approval. Undeclared missionaries from several countries are active in Vietnam.
The most active introducers of Western enlightenment were the Jesuits, who were, at that time, in the prime of their exploratory efforts. The Franciscan
s, Dominican
s, and others, although prominent, never reached the influence of the Jesuits who were determined to plant the spiritual and cultural power of Roman Catholic Church in Southeast Asia. Having arrived there about 1627, they developed their activities in many fields. Their activities were helped by the printing of the first Bible
in 1651, and the growing influence of several individuals, who were welcomed in certain powerful circles.
Jesuit missionary Alexandre de Rhodes created in 17th century a written system of Vietnamese language
largely using the Roman alphabet - it is used today and now called Quốc Ngữ (national language).
Catholicism came to widespread prominence when the French missionary priest and Bishop of Adran Pigneau de Behaine
played a key role towards the end of the 18th century. He had come to southern Vietnam to proselytise. Pigneau then became the confidant of Nguyễn Ánh the last of the Nguyễn Lords, then engaged in civil war. Pigneau hoped that by helping in a Nguyễn Ánh victory, he would gain concessions for the Catholic Church in Vietnam.
Pigneau and other missionaries bought military supplies and enlisted European soldiers for Nguyễn Ánh and they took part in military operations.
Nguyen conquered Vietnam and became Emperor Gia Long
. He tolerated the Catholic faith and permitted unimpeded missionary activities out of respect to his benefactors. The missionary activity was dominated by the Spanish in Tonkin and French in the central and southern regions. At the time of his death, there were six European bishops in Vietnam. The population of Christians was estimated at 300,000 in Tonkin and 60,000 in Cochinchina.
The peaceful coexistence of Catholicism alongside the classical Confucian system of Vietnam was not to last. Gia Long appointed Minh Mạng
his successor for his deeply conservative Confucianism; his first son's lineage had converted to Catholicism and abandoned their Confucian heritage.
A power struggle then developed between Minh Mạng and pro-Catholic, pro-Western officials who wanted to maintain the power they had been given by Gia Long. Eventually, 2,000 Vietnamese Catholic troops fought under the command of Father Nguyễn Văn Tâm in an attempt to depose Minh Mạng and install a Catholic emperor.
The revolt was put down, and restrictions were placed on Catholicism. Persistent rebellions occurred throughout the Nguyễn Dynasty, many led by Catholic priests intent on installing a Christian monarch. During the French colonial campaign against Vietnam from 1858 to 1883, many Catholics joined with the French in helping to establish colonialism by fighting against the Vietnamese government. Once colonial rule was established the Catholics were rewarded with preferential treatment in government posts, education, and the church was given vast tracts of royal land that had been seized.
After the end of the French rule and Vietnam division in mid-1950s, Catholicism declined in the North, where the communists regarded it as a reactionary force opposed to national liberation and social progress. In the South, by contrast, Catholicism was expanded under the presidency of Ngo Dinh Diem
, who promoted it as an important bulwark against North Vietnam. Diem, whose brother was Archbishop Ngo Dinh Thuc gave extra rights to the Catholic Church, dedicated the nation to the Virgin Mary and preferentially promoted Catholic military officers and public servants while restricting Buddhism and allowing Catholic paramilitaries to demolish temples and pagodas. In 1955 approximately 600,000 Catholics remained in the North after an estimated 650,000 had fled to the South in Operation Passage to Freedom
.
In 1975 the Communist authorities, which united the country by military force and after the US troops withdrawal, claimed that the religious activities of Roman Catholics were stabilized and that there was no religious persecution
. Meanwhile, the Government acted to isolate and to neutralize hard-core opposition within local Catholics to party policy and to persuade less strongly opposed factions to join a party-controlled "renovation and reconciliation" movement. A significant number of Vietnamese Roman Catholics, however, remained opposed to communist authority.
In 1988 all Vietnamese Catholics, who died for their faith from 1533 to present time, were canonized by Pope John Paul II as Vietnamese Martyrs
.
