Proselytism and Religious Outreach Briefing

No. 29 – Generated by Claude AI

Covering the period: 3-9 October 2026, with a few items from previous weeks

News: Debates, Reactions, and Conflicts over Missionary Activities
Missionary Agency Reports and Data
Documents on the Ethics of Missionary Work
Academic Events and Publications
Analysis

1. News: Debates, Reactions, and Conflicts over Missionary Activities

France — the Catholic Church signs an anti-“sectarian drift” convention with MIVILUDES (Paris, 6 October 2026)

The Mission interministérielle de vigilance et de lutte contre les dérives sectaires (MIVILUDES) and the Conférence des évêques de France (CEF) signed a partnership convention on 6 October 2026. It was signed under the patronage of Marie-Pierre Vedrenne, minister delegate for Citizenship, and runs « pour une durée de deux ans renouvelables » (“for two renewable years”). Its terms:

Information sharing. The parties will systematically share information on at-risk situations in “structures ou communautés rattachées à l’Église catholique” (“structures or communities attached to the Catholic Church”). This will be coordinated with the CEF’s own unit, Emprise et dérives sectaires dans l’Église catholique (“Psychological control and sectarian drift in the Catholic Church”), under confidentiality rules.
Joint analysis of the mechanisms of emprise (psychological control).
Prevention material for dioceses and movements, and training for church actors.
Referral of victims to state-approved support.
A review meeting “au minimum une fois par an” (“at least once a year”).

The framing sentence is that “la vigilance et la lutte contre les dérives sectaires ne s’opposent pas à la liberté de croire” (“vigilance and the fight against sectarian drift are not opposed to freedom of belief”). MIVILUDES President Patricia Mirallès called it « une étape décisive pour structurer, pérenniser et intensifier notre démarche commune » (“a decisive step to structure, sustain and intensify our common approach”). The convention follows similar ones with the Fédération protestante de France (November 2025) and the religious-orders conference CORREF (3 July 2026). The traditionalist site Tribune Chrétienne raised concerns about the limits of information sharing. No other public criticism was found.

[Sources: MIVILUDES, «La Miviludes et la Conférence des évêques de France signent une convention de partenariat contre les dérives sectaires» / “MIVILUDES and the French Bishops’ Conference sign a partnership agreement against sectarian drift”, French, 6 October 2026 (page retrieved); InfoChrétienne, French, 7 October 2026; Tribune Chrétienne, French, 7 October 2026]

In the same fortnight MIVILUDES published a Guide Santé et dérives sectaires (“Health and sectarian drift guide”, dated October 2026). Health and well-being is now its largest source of referrals. The guide’s operative test is « la combinaison d’une pratique potentiellement dangereuse et d’un processus d’emprise » (“the combination of a potentially dangerous practice and a process of psychological control”). [Source: Santé Mentale, French, 8 October 2026]

Why it matters: the French anti-cult apparatus has long been criticised, by the Catholic Church among others, as a threat to minority religions. The largest Church has now signed into it as a partner. The object of vigilance is no longer the outsider who recruits. It is emprise wherever it occurs, including inside the majority Church’s own new communities, many of them strongly evangelising. See Analysis §1.

India — Chhattisgarh: a village assembly bars pastors and refuses land to Christians under tribal self-government law (Punpalli, Sukma district, 2/3 October; reported 4–5 October 2026)

A special gram sabha (village assembly) in Punpalli (Konta block, Sukma) passed a resolution with three parts:

it refuses community land to Christians and “converted families” for burial, church building and prayer meetings;
it bars pastors and missionaries from entering “for conversion, prayer meetings”, as announced on a village notice board;
it requires outsiders who come to preach to report first to a newly created Shanti aur Nyay Samiti (“Peace and Justice Committee”).

The resolution invokes Article 244(1) and the Fifth Schedule of the Constitution, the Panchayats (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act 1996 (PESA) and Chhattisgarh’s PESA Rules 2022. Its stated aim is to protect the village’s customs and cultural identity. Madkam Bhima, a janpad member and BJP Yuva Morcha leader, defended it as the preservation of traditional order. No government, police or Christian response is reported.

[Sources: “सुकमा में ग्राम सभा का प्रस्ताव: ईसाई धर्म प्रचारकों के प्रवेश पर रोक, चर्च के लिए जमीन नहीं देने का फैसला” / “Sukma gram sabha resolution: entry of Christian preachers banned, no land for churches”, Amar Ujala, Hindi, 4 October 2026; ThePrint, English, 4 October 2026; ETV Bharat, Hindi, 5 October 2026. Discrepancy: ThePrint dates the sabha 2 October, Amar Ujala 3 October.]

