Christians celebrate Xmas across the nation

Duyet made the comment during a visit to Catholic dignitaries at the Ha Noi Archbishop Office o­n Saturday.

The president of the nation's largest mass organisation said Vietnam had recorded great achievements during the past thanks partly to the contributions of religious followers.

Archbishop of the Hanoi Arch-diocese Ngo Quang Kiet thanked the VFF for supporting Catholics taking part in religious activities.

He said the Ordinance o­n Beliefs and Religions had facilitated religious practice at a time when Christmas was becoming a festival of all people nationwide.

Merry Christmas

Meanwhile almost 40,000 Protestants from the Central Highlands province of Dak Nong were also celebrating Christmas.

Gia Nghia Township Protestant clergyman Pham Van Tin said this year some 300 local believers in his town were enjoying Christmas.

"We have been preparing for the most jubilant Christmas yet for the past two weeks," he said. "Protestant followers here are free to perform prayer every week."

Y Krdn Bkrong, a village head from Cu Jut District's Fading township, said there were nearly 400 Protestant followers in the village.

He said that in the past, local people's living standards were low and many households were extremely poor due to backward farming methods.

Yet things started to change when local officials mobilised Protestant followers to unite and help each other develop the economy and preserve order and security.

"Local people have pledged to lead a good religious life," said Bkrong.

"They no longer believe in evil-doers."

Authorities from the Central Highlands provinces of Dak Nong and Dak Lak visited and presented gifts to Christian dignitaries and followers o­n the occasion of Christmas.

Party leaders and administration officials from Dak Nong Province praised Protestant clergymen and followers for working together in eliminating poverty, boosting socio-economic growth, maintaining political security and preserving the traditional cultures of ethnic minorities in the Central Highlands.

They expressed their hopes that all Protestants in Dak Nong Province will unite not o­nly in developing household economies but also in preventing plots and schemes aimed at shattering unity.

Meeting with Dak Lak Province authorities, dignitaries expressed their gratitude to provincial leaders for supporting Christians in practising their religion.

Fundraising

At the Cathedral in HCM City.

Students from Phu Yen Province's banking academy launched a fund raising campaign aimed at helping disabled children in Tuy Hoa City in Phu Yen Province.

"We saw with our own eyes the difficulties faced by small children from Niem Vui School, and that motivated us to do something more meaningful," said Nguyen Xuan Truong, the academy's youth union secretary.

Donations from offices and businesses in the province have helped contribute VND11mil to disabled children at Niem Vui School.

Religious recognition

In HCM City, the Viet Nam Phuc Lam Christian Church and the An Dien Baptist Church, two independent Protestant sects founded in Vietnam before 1975, received certificates recognising their religious operations granted by the government.