---

---

ReligionNewsBlog.com • Item 23455 • Posted: Monday May 11, 2009  

---

Christians have also reported more positive developments in Communist-run Vietnam

HANOI, VIETNAM (BosNewsLife)– Amid protests against reported church destructions, the city of Hanoi has ordered one of its districts to stop construction work on land claimed by the Catholic church, BosNewsLife monitored Thursday, May 7.

In a statement, Foreign Ministry spokesman Le Dung said the Hanoi People’s Committee has asked agencies to “stop the implementation of the project and construction works on the land of the Ba Giang lake,” French News Agency AFP reported.

It came after several protests, including a prayer vigil of some 1,000 Catholics to protest the project on land that the Tai Ha Redemptorist parish church claims to have owned since 1928. The move was seen as a surprise turnaround by Communist authorities who since March demolished at least one historic church building in the Central Highlands, Christians said.

Government work crews reportedly destroyed a Protestant church building of Evangelical Church of Vietnam (South), or ECVN(S), in the area of Banmethuot om March 11.

CONFISCATED BUILDING

Authorities had confiscated the church building in 1975 after the Communist victory and had removed its cross, said Compass Direct News, a Christian news agency investigating cases of persecution. Following the latest demolition, the ECVN(S) said in a resolution that its “Executive Council…is extremely upset and in deep sympathy with the 135,000 believers in Dak Lak province.”

Yet, Christians have also reported more positive developments in Communist-run Vietnam, which was criticized this year by the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom for it alleged poor record on religious rights.

Last month, granted a rare permission to unregistered house church groups to hold a large, public Easter-related service with over 15,000 people gathering at Tao Dan Stadium, Christians said. The only other such event granted to unregistered groups was an open-air meeting during Christmas of 2007 sponsored by the Vietnam Evangelical Fellowship, a house church umbrella group.

Some 1,200 people indicated they had decided to follow Christ, Compass Direct News reported, citing local sources.

---

What You Can Do From Here

---

Read More Articles On These Topics Categories: Catholic Church Tags: Catholic Church, Religious Intolerance, Religious Persecution, Vietnam Share, Blog About, Bookmark, or Email This Article Subscribe Religion News Blog RSS feed [What is this?] RSS by topic: Catholic Church Read Another Article Previous entry: India Anti-Christian Group Sets Church On Fire Next entry: New Thought church members oppose appointment of Carlton Pearson as senior minister RNB Homepage with latest headlines Find Related Information Use our custom search engines to find additional research resources on religions and cults Find Related Books Catholic Church Most Popular Today Church of Scientology told to drop Churchill images

---

Share This Article

---

To share this page simply copy and paste one of these URL's:

• Post a link on your blog or website:
  
• Send in an email or IM:
  
• Post on a forum:
  

Search for information about (religious) cults, cult-like organizations, -- as well as paranormal-, New Age, and pseudoscientific claims -- across 260+ websites, blogs and forums dedicated to cult research, spiritual abuse, ex-cult counseling & support.

Note: results are listed on another domain -- CounterCultSearch.com -- from which you can easily return here.

Search for apologetics articles, books, videos, and other research resources across 135 Christian apologetics websites and blogs.

Note: results are listed on another domain -- ApologeticsSearch.com -- from which you can easily return here.