More than 800 pastors and church leaders from northern Vietnam are preparing to gather in Ha Long for a historic three-day pastors’ conference next week. Franklin Graham, president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, the co-organizer, praised the Vietnamese government for allowing the event to proceed.
The Vietnam Pastors’ Gathering, scheduled for Tuesday through Thursday, marks the first time leaders from every Evangelical church and denomination in northern Vietnam will meet together for a shared program of prayer, fellowship and training, BGEA reported.
The event is being co-organized by BGEA and the Evangelical Church of Vietnam (North), and will feature speakers from Vietnam, Japan, the Philippines and the United States.
Franklin Graham, who has visited Vietnam several times, called the event a major step forward.
“I deeply appreciate the incredible advances in religious freedom that we have experienced in this beautiful country,” he said. He also thanked churches “for their desire to work together” and commended the government for giving them “the freedom to gather for such an important moment.”
The Rev. Bui Van San, president of the Evangelical Church of Vietnam (North), said the conference would not only mark a significant display of unity among church leaders but also help lay the groundwork for a major Evangelistic event in Hanoi planned for 2027.
“We are already starting to experience the unique unity and joy that will come from this time together,” he said. “It gives us the opportunity to launch the preliminary groundwork for an upcoming Evangelistic event in Hanoi with Franklin Graham in 2027,” Van San was quoted as saying.
The upcoming gathering in Ha Long follows several recent permissions granted to Graham to preach across Vietnam.
After his first visit to Hanoi in 2017, the government approved Evangelistic events in Ho Chi Minh City in March 2023 and in Can Tho in December 2024.
Graham said he looks forward to returning to Hanoi in 2027 to continue sharing his message.
“I want the people of Vietnam to know that God loves and cares for them,” Graham said. “We also want to encourage pastors and churches across Vietnam, so I am especially grateful to the leaders of this great country who are allowing us to bring these pastors together in Ha Long.”
Graham has been involved in humanitarian work in Vietnam for nearly three decades. Through Samaritan’s Purse, where he serves as the president, he has helped hundreds of thousands of families with disaster relief and aid, according to BGEA.
After Typhoon Yagi struck Vietnam last year, the organization airlifted more than 40,000 kilos of emergency aid, including blankets, solar lights, kitchen kits and water filters, said the organization. The supplies reached over 100,000 people across six provinces. Samaritan’s Purse says it continues to assist with rebuilding medical clinics destroyed by the storm.
The Rev. Nguyen Huu Mac, vice president of the Evangelical Church of Vietnam (North) and president of Hanoi Bible College, said it was meaningful that the pastors’ gathering would take place in Ha Long Bay, which had recovered from the effects of Typhoon Yagi.
“It will be an incredible time of fellowship and recommitment to prayer, as well as an opportunity to look forward and begin preparing for the return of Franklin Graham and the 2027 Festival in Ha Noi,” Huu Mac was quoted as saying.
While national-level religious events are increasingly visible in urban centers, Christians from ethnic minority communities still face significant obstacles in remote parts of the country. In provinces where ethnic-animist traditions dominate, new Christian converts can be expelled from their villages or have their homes destroyed, according to Open Doors.
Local authorities in these areas continue to break up Christian meetings, detain pastors and evangelists, and sometimes imprison them for teaching the Bible or leading worship, says the ministry. These crackdowns are particularly severe for minority groups such as the Hmong. Hmong Bible teachers continue to travel by motorbike into rural areas to teach at underground Bible schools.
Even historic Roman Catholic churches, which enjoy relatively more space to function, can be subject to interference, especially if church leaders speak on political matters. Christians who convert from traditional religious backgrounds often face pressure not just from the state but also from their own families and neighbors.