. As part of the Christian and Missionary Alliance
, over 100 missionaries were sent to Vietnam, assisting the faith's growth in the country.
By 1967 information, Protestant communities were represented mainly within South Vietnam. Those communities included the French Reformed Church, Anglican–Episcopalian
, Christian and Missionary Alliance
, Baptists, Church of Christ
, Worldwide Evangelization Crusade
, and Seventh-day Adventist
s. Other Protestant associations were also represented in some social services and welfare agencies. In 1967 there were 150,000 Protestant adherents in South Vietnam, representing about 1% of the total population.
Protestant communes in the North decreased in membership to about 1,200 by the end of the Vietnam War
. Several Protestant church properties were confiscated during the communist takeover of South Vietnam in 1975.
Protestants in the early 1980s, mostly located in the Montagnard communities in southern Vietnam's central highlands.
Present estimates of the number of Protestants range from the official government figure of 500,000 to claims by churches of 1,600,000 or more. The two officially recognized Protestant churches are the Southern Evangelical Church of Vietnam (SECV), recognized in 2001, and the smaller Evangelical Church of Vietnam North (ECVN), recognized since 1963. The SECV had affiliated churches in the southern provinces of the country. By some estimates, the growth of Protestant believers in Vietnam has been as much as 600 percent over the past ten years. Some of the new converts belong to unregistered evangelical house church
es. Based on believers' estimates, two-thirds of Protestants were members of ethnic minorities, including Hmong
, Dzao, Thai
, and other minority groups in the Northwest Highlands, and members of ethnic minority groups of the Central Highlands (Ede, Jarai
, Bahnar
, and Koho
, among others).
Nowadays at least 50% of the Protestant population are tribal people.
Particularly Hmong
and H're
tribals suffer from persecution of Christians
. By May, 2006, over 300 Montagnard people remained in Vietnamese prisons for their faith. A young Hroi (ethnic minority) man who refused to reject his Christian faith reportedly died from injuries received under official interrogation in April 2007. By the 2008 estimates of Release International
, many Christians from Vietnam's tribal highlands are still regarded as enemies and targeted as "agents of America". They are reportedly beaten, tortured and starved behind bars, despite the official claims and guarantees for freedom of religion.
Mennonite
and Baptist
movements were officially recognized by Hanoi in October, 2007, which was estimated as some improvement of religious freedom in the country. Pastor Nguyen Quang Trung, provisional president of the Vietnam Mennonite Church, taking part in the official ceremony of the above authorisation, quoted his Church's motto: "Living the Gospel, worshipping God, and serving the nation."
.
was created in the 17th century by Jesuit missionary Alexandre de Rhodes, leading to the first printing of Catholic texts in Vietnamese by the Jesuits in 1651, but not the Bible, as per the usual policy of the Jesuit missions. Some portions may have been translated and printed in Thailand in 1872.
Jean Bonet
, author of a Dictionnaire Annamite-français, translated Gospel of Luke from French to Vietnamese in 1890. The first translation from Latin was that of Albert Schlicklin
(1916), and the first from Greek that of William Cadman
(New Testament 1923, Old Testament 1934). The Schilicklin and Cadman Bibles remain the basis of the standard Catholic and Protestant versions today.
The organized work of United Bible Societies
in Vietnam began in 1890. In 1966 the Vietnamese Bible Society was established. The Bible societies distributed 53,170 Bible examples and 120,170 New Testament
examples in Vietnamese within the country in 2005.
of Russian Orthodox Church
in Vungtau, where there are many Russian-speaking employees of the Russian-Vietnamese Joint Venture "Vietsovpetro".
The parish named after Our Lady of Kazan
icon was opened in 2002 with the blessing of the Holy Synod
of the Russian Orthodox Church
, which had been given in Troitse-Sergiyeva Lavra
.
The representatives of foreign relations department of the Russian Orthodox Church
from time to time come to Vungtau for conducting Orthodox divine service.
