Hmong churches

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Providence (Rhode Island) Hmong Church of the Christian and Missionary Alliance Providence Hmong Church.jpg
Providence (Rhode Island) Hmong Church of the Christian and Missionary Alliance

Hmong Churches are churches of the China-based Hmong people. Hmong Churches tend to be Renewal churches.

Contents

History

The first missionaries to Laos were from the Netherlands. At that time, Laos was a French protectorate within French Indochina, governed by King Souligna Vongsa. [1] In 1947, Rev. Ted Andrianoff and his wife sailed from New York to Laos to do missionary work for the Christian and Missionary Alliance. [2] The majority of the people who converted to Christianity at that time were the Khmu and the Hmong people who spoke Green Hmong. [3] They accepted their first convert in 1950. By March 1951, 2,300 Laotian Hmong had converted to Christianity; four years later the number was 5,000. [2]

When Laos fell during the Vietnam War, thousands of Christian Hmong were evacuated and resettled in the United States. [2]

List of Hmong Church Organizations

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laos</span> Country in Southeast Asia

Laos, officially the Lao People's Democratic Republic, is a socialist state and the only landlocked country in Southeast Asia. At the heart of the Indochinese Peninsula, Laos is bordered by Myanmar and China to the northwest, Vietnam to the east, Cambodia to the southeast, and Thailand to the west and southwest. Its capital and largest city is Vientiane.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hmong people</span> Ethnic group in Southwest China and Southeast Asia

The Hmong people are an indigenous group in East and Southeast Asia. In China, the Hmong people are classified as a sub-group of the Miao people. The modern Hmong presently reside mainly in Southwest China and countries in Southeast Asia such as Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, and Myanmar. There is also a very large diasporic community in the United States, comprising more than 300,000 Hmong. The Hmong diaspora also has smaller communities in Australia and South America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vang Pao</span> Laotian-American soldier

Vang Pao was a major general in the Royal Lao Army. He was a leader of the Hmong American community in the United States. He was also known as General Vang Pao to the people in the Hmong community.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laotian Civil War</span> Civil war in Laos from 1959 to 1975

The Laotian Civil War (1959–1975) was a civil war in Laos which was waged between the Communist Pathet Lao and the Royal Lao Government from 23 May 1959 to 2 December 1975. It is associated with the Cambodian Civil War and the Vietnam War, with both sides receiving heavy external support in a proxy war between the global Cold War superpowers. It is called the Secret War among the American CIA Special Activities Center, and Hmong and Mien veterans of the conflict.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hmong Americans</span> Americans of Hmong birth or descent

Hmong Americans are Americans of Hmong ancestry. Many Hmong Americans immigrated to the United States as refugees in the late 1970s. Over half of the Hmong population from Laos left the country, or attempted to leave, in 1975, at the culmination of the Laotian Civil War.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">French protectorate of Laos</span> 1893–1953 French protectorate in Southeast Asia

The French protectorate of Laos was a French protectorate in Southeast Asia of what is today Laos between 1893 and 1953—with a brief interregnum as a Japanese puppet state in 1945—which constituted part of French Indochina. It was established over the Siamese vassal, the Kingdom of Luang Prabang, following the Franco-Siamese War in 1893. It was integrated into French Indochina and in the following years further Siamese vassals, the Principality of Phuan and Kingdom of Champasak, were annexed into it in 1899 and 1904, respectively.

The insurgency in Laos was a low-intensity conflict between the Laotian government on one side and former members of the "Secret Army", Laotian royalists, and rebels from the Hmong and lowland Lao ethnic minorities on the other. These groups have faced reprisals from the Lao People's Army and Vietnam People's Army for their support of the United States-led, anti-communist military campaigns in Laos during the Laotian Civil War, which the insurgency was an extension of itself. The North Vietnamese invaded Laos in 1958 and supported the communist Pathet Lao. The Vietnamese communists continued to support the Pathet Lao after the end of the Laotian Civil War and the establishment of the Lao People's Democratic Republic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vue Pa Chay</span>

Pa Chay Vue,, commonly referred to as Pa Chay or Batchai, led the Hmong people in the War of the Insane revolt against French rule in French Indochina from 1918 to 1921. He was considered a hero among the Hmong nationalists, but regarded as a crazed man among the French-subdued Hmong, but in present times, he is unanimously considered a national hero.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christianity in Vietnam</span> Aspect of religious life in Vietnam

Christianity was first introduced to Vietnam in the 16th century. Catholics and Protestants today are reported to constitute 7% and 2% of the country's population respectively; however, the true number might be higher. Christian foreign missionaries are not allowed to proselytize or perform religious activities without government approval.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christianity in Laos</span>