Context: village bans of this kind are spreading in Bastar. The Supreme Court declined to interfere with similar hoardings in February 2026. What is new here is the institutional machinery. The resolution creates a village committee that licenses outside preachers, a function no anti-conversion statute assigns to anyone.

India — Dhamtari: a funeral made conditional on a convert’s ghar wapsi (Bhatgaon, 4 October 2026)

In Bhatgaon (Dhamtari district), villagers refused to take part in a woman’s funeral because a family member, Suresh Dhruv, had become Christian about four years earlier. After an hour of meetings, a former VHP/Bajrang Dal district president, Sandeep Agrawal, was called in. Dhruv was given Ganga water, a puja was performed, he was “readmitted” to the community, and the funeral went ahead with Hindu rites. Afterwards Dhruv told the reporter that he had converted of his own will and would not go back to his former faith. No police or administrative involvement is reported. [Source: “धर्मांतरण और अंतिम संस्कार को लेकर फिर बवाल, धमतरी में समाज ने रखी घर वापसी की शर्त” / “Fresh row over conversion and funeral: community in Dhamtari makes ghar wapsi a condition”, ETV Bharat, Hindi, 4 October 2026. Single source.]

Following the report of 3 October on church notices in the same district, this is the reverse case. There, the church closed its door to Hindus. Here, the village closed its rites to a Christian, and reopened them only at the price of a ritual return. Dhruv says that return was nominal.

India — Chhattisgarh High Court asks the State to answer a challenge to the Freedom of Religion Act 2026 (Bilaspur, hearing reported 7 October 2026)

A division bench of Chief Justice Krushna Ram Mohapatra and Justice Santosh Sharma heard a petition by V. N. Prasad Rao and others, argued by Dr S. Muralidhar (a former High Court Chief Justice) and Manoj Paranjpe. The petition challenges both the Act and its 2026 Rules. The petitioners argue:

even a voluntary conversion requires public notice and clearances from several departments, which they say takes “at least 200 days”;
priests and pastors must register;
penalties run from seven years to life imprisonment, with fines up to ₹10 lakh;
vague provisions have been used to close places of worship.

They sought an interim stay of the public-notice and objection procedure. The court made no finding. It asked the State to reply to the interim application within three weeks.

[Sources: “छत्तीसगढ़ धर्म स्वतंत्रता अधिनियम 2026 को छत्तीसगढ़ हाईकोर्ट में चुनौती, अदालत ने साय सरकार से मांगा जवाब” / “Chhattisgarh Freedom of Religion Act 2026 challenged in High Court; court seeks Sai government’s reply”, ETV Bharat, Hindi, 7 October 2026; Deccan Chronicle, English, 8 October 2026]

Diary: the State’s reply is due about the end of October. The challenge targets the notice procedure, the very mechanism that produced the Dhamtari self-declarations reported on 3 October.

India — Madras High Court: Abrahamic religions “inherently exclusive”; conversion and ghar wapsi alike bar foreign funding (Madurai Bench, 6 October 2026)

Justices G. R. Swaminathan (author) and M. D. Sumathi dismissed an appeal by the Kanzeon Public Charitable Trust. The trust was founded in 2021 by the Jesuit Fr Ama Samy SJ and runs a Zen centre and a Montessori school in Kodaikanal. It had challenged the Home Ministry’s refusal of FCRA registration (19 November 2025). The court made five holdings of interest:

Disclosure. The trust should have declared itself religious, since Zen is a form of Mahayana Buddhism. It “need not have been so coy”.
Abrahamic religions. The court called them “inherently exclusive”, in contrast with Hinduism.
Conversion and FCRA. On FCRA s. 12(4)(a)(ii), bodies engaged in conversion by inducement or force cannot be registered. The court said it raised conversion because “radical Christian Institutions are notorious for indulging in such activities”, while expressly not accusing this trust.
Ghar wapsi. The same bar applies to Hindu reconversion: “A fundamentalist Hindu Organisation engaged in Ghar Wapsi cannot be registered under FCRA.”
Indian Knowledge Systems. Bodies teaching Vedanta, the Gita, the Upanishads or Yoga are educational or cultural, not religious.

Rev. Vijayesh Lal of the Evangelical Fellowship of India criticised the remarks.

[Source: Christian Today India, English, 7 October 2026 (retrieved). The judgment text itself was not retrieved.]

Why it matters: last week’s Analysis noted that several Indian statutes exempt a “return” to an ancestral religion from the definition of conversion. Here a High Court, for FCRA purposes, puts ghar wapsi in the same category as missionary conversion. At the same time it classifies Hindu philosophical teaching as non-religious, which removes much Hindu outreach from the “religious” category altogether. The symmetry and the asymmetry arrive in the same judgment.