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
in the 16th century and established a solid position in Vietnamese society since the 19th century. Roman Catholics and Protestants today constitute 7% and 1% of the country’s population accordingly; the newest government census shows that is 8% (7% Catholic and 1% Protestant). Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
communes still remain under control of state authorities. Foreign missionaries
Missionary
A missionary is a member of a religious group sent into an area to do evangelism or ministries of service, such as education, literacy, social justice, health care and economic development. The word "mission" originates from 1598 when the Jesuits sent members abroad, derived from the Latin...
legally are not allowed to proselytize or perform religious activities without government approval. Undeclared missionaries from several countries are active in Vietnam.
Roman Catholics
Roman Catholicism first entered Vietnam through Catholic missionaries in 16th century and strengthened its influence when Vietnam was a French colony. France encouraged Catholicism.The most active introducers of Western enlightenment were the Jesuits, who were, at that time, in the prime of their exploratory efforts. The Franciscan
Franciscan
Most Franciscans are members of Roman Catholic religious orders founded by Saint Francis of Assisi. Besides Roman Catholic communities, there are also Old Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, ecumenical and Non-denominational Franciscan communities....
s, Dominican
Dominican Order
The Order of Preachers , after the 15th century more commonly known as the Dominican Order or Dominicans, is a Catholic religious order founded by Saint Dominic and approved by Pope Honorius III on 22 December 1216 in France...
s, and others, although prominent, never reached the influence of the Jesuits who were determined to plant the spiritual and cultural power of Roman Catholic Church in Southeast Asia. Having arrived there about 1627, they developed their activities in many fields. Their activities were helped by the printing of the first Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
in 1651, and the growing influence of several individuals, who were welcomed in certain powerful circles.
Jesuit missionary Alexandre de Rhodes created in 17th century a written system of Vietnamese language
Vietnamese language
Vietnamese is the national and official language of Vietnam. It is the mother tongue of 86% of Vietnam's population, and of about three million overseas Vietnamese. It is also spoken as a second language by many ethnic minorities of Vietnam...
largely using the Roman alphabet - it is used today and now called Quốc Ngữ (national language).
Catholicism came to widespread prominence when the French missionary priest and Bishop of Adran Pigneau de Behaine
Pigneau de Behaine
Pierre Joseph Georges Pigneau , commonly known as Pigneau de Béhaine, also Pierre Pigneaux and Bá Đa Lộc , was a French Catholic priest best known for his role in assisting Nguyễn Ánh to establish the Nguyễn Dynasty in Vietnam after the Tây Sơn...
played a key role towards the end of the 18th century. He had come to southern Vietnam to proselytise. Pigneau then became the confidant of Nguyễn Ánh the last of the Nguyễn Lords, then engaged in civil war. Pigneau hoped that by helping in a Nguyễn Ánh victory, he would gain concessions for the Catholic Church in Vietnam.
Pigneau and other missionaries bought military supplies and enlisted European soldiers for Nguyễn Ánh and they took part in military operations.
Nguyen conquered Vietnam and became Emperor Gia Long
Gia Long
Emperor Gia Long , born Nguyễn Phúc Ánh , was an emperor of Vietnam...
. He tolerated the Catholic faith and permitted unimpeded missionary activities out of respect to his benefactors. The missionary activity was dominated by the Spanish in Tonkin and French in the central and southern regions. At the time of his death, there were six European bishops in Vietnam. The population of Christians was estimated at 300,000 in Tonkin and 60,000 in Cochinchina.
The peaceful coexistence of Catholicism alongside the classical Confucian system of Vietnam was not to last. Gia Long appointed Minh Mạng
Minh Mang
Minh Mạng was the second emperor of the Nguyễn Dynasty of Vietnam, reigning from 14 February 1820 until 20 January 1841. He was a younger son of Emperor Gia Long, whose eldest son, Crown Prince Canh, had died in 1801...
his successor for his deeply conservative Confucianism; his first son's lineage had converted to Catholicism and abandoned their Confucian heritage.
A power struggle then developed between Minh Mạng and pro-Catholic, pro-Western officials who wanted to maintain the power they had been given by Gia Long. Eventually, 2,000 Vietnamese Catholic troops fought under the command of Father Nguyễn Văn Tâm in an attempt to depose Minh Mạng and install a Catholic emperor.
