An Occasion to Remember...

Last night this white man joined members of the Australian Vietnamese Catholic community and other Catholics along with hosts of other community representatives in celebrating the episcopal ordination of Bishop Vincent Long into his new role as auxiliary bishop for Melbourne. And if you read my previous blog you would understand that this was certainly an auspicious occasion for the Catholic Church and particularly, for the Vietnamese community in Australia as Bishop Vincent is the first Vietnamese-born man to receive this high posting in Australia. And the thousand or so Vietnamese Catholics present last night at St Patricks Cathedral certainly supported their new Bishop with an expected and well deserved sense of pride and achievement. Because, as Father Vincent himself pointed out last night during his address to the massed congregation, his elevation to the position of bishop is a true point of thanksgiving for all Vietnamese refugees who risked their all for a better future in Australia. A reason for thankfulness because it demonstrates to the Vietnamese community that their acceptance into the broader Australian community is tangibly real and that this country of freedom provides anyone, who decides to call Australia home, an equal opportunity to make one's imprint on our society. No wonder the throngs of Vietnamese who filed out of St Patricks last night appeared to walk a little taller!

And so, also in reference to my previous blog, last night I was keenly scanning the masses for a sighting of a Vietnamese Protestant representative. A young VECA pastor, a friend for many years did make contact with me and was going to attend but had to decline at the last moment. To his credit, had his circumstances not prevented him I'm sure he would have joined me in celebrating Father Vincent's ordination. So was there another Vietnamese Protestant pastor present? I very much doubt it - I certainly didn't see anyone familiar. Should I have been surprised? No..."Don't be too harsh white man, for they were probably watching the streamed on-line coverage of the ceremony..." Mmm.....

It is rather pertinent at present that the Protestant arm of the Vietnamese church are currently celebrating, by their definition, '100 years of Christianity in Vietnam'. Or as a personal invitation I received to attend festivities for this event stated "come celebrate 100 years of the Gospel in Vietnam". This refers to the 100 year anniversary of Protestant Christians arriving in Danang, Vietnam back in 1911 and the subsequent establishment of the Protestant Church in Vietnam. As such, Vietnamese Protestant churches all over the world have every right to celebrate this important event and every Vietnamese Christian, whether Protestant or Catholic should be emphatically praising God for this milestone. But I ask all Vietnamese Protestants this question - have you ever heard of Alexandre de Rhodes? He was the Jesuit missionary who arrived in Vietnam in the 1600's, along with other Jesuits to firmly establish the Church in Vietnam. And along with that, de Rhodes also formulated the Latin-style Vietnamese written language (chu quoc ngu) still in use today as the official written language of Vietnam. This did away with the previous Vietnamese script (chu nom) that was based on Chinese characters. Along with this he also started the task of translating the Bible into Vietnamese.

Anyway, enough of the history lesson for my point is this - the Word of God was present in Vietnam, in written Vietnamese language a long time before 1911. And the Church was in Vietnam a long time before 1911. So perhaps I just make this suggestion to my Vietnamese Protestant brothers and sisters in the midst of their 100 year celebration - yes, celebrate with all your joy and thanksgiving for the fact that the Protestant Church commenced it's work in Vietnam one century ago. But please don't embarrass yourselves by advertising the 'fact' that your festivity celebrates 100 years of Christianity in Vietnam. Or that you celebrate the Gospel being present in Vietnam for 100 years - it's patently obvious that the Good News of Jesus Christ has been proclaimed in Vietnam much longer than that. That it has been there longer because of the presence of the Catholic Church in Vietnam should not be just brushed off and history revised accordingly. I'd like to believe that the wording of your celebration is a 'lost in translation' error but my experience tells me otherwise.

I finish with this and it is the last thing I will write on this matter (thank God you may well be saying right now and I most probably concur with you!). I am not a closet Catholic nor am I an apologist for the Catholic Church. I have my own questions and differences in the way the Catholic Church operates in belief and practice. And I have very little axe left to grind with the Protestant Vietnamese Church (getting down to the barest sliver of wood in my hand actually!). But what gets me righteously angry are churches that blindly carry on with their own agendas, functioning as the centre of their own universes, giving no credence to the presence and value of their fellow churches and their mission efforts. It's always been a pet-hate of mine and it just so happened that at this particular point of time, for the Vietnamese Church, both Catholic and Protestant, the stars have aligned in a most telling manner. So all that being said, I celebrate and pray for Father Vincent Long and move on with an open-mind doing my load of work alongside fellow Christians from many different 'houses'.