Pittsburgh Vietnamese Presbyterian Church History

(Hoi Thanh Tin Lanh Truong Nhiem Pittsburgh)

The first Vietnamese church in Pittsburgh was started by the Christian & Missionary Alliance in 2003.  It was a small fellowship served for two years by a pastor who came weekly from a church in Erie.  His health failed and he was no longer able to continue serving and the C&MA could not find anyone to preach; so the church did not meet for a couple of years.

Because I began taking Pittsburgh Seminary students to Vietnam in 2003 and was the chairperson of our New Church Development Commission (NCDC), I wanted to learn about the Vietnamese community in Pittsburgh and whether there was a Vietnamese church.  In 2006 I asked Rev. Dr Cuong Nguyen, the Vietnamese church consultant for PCUSA, he told me about this congregation and introduced me to George Tichi.  Dr. Nguyen felt this congregation would come back together and would affiliate with Pittsburgh Presbytery, if we could offer a pastor to serve and lead.

George and I began to talk.  George had been ordained as an elder at Ross Community UPC.  He had moved to California, where he met and married his wife, Ba.  They moved back to Pittsburgh and were part of the Vietnamese CMA fellowship.  George yearned for an opportunity for Ba to worship in her heart language; so he was eager to work with the presbytery.  George and I worked through 2007 to form the NCDC Task Force that included Thuy Le and Ha Huynh from the Vietnamese community and Chris Rabenold from NCDC to organize and find a pastor.  Nga Vu joined the Task Force soon afterwards.

NCDC felt the moving of the Spirit to develop this immigrant church because there were about 2500 Vietnamese in the greater Pittsburgh area.  We discovered that there were about 500 nail salons within a 50 mile radius and 70% of Vietnamese worked in these salons.

The first worship service was Christmas worship on December 23, 2007.  The first regular worship was February 3, 2008 at Third Presbyterian Church. The first pastor was Thang Chu, who was under care of Detroit Presbytery.  The budget was $35,100.

About 100 people attended the first Tet (Vietnamese New Year) celebration on January 25, 2009 in Pleasant Hills. PVPF began regular worship at 10:30 am in the Chapel of Pleasant Hills Community Presbyterian Church at that time because more Vietnamese were in that area of the city. 

Because of some difficulties, Pastor Thang left in August 2009 and moved to California.  After a three month trial period in the Fall of 2009 while he was visiting in Pittsburgh, Rev. Dan Nguyen moved from Vietnam to pastor the congregation beginning January 1, 2010. He had been a pastor to the Montagnards (indigenous “mountain” people groups in the Central Highlands of Vietnam) with the United World Mission Church for 30 years. 

Pastor Dan’s contract ended in February 2013 and was not renewed. Lam Nguyen from the Akron Vietnamese Church was one of the supply pastors during the interim and first preached on July 14, 2013.  Lam preached once a month during the long interim search period that lasted until April 2015 when he agreed to serve as temporary pastor two weekends each month.  Lam and his wife, Hanh, travel on Saturdays to be available for visits and lead the Bible study. He teaches and preaches on Sunday morning and visits or participates in the Task Force meeting in the afternoon.

In April 2016 Pittsburgh Presbytery commissioned Don Barnes to serve as CRE to administer the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper.  Don also serves on the Task Force along with Sharon Stewart.  It is fitting that Vera White is preaching today, because she was the NCD staff from the beginning and a strong advocate for this first immigrant church to be chartered by Pittsburgh Presbytery in more decades than anyone can remember.

Currently, the congregation averages 20-25 adults and 12-15 children and youth in worship each Sunday.  There have been 28 Baptisms over the years.  Thirty-eight individuals signed the covenant submitted to the Presbytery and become charter members.

Thanks to this presbytery which had the vision and offered the financial and ecclesiastical support to bring us to this chartering celebration.  To God be the glory this day and for many years to come through the Pittsburgh Vietnamese Presbyterian Church!

I am not going to include each date and the number, but this is how I got the Baptism total.

1.       2011 – Feb (3) and April (5)

2.       2012 – April (9)

3.       2015 – Oct (7)

4.       2018 – April (4)