The revolt was put down, and restrictions were placed on Catholicism. Persistent rebellions occurred throughout the Nguyễn Dynasty, many led by Catholic priests intent on installing a Christian monarch. During the French colonial campaign against Vietnam from 1858 to 1883, many Catholics joined with the French in helping to establish colonialism by fighting against the Vietnamese government. Once colonial rule was established the Catholics were rewarded with preferential treatment in government posts, education, and the church was given vast tracts of royal land that had been seized.
After the end of the French rule and Vietnam division in mid-1950s, Catholicism declined in the North, where the communists regarded it as a reactionary force opposed to national liberation and social progress. In the South, by contrast, Catholicism was expanded under the presidency of Ngo Dinh Diem
Ngo Dinh Diem
Ngô Đình Diệm was the first president of South Vietnam . In the wake of the French withdrawal from Indochina as a result of the 1954 Geneva Accords, Diệm led the effort to create the Republic of Vietnam. Accruing considerable U.S. support due to his staunch anti-Communism, he achieved victory in a...
, who promoted it as an important bulwark against North Vietnam. Diem, whose brother was Archbishop Ngo Dinh Thuc gave extra rights to the Catholic Church, dedicated the nation to the Virgin Mary and preferentially promoted Catholic military officers and public servants while restricting Buddhism and allowing Catholic paramilitaries to demolish temples and pagodas. In 1955 approximately 600,000 Catholics remained in the North after an estimated 650,000 had fled to the South in Operation Passage to Freedom
Operation Passage to Freedom
Operation Passage to Freedom was the term used by the United States Navy to describe its transportation in 1954–55 of 310,000 Vietnamese civilians, soldiers and non-Vietnamese members of the French Army from communist North Vietnam to South Vietnam...
.
In 1975 the Communist authorities, which united the country by military force and after the US troops withdrawal, claimed that the religious activities of Roman Catholics were stabilized and that there was no religious persecution
Persecution
Persecution is the systematic mistreatment of an individual or group by another group. The most common forms are religious persecution, ethnic persecution, and political persecution, though there is naturally some overlap between these terms. The inflicting of suffering, harassment, isolation,...
. Meanwhile, the Government acted to isolate and to neutralize hard-core opposition within local Catholics to party policy and to persuade less strongly opposed factions to join a party-controlled "renovation and reconciliation" movement. A significant number of Vietnamese Roman Catholics, however, remained opposed to communist authority.
In 1988 all Vietnamese Catholics, who died for their faith from 1533 to present time, were canonized by Pope John Paul II as Vietnamese Martyrs
Vietnamese Martyrs
The Vietnamese Martyrs, also known as the Martyrs of Tonkin, Martyrs of Annam , Andrew Dung-Lac and Companions , or Martyrs of Indochina, are saints on the Roman Catholic calendar of saints canonized by Pope John Paul II...
.
Protestants
Protestantism was introduced in 1911 at Da Nang by the Canadian missionary Robert A. JaffrayRobert A. Jaffray
Robert Alexander Jaffray was a missionary to China, Indonesia, and several other countries, with the Christian & Missionary Alliance who served as the founding principal of the Alliance Seminary in Hong Kong and principal contributor and editor of the Chinese language Bible Magazine...
. As part of the Christian and Missionary Alliance
Christian and Missionary Alliance
The Christian and Missionary Alliance is an evangelical Protestant denomination within Christianity.Founded by Rev. Albert Benjamin Simpson in 1887, the Christian & Missionary Alliance did not start off as a denomination, but rather began as two distinct parachurch organizations: The Christian...
, over 100 missionaries were sent to Vietnam, assisting the faith's growth in the country.
By 1967 information, Protestant communities were represented mainly within South Vietnam. Those communities included the French Reformed Church, Anglican–Episcopalian
Episcopal Church (United States)
The Episcopal Church is a mainline Anglican Christian church found mainly in the United States , but also in Honduras, Taiwan, Colombia, Ecuador, Haiti, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela, the British Virgin Islands and parts of Europe...