Christianity is a minority religion in Laos. Christians in Laos number 200,000 to 210,000, with 150,000 for Protestants and 50 to 60 thousands for Catholics, based on rough estimates conducted by LFND in 2015. This number rose as the 1995 census account Christians in Laos, as many as 60,000 people. There are three major Churches in Laos: the Roman Catholic Church, the Lao Evangelical Church, and the Seventh-day Adventist Church. The Laotian government repressed all activities of religion from 1975-89. Religious practice resumed to be permitted after the Party held a congress and released two new doctrinea called as chintanakan mai or new thinking and kanpianpeng mai or renovation. Laotian religious freedom began increasing in 2000s, when the government started opening the dialogue up with United Nations and numerous organisations.

The Center for Public Policy Analysis (CPPA), or Centre for Public Policy Analysis, was established in Washington, D.C., in 1988 and describes itself as a non-profit, non-partisan, think tank and research organization. The CPPA is a non-governmental organization (NGO) focused on foreign policy, national security, human rights, refugee and international humanitarian issues. Its current Executive Director is Philip Smith.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Xiangkhouang</span> Province of Laos

Xiangkhouang is a province of Laos on the Xiangkhoang Plateau, in the nation's northeast. The province has the distinction of being the most heavily bombed place on Earth.

Hmong writing refers to the various writing systems that have been used for transcribing various Hmongic languages, spoken by Hmong people in China, Vietnam, Laos, the United States, and Thailand, these being the top five countries. Over a dozen scripts have been reported for Hmong, none of which is considered standard for transcribing the languages in the eyes of the speakers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">François Marie Savina</span>

François Marie Savina was a Frenchman who worked as a Catholic priest and as an anthropologist. For an approximately forty-year period he worked in the Upper-Tonkin Vicariate, Hainan, and Laos. He studied the Hmong people of northern Vietnam and Laos as he was asked to spread Christianity to them. Nicholas Tapp, author of The Impossibility of Self: An Essay on the Hmong Diaspora, described Savina as "One of our earliest informants who is at all frank about the nature of his day-today encounters with the Hmong". Charles Keith, author of Catholic Vietnam: A Church from Empire to Nation, wrote that Savina was "[t]he most notable" missionary ethnographer of Southeast Asia of his era.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William A. Smalley</span> American linguist

William Allen Smalley was an American linguist. He is best known for his role in the development of the Romanized Popular Alphabet for the Hmong language.

Nyiakeng Puachue Hmong is an alphabet script devised for White Hmong and Green Hmong in the 1980s by Reverend Chervang Kong for use within his United Christians Liberty Evangelical Church. The church, which moved around California, Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Carolina, Colorado, and many other states, has used the script in printed material and videos. It is reported to have some use in Laos, Thailand, Vietnam, France, and Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jean-Claude Miche</span>

Jean-Claude Miche, M.E.P., was a French missionary and bishop. He played an instrumental role in the establishment of the French Protectorate of Cambodia. Ordained in 1830, Miche entered the seminary of the Paris Foreign Missions Society (M.E.P.) in 1835. After a brief course on the geography of Southeast Asia, Miche departed for Cochinchina the next year. After sojourns in Malaysia, Siam, and the Mekong Delta, Miche arrived in Battambang in December 1838.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ban Phou Pheung Noi</span> Historic place in Laos

Ban Phou Pheung Noi is a Laotian village located at the peak of Phou Pheung mountain in the Xieng Khouang province of Laos. Phou Pheung mountain is approximately 916 m (3,005 ft). During the Vietnam War, combat between the American allies, the Hmong, and the Pathet Lao, The Laos Marxist government, and the Communist North Vietnamese People's Army took place on the mountain. Phou Pheung mountain runs from east to west and is rocky, and is covered in tropical forests. It is south of Muang Soui - Nongtang-Nato, and west of Phou Douk, Muang Phuan, Phonsavan and Plain of Jars. To the east, about 10 miles from Ban Phou Pheung Noi, is the Num Ngum 4 hydroelectric dam.

References

  1. Vang, Chervang Kong. Finding God: A Divine Journey. Xulon Press. p. 5. The first missionaries to Laos were the people of Holland. At that time, Laos was a French protectorate within French Indochina governed by King Souriyavongsa.
  2. 1 2 3 "Our Story (Hmong Christian & Missionary Alliance)". Hmong District of C&MA. Hmong Christian & Missionary Alliance. Retrieved 19 September 2017.
  3. Vang, Chervang Kong. Finding God: A Divine Journey. Xulon Press. p. 5. The majority of the people who converted to Christianity at that time were the Khmu and the Hmong people who spoke (Mong-joua) or what is known as "Green Hmong" dialect.