Vietnamese authorities allow public religious service

HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam — 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 April 21.

More than 15,000 people gathered at Tao Dan Stadium to experience a rare sense of large-scale Christian unity, especially house church members accustomed to meeting in small groups.

The only other such event granted to unregistered groups was an open-air meeting during Christmas 2007 sponsored by the Vietnam Evangelical Fellowship (VEF), a house church umbrella group. 

Unregistered groups holding an event that includes worship and evangelism outside a church building violates Vietnam’s restrictive religion laws. This celebration — in which 1,200 people indicated they had decided to follow Christ — did not happen without struggles. Reluctant to endorse such Christian unity events, authorities demanded to remove one of the organizers as a condition to consider approval. Officials did not grant permission until three hours before the event was to begin, even though organizers had requested permission several months prior.