, Christian and Missionary Alliance
Christian and Missionary Alliance
The Christian and Missionary Alliance is an evangelical Protestant denomination within Christianity.Founded by Rev. Albert Benjamin Simpson in 1887, the Christian & Missionary Alliance did not start off as a denomination, but rather began as two distinct parachurch organizations: The Christian...
, Baptists, Church of Christ
Church of Christ
Churches of Christ are autonomous Christian congregations associated with one another through common beliefs and practices. They seek to base doctrine and practice on the Bible alone, and seek to be New Testament congregations as originally established by the authority of Christ. Historically,...
, Worldwide Evangelization Crusade
WEC International
WEC International is a mission agency which focuses on church planting, and emphasises the importance of shared life in a local church as a vital expression of Christian life...
, and Seventh-day Adventist
Seventh-day Adventist Church
The Seventh-day Adventist Church is a Protestant Christian denomination distinguished by its observance of Saturday, the original seventh day of the Judeo-Christian week, as the Sabbath, and by its emphasis on the imminent second coming of Jesus Christ...
s. Other Protestant associations were also represented in some social services and welfare agencies. In 1967 there were 150,000 Protestant adherents in South Vietnam, representing about 1% of the total population.
Protestant communes in the North decreased in membership to about 1,200 by the end of the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
. Several Protestant church properties were confiscated during the communist takeover of South Vietnam in 1975.
Protestants in the early 1980s, mostly located in the Montagnard communities in southern Vietnam's central highlands.
Present estimates of the number of Protestants range from the official government figure of 500,000 to claims by churches of 1,600,000 or more. The two officially recognized Protestant churches are the Southern Evangelical Church of Vietnam (SECV), recognized in 2001, and the smaller Evangelical Church of Vietnam North (ECVN), recognized since 1963. The SECV had affiliated churches in the southern provinces of the country. By some estimates, the growth of Protestant believers in Vietnam has been as much as 600 percent over the past ten years. Some of the new converts belong to unregistered evangelical house church
House church
House church, or "home church", is used to describe an independent assembly of Christians who gather in a home. Sometimes this occurs because the group is small, and a home is the most appropriate place to gather, as in the beginning phase of the British New Church Movement...
es. Based on believers' estimates, two-thirds of Protestants were members of ethnic minorities, including Hmong
Hmong people
The Hmong , are an Asian ethnic group from the mountainous regions of China, Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand. Hmong are also one of the sub-groups of the Miao ethnicity in southern China...
, Dzao, Thai
Thai people
The Thai people, or Siamese, are the main ethnic group of Thailand and are part of the larger Tai ethnolinguistic peoples found in Thailand and adjacent countries in Southeast Asia as well as southern China. Their language is the Thai language, which is classified as part of the Kradai family of...
, and other minority groups in the Northwest Highlands, and members of ethnic minority groups of the Central Highlands (Ede, Jarai
Jarai
The Jarai is an ethnic group based primarily in Vietnam's Central Highlands. The Jarai language is a member of the Malayo-Polynesian branch of the Austronesian language family...
, Bahnar
Bahnar people
The Bahnar are an ethnic group of Vietnam living primarily in the Central Highland provinces of Gia Lai and Kon Tum, as well as the coastal provinces of Bình Định and Phú Yên...
, and Koho
Koho
Koho may mean:*Koho language, a member of the Bahnaric family*Kōhō, a Japanese era*Koho , a ice hockey equipment company*KOHO-FM, a radio station*KOHO-AM, a Japanese language radio station in Honolulu, Hawaii active from 1959-2000...
, among others).
Nowadays at least 50% of the Protestant population are tribal people.
