US embassy cable - 04HANOI3257

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 HANOI 003257 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
 
STATE FOR EAP/BCLTV AND DRL/IRF, BEIJING POL PASS TO DRL/IRF 
DEBORAH SCHNEIDER 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM, KIRF, PREL, PGOV, VM, ETMIN, HUMANR, RELFREE 
SUBJECT: NORTHERN PROTESTANT CHURCH HOLDS LONG AWAITED 
CONGRESS 
 
REFTEL: A) HANOI 711; B) HANOI 2974 
 
1. (SBU) Summary: The Evangelical Church of Vietnam: North 
(ECVN) held its first National Congress in 20 years December 
1-2.  The meeting allowed the Church to name a new 
leadership board, appoint two new pastors and make progress 
on rewriting the ECVN's charter.  The new leadership 
indicated that it plans to undertake a number of 
initiatives, including seeking official recognition for 
ethnic minority believers in the Northwest Highlands.  The 
Government reportedly did not interfere in votes for the new 
leadership and has accepted the results of the internal 
election despite the fact that none of the GVN's candidates 
was elected.  End Summary. 
 
2. (SBU) The ECVN's two-day Congress was held December 1-2 
in Hanoi and represented the first time the ECVN had met as 
a whole in 20 years (Ref. A).  (Note:  This 20-year delay 
was initially due to obstruction by the Government, but more 
recently was because of the ECVN's refusal to hold a 
congress while the GVN continued to try to influence its 
leadership.  End note.)  The new President of the ECVN, who 
will hold his position for four years, is Reverend Phung 
Quang Huyen, who leads a church in rural Nam Dinh Province. 
The Vice President is Pastor Nguyen Gia Huan of Haiphong, 
with whom the Ambassador met in November (Ref. B).  Well- 
known pastor Au Quang Vinh of the Hanoi congregation is the 
new General Secretary.  Two new pastors were also recognized 
during the Congress. 
 
3. (SBU) Pastor Vinh (protect) told us December 6 that the 
GVN gave the Church "a lot of freedom" in electing its new 
leaders.  The GVN had indicated its preferred candidates, 
but none of these was elected, and the GVN "will accept the 
results."  Vinh noted that Deputy Prime Minister Vu Khoan 
had invited the new leadership committee to meet with him 
the day after the Congress adjourned; Pastor Vinh added that 
the Church appreciated this "sign of respect."  The Congress 
was widely covered in Vietnamese language newspapers, 
although without editorial comment. 
 
4. (SBU) Setting forth the tasks of the new leadership, 
Pastor Vinh said that the two highest priorities are to 
complete the creation of a new charter for the ECVN and to 
gain official recognition for Protestants in the Northwest 
Highlands.  The charter, approval of which the ECVN had 
initially set forth as a prerequisite for holding its 
Congress, is largely finished, but there are "a few 
remaining issues to work out" with the GVN.  The charter 
will replace a previous version written in 1963, and is "90 
percent" modeled on the charter of the Southern Evangelical 
Church of Vietnam (SECV), which shares the same doctrine as 
the ECVN and differs only in structure.  (Note:  Both are 
affiliated with the Christian and Missionary Alliance.  End 
note.)  The new charter specifically states that unification 
of the two Churches is an objective of the ECVN.  Vinh said 
that there has not yet been any attempt to unify, but 
acknowledged that GVN opposition to having the more affluent 
and active southern branch of the Church expand into 
northern Vietnam was "part of the problem."  Another major 
component of the new charter is that it will allow the 
ordination of new pastors, no matter where they have 
studied.  This is important to the ECVN because, in the 
absence of a seminary, many of its younger clergymen have 
studied abroad. 
 
5. (SBU) Pastor Vinh noted that the ECVN has now issued 
certificates of affiliation to 934 "groups," encompassing 
112,000 faithful from four different ethnic groups in twelve 
of the mountainous provinces of northern and northwestern 
Vietnam.  "Our big duty is getting the Government to 
recognize these faithful are believers," said Vinh.  He 
acknowledged the huge number of ethnic minority believers is 
daunting for the ECVN, which has only fourteen officially 
recognized churches, and noted that there is some truth to 
GVN claims that the minority house church leaders have 
little training and sometimes a limited understanding of 
doctrine.  However, unless the GVN recognizes them as 
believers first, the Church could not provide the ethnic 
minorities any training, Vinh stressed, 
 
6. (SBU) Turning to other goals for the new leadership, 
establishing a Bible school is an "important mission," but 
the ECVN has not yet applied to the GVN to open one, Vinh 
said.  The board also plans to undertake the renovation of a 
number of existing churches; to petition Nghe An Province 
for the return of seized ECVN land and to build a new church 
on this land; and to seek permission from Thanh Hoa Province 
to rebuild its dilapidated church there and assign a pastor 
to that congregation.  During the Congress, the Church also 
established a social affairs committee that will draw up 
plans for carrying out charitable activities.  On the 
subject of future ECVN expansion, Vinh said that there are 
groups of believers in a number of locations in northern 
Vietnam; however, their ability to meet varies depending on 
local authorities.  As in the Northwest Highlands, the ECVN 
plans to encourage these groups to get permission to gather 
from the authorities.  This would be a first step towards 
creating an official congregation.  That said, the Church is 
waiting to see how the new Ordinance on Religion will be 
enacted -- and what the Ordinance's overdue implementation 
regulations contain -- before beginning this process. 
 
7. (SBU) Comment: The holding of the long-awaited Congress 
is welcome news, and it should inject a needed dose of 
vitality into the Church.  Furthermore, Pastor Vinh seemed 
to believe that the ECVN's relationship with the national 
authorities is now functional, if not warm, and that 
remaining issues related to the new charter could soon be 
worked out.  Even with this, however, one cannot expect too 
much too soon from the ECVN.  It remains a small 
organization with very limited resources.  Seeing to the 
renovations of its current churches will likely be the 
ECVN's most quickly achievable goal, followed perhaps by the 
creation of a Bible school (the church already runs some 
unofficial study sessions).  The active expansion into the 
Northwest Highlands that it plans will be an enormous 
challenge, although we will follow it closely and make sure 
the GVN is aware of our interest.  End Comment. 
MARINE