Baptist Churches in Vietnam (BCV), one of several Baptist conventions and unions in the Southeast Asian country, gained official recognition from the Vietnamese government in early October.
BCV, formed in 1989, is now allowed “to live according to the gospel, serving the Lord, serving the Nation, having close relationship with the national people and complying with the national law.”
BCV, which has its headquarters in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam’s largest city, has more than 18,400 members in more than 400 house churches in 42 provinces and cities. It is one of five known Baptist groups in the country of 86 million people. Most of these Baptist groups are yet to receive official government recognition.
The Baptist World Alliance (BWA) sponsored a human rights visit to Vietnam in May 2006 and brought the five groups together for the first time. Some of the Baptist conventions and unions in Vietnam were unaware of the existence of other Baptist groups in the country.
The BWA delegation, which included BWA President David Coffey, met with Nguyen Thanh Xuan, vice chairman of the government committee for religious affairs; Nguyen Thanh Tai, vice chairman of the Ho Chi Minh City people’s committee, as well as other government leaders, and discussed the implementation of policies related to religious freedom, as enshrined in the Vietnamese constitution. (BWA)
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