Particularly Hmong
Hmong people
The Hmong , are an Asian ethnic group from the mountainous regions of China, Vietnam, Laos, and Thailand. Hmong are also one of the sub-groups of the Miao ethnicity in southern China...
and H're
H're people
The H're people are an ethnic group of Vietnam, speaking a language in the Mon–Khmer family. Most H're live in the Quảng Ngãi and Bình Định provinces of Vietnam's South Central Coast, and number approximately 113,111 ....
tribals suffer from persecution of Christians
Persecution of Christians
Persecution of Christians as a consequence of professing their faith can be traced both historically and in the current era. Early Christians were persecuted for their faith, at the hands of both Jews from whose religion Christianity arose, and the Roman Empire which controlled much of the land...
. By May, 2006, over 300 Montagnard people remained in Vietnamese prisons for their faith. A young Hroi (ethnic minority) man who refused to reject his Christian faith reportedly died from injuries received under official interrogation in April 2007. By the 2008 estimates of Release International
Release International
Release International is an international organization for monitoring and reporting persecution of Christians around the world and helping the victims of that persecution...
, many Christians from Vietnam's tribal highlands are still regarded as enemies and targeted as "agents of America". They are reportedly beaten, tortured and starved behind bars, despite the official claims and guarantees for freedom of religion.
Mennonite
Mennonite
The Mennonites are a group of Christian Anabaptist denominations named after the Frisian Menno Simons , who, through his writings, articulated and thereby formalized the teachings of earlier Swiss founders...
and Baptist
Baptist
Baptists comprise a group of Christian denominations and churches that subscribe to a doctrine that baptism should be performed only for professing believers , and that it must be done by immersion...
movements were officially recognized by Hanoi in October, 2007, which was estimated as some improvement of religious freedom in the country. Pastor Nguyen Quang Trung, provisional president of the Vietnam Mennonite Church, taking part in the official ceremony of the above authorisation, quoted his Church's motto: "Living the Gospel, worshipping God, and serving the nation."
.
Bible translations into Vietnamese
The modern Vietnamese alphabetVietnamese alphabet
The Vietnamese alphabet, called Chữ Quốc Ngữ , usually shortened to Quốc Ngữ , is the modern writing system for the Vietnamese language...
was created in the 17th century by Jesuit missionary Alexandre de Rhodes, leading to the first printing of Catholic texts in Vietnamese by the Jesuits in 1651, but not the Bible, as per the usual policy of the Jesuit missions. Some portions may have been translated and printed in Thailand in 1872.
Jean Bonet
Jean Bonet
Jean Bonet was a French scholar of Vietnamese at the Ecole des Langues Orientales 1888-1907. He had spent 20 years in Vietnam, was author of one of the first Vietnamese-French dictionaries , and first translator of a book of the New Testament into Vietnamese Jean Bonet (Bages, 21 November 1844 -...
, author of a Dictionnaire Annamite-français, translated Gospel of Luke from French to Vietnamese in 1890. The first translation from Latin was that of Albert Schlicklin
Albert Schlicklin
Albert Schlicklin was an Alsatian Catholic priest in Vietnam who translated the Bible from Latin into Vietnamese. His translation remains the basis of the official Catholic version today.-References:...
(1916), and the first from Greek that of William Cadman
William Cadman
William Cadman was an English missionary in Vietnam with his wife Grace. He was a translator of the Bible into Vietnamese. The main Protestant version in use in Vietnam today is the "Cadman version."...
(New Testament 1923, Old Testament 1934). The Schilicklin and Cadman Bibles remain the basis of the standard Catholic and Protestant versions today.
The organized work of United Bible Societies
United Bible Societies
The United Bible Societies is a worldwide association of Bible societies. In 1946 delegates from 13 countries formed the UBS, as an effort to coordinate the activities of the bible societies. The first headquarters were London and in Geneva...
in Vietnam began in 1890. In 1966 the Vietnamese Bible Society was established. The Bible societies distributed 53,170 Bible examples and 120,170 New Testament
New Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
examples in Vietnamese within the country in 2005.