India — follow-up: the Timothy Initiative UAPA case moves to Chhattisgarh (Bengaluru, 9 October 2026)

Following the report of 27 June 2026 on the UAPA case against the US church-planting network The Timothy Initiative (TTI), a court has approved transferring the Bengaluru (Kothanur) case to Chhattisgarh, which has its own case against the same accused. The case rests on an Enforcement Directorate complaint. It alleges that about ₹6.34 crore was withdrawn in Dhamtari and Bastar through US-bank debit cards, including 3,200 withdrawals of ₹10,000 at a single Dhamtari ATM. Anticipatory bail was refused and lookout notices were issued. These remain ED and police allegations. No Maoist link has been established in court, and TTI’s response is not reported. [Source: Organiser, English (RSS-aligned), 9 October 2026. Single, partisan source for the transfer.]

The FCRA amendment bill’s Joint Parliamentary Committee meets on 12 October. Ten opposition MPs asked for that meeting to be deferred. [Source: Christian Today India, 30 September 2026]

India — the week in the Hindi press (3–8 October 2026, with two catch-ups)

As before, these reports mostly reproduce police and Hindu-organisation framing. Every item is an allegation.

Dhamtari: a conviction where the prosecution’s story turns on conversion pressure (reported 8 October). A Dhamtari court convicted five people, among them the wife and parents-in-law of Nilesh Sahu, of abetting his suicide under BNS s. 108. Each received five years’ rigorous imprisonment. Sahu hanged himself in December 2024 after posting a WhatsApp status alleging harassment and pressure to adopt Christianity. This is not a conversion-law conviction. The conversion pressure is part of the prosecution’s narrative of abetment. [Source: Amar Ujala (video report), “धमतरी: आत्महत्या के लिए उकसाने के मामले में पत्नी समेत पांच दोषी, धर्मांतरण के लिए बनाया दबाव” / “Dhamtari: five including wife convicted of abetting suicide; pressure to convert”, Hindi, 8 October 2026; ETV Bharat, Hindi]
Hata Kotwali / Padrauna, UP (3 October). BJP city mandal president Awadhesh Singh called police to a scene where two men were allegedly showing women “a religious book” in order to convert them. Dhruv and Durgesh Nishad were arrested on his complaint and jailed. Neither the religion nor the statutory sections are reported. [Source: “धर्मांतरण कराने के आरोपियों को भेजा गया जेल” / “Accused of conversion sent to jail”, Amar Ujala, Hindi, 5 October 2026]. Once again a party office-holder is the complainant.
Kusauda, Bhadohi (6 October). Bajrang Dal activists gathered over reported “conversion activity” and complained that the police had not acted. Police are investigating. No accused or religion is named. [Source: Amar Ujala, “कुसौड़ा गांव में धर्मांतरण की सूचना पर हिंदू संगठनों ने किया हंगामा” / “Hindu organisations create uproar over report of conversion in Kusauda”, Hindi, 8 October 2026]
Kanpur (6–8 October), alleged pressure to convert to Islam. A 25-year-old Thai woman says she married Mohammad Irfan, whom she met on Instagram, in Thailand. She alleges he concealed an existing marriage and took about 20 lakh baht (about ₹60 lakh) “for business”. When she asked for the money back, she says, he demanded that she move to India and adopt his religion. He has been detained and her statement recorded in court. [Source: “इंस्टाग्राम पर दोस्ती कर रचाई शादी…” / “Married after Instagram friendship… pressure to convert”, Amar Ujala, Hindi, 6 October 2026]. A transnational instance of the “love jihad” frame, with an inducement running from the convert to the alleged converter.
Haridwar (1 October; catch-up). A Muslim family from Pilibhit “returned” to Hinduism at Chandi Ghat: Mahid became Mohit and Shabina became Khushi. The officiant, Swami Ramvishal Das (Shri Tirth Seva Nyas), says their ancestors were forcibly converted under Aurangzeb. The outlet does not verify this. [Source: “माहिद से मोहित, शबीना से खुशी…” / “Mahid to Mohit, Shabina to Khushi…”, AajTak, Hindi, 1 October 2026]
Ludhiana (29–30 September; catch-up), three religious voices in one dispute. At a Hanumant Katha, Dhirendra Shastri (Bageshwar Dham) told Sikhs and Hindus to resist conversion. The Shahi Imam of Punjab, Maulana Mohammad Usman Rehmani Ludhianvi, demanded an apology and proposed an interfaith meeting. Christian representatives met the police commissioner. Shastri said he had spoken against “drugs and conversion, not against any religion”. [Sources: Amar Ujala