VZCZCXRO7500
PP RUEHDT RUEHPB
DE RUEHHM #0811 2130135
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
P R 010135Z AUG 07
FM AMCONSUL HO CHI MINH CITY
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 2945
INFO RUEHHI/AMEMBASSY HANOI 2076
RUCNARF/ASEAN REGIONAL FORUM COLLECTIVE
RUEHHM/AMCONSUL HO CHI MINH CITY 3147

UNCLAS HO CHI MINH CITY 000811 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PHUM SOCI PREL PGOV KIRF VM
SUBJECT: ONE YEAR AFTER NATIONAL REGISTRATION, UNITED WORLD MISSION 
CHURCH LARGELY SATISFIED 
 
REF: A. HANOI 1340, B. 05 HANOI 580, C. 05 HCMC 238 
 
¶1. Summary: On July 24, 2007, the Consul General met with Pastor 
Nguyen Toi, Chairman of the United World Mission Church of 
Vietnam (UWMC), one of Vietnam's larger  Protestant 
denominations with approximately 22,000 adherents, largely from 
ethnic minority areas.  Toi was generally upbeat about his 
church's current relationship with the GVN.  Toi said that the 
situation for his church has been consistently improving for a 
number of years, particularly since Vietnam's new legal 
framework on religion went into effect in 2004 and 2005(reftels) 
and since the church received its national registration license 
in September 2006. Noting some ongoing issues, Toi's major 
complaint was the competition his church is receiving from other 
Protestant groups under Vietnam's religious freedom policy. End 
summary. 
 
¶2. (SBU) Since the United World Mission Church's (UWMC) national 
registration, Pastor Toi said the typical application turnaround 
time for the majority of new UWMC-affiliated congregations is 
one week, but noted that there were problems in a handful of 
rural areas, particularly in the Northwest.  Looking back over 
the past year, Toi also said that in the beginning registering 
was very difficult and slow but that by working with both local 
and national authorities -- and by lots of in-house learning on 
how to do the required paperwork -- the situation has improved 
dramatically for his UWMC congregations. 
 
¶3. (SBU) Pastor Toi said the most common reason for delays is 
that when authorities check registration documents they find 
that some of the UWMC-affiliated church members have already 
switched to another church.  In a classic example of be careful 
of what you wish for, Pastor Toi complained that because of 
religious freedom reforms, there are (in his view) too many 
Protestant denominations operating in the Central Highlands 
today and that some churches are quite aggressive in recruiting 
members from other churches, even going so far as giving people 
money to join.  After complaining somewhat bitterly, he 
back-tracked a bit and said that the actual number of 
church-jumping believers is fairly small, but he upheld his 
contention that there are just too many denominations as a 
result of Vietnam's new policy of religious freedom. 
 
¶4. (SBU) Pastor Toi said that his current focus as chairman of 
UWMC is on the denomination's efforts to train approximately 
fifty new pastors and religious workers, which UWMC has been 
done clandestinely since 1975.   The UWMC's current training 
session is the first time that the training has occurred openly 
under the church's national license and with the support of the 
GVN.  GVN's 'support' for training clergy also includes the 
teaching of two government-mandated courses by 
government-supplied instructors--History of Vietnam and 
Vietnamese Laws and Regulations.  Toi stated that he hopes to 
expand the training to 150 pastors over the next two years. 
Several UWMC pastors have been sent abroad to attend religious 
conferences and seminars, but Toi himself has not participated 
in any overseas seminars. 
 
¶5. (SBU) Pastor Toi said that the UWMC is also in the process of 
obtaining 'legal person' status, a form of incorporation which 
will allow the church to expand its educational and social 
activities.  Toi also said that once the church obtained legal 
person status, they would be able to enter into negotiations 
with the government to obtain additional land for use as offices 
and training centers for religious workers. Toi said that the 
church lost all its land after the fall of the Republic of 
Vietnam in 1975. 
 
¶6. (SBU) Comment: Pastor Toi's complaints about other 
denominations 'poaching' a congregation's members before 
registration occurred appear to us to be a backhanded compliment 
of the GVN's new policy on religious freedom.  That said, the 
GVN's support of UWMC's training classes for religious workers 
on the condition that the courses include what amounts to 
propaganda for the GVN is a good example of the continued 
suspicion with which the GVN regards religious activities. END 
COMMENT. 
 
¶7.  This cable was coordinated with Embassy Hanoi. 
 
FAIRFAX