Eastern Orthodox Christianity
Orthodoxy in Vietnam is presented by a parishParish
A parish is a territorial unit historically under the pastoral care and clerical jurisdiction of one parish priest, who might be assisted in his pastoral duties by a curate or curates - also priests but not the parish priest - from a more or less central parish church with its associated organization...
of Russian Orthodox Church
Russian Orthodox Church
The Russian Orthodox Church or, alternatively, the Moscow Patriarchate The ROC is often said to be the largest of the Eastern Orthodox churches in the world; including all the autocephalous churches under its umbrella, its adherents number over 150 million worldwide—about half of the 300 million...
in Vungtau, where there are many Russian-speaking employees of the Russian-Vietnamese Joint Venture "Vietsovpetro".
The parish named after Our Lady of Kazan
Our Lady of Kazan
Our Lady of Kazan, also called Theotokos of Kazan , was a holy icon of the highest stature within the Russian Orthodox Church, representing the Virgin Mary as the protector and patroness of the city of Kazan. Copies of the image are also venerated in the Catholic Church...
icon was opened in 2002 with the blessing of the Holy Synod
Holy Synod
In several of the autocephalous Eastern Orthodox churches and Eastern Catholic Churches, the patriarch or head bishop is elected by a group of bishops called the Holy Synod...
of the Russian Orthodox Church
Russian Orthodox Church
The Russian Orthodox Church or, alternatively, the Moscow Patriarchate The ROC is often said to be the largest of the Eastern Orthodox churches in the world; including all the autocephalous churches under its umbrella, its adherents number over 150 million worldwide—about half of the 300 million...
, which had been given in Troitse-Sergiyeva Lavra
Troitse-Sergiyeva Lavra
The Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius is the most important Russian monastery and the spiritual centre of the Russian Orthodox Church. The monastery is situated in the town of Sergiyev Posad, about 70 km to the north-east from Moscow by the road leading to Yaroslavl, and currently is home to...
.
The representatives of foreign relations department of the Russian Orthodox Church
Russian Orthodox Church
The Russian Orthodox Church or, alternatively, the Moscow Patriarchate The ROC is often said to be the largest of the Eastern Orthodox churches in the world; including all the autocephalous churches under its umbrella, its adherents number over 150 million worldwide—about half of the 300 million...
from time to time come to Vungtau for conducting Orthodox divine service.
See also
- Vietnamese MartyrsVietnamese MartyrsThe Vietnamese Martyrs, also known as the Martyrs of Tonkin, Martyrs of Annam , Andrew Dung-Lac and Companions , or Martyrs of Indochina, are saints on the Roman Catholic calendar of saints canonized by Pope John Paul II...
- Roman Catholicism in VietnamRoman Catholicism in VietnamThe Roman Catholic Church in Vietnam is part of the worldwide Catholic Church, under the spiritual leadership of the Pope and curia in Rome. Vietnam has the fifth largest Catholic population in Asia, after the Philippines, India, China and Indonesia....
- Protestants in VietnamProtestants in VietnamProtestants in Vietnam are a small religious minority constituting from 0.5 to 2 % of the population or around one million people as the newest government census . However, it is the country's fastest-growing religion, growing at a rate of 600% in the last decade.-Origin:Protestantism was...
- Mennonite Church in VietnamMennonite Church in VietnamThe Mennonite Church in Vietnam is a Protestant denomination of Christianity in Vietnam. It has about 10,000 members. Substantial part of the Mennonite house church members are montagnards living in Central and Southern Highlands of Vietnam....
- Marian DaysMarian DaysThe Marian Days is the main festival and pilgrimage for Vietnamese American Roman Catholics. The annual event in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary has taken place the first weekend in August since 1978 on the campus of the Congregation of the Mother Co-Redemptrix in Carthage, Missouri...
- Nguyen Van ThuanNguyen Van ThuanFrançois-Xavier Nguyễn Văn Thuận was a Cardinal in the Roman Catholic Church. He was the nephew of South Vietnam’s first President, Ngô Đình Diệm, and of Archbishop Ngô Đình Thục.-Early life:He was born in the Imperial capital of Huế, Vietnam....
External links
- The Catholic Church in Vietnam by Giga-Catholic Information
- Vietnamese Catholic Network in Vietnamese
- Vietnamese Catholic Links
- Vietnamese Bible
- A New Day in Vietnam, Christianity Today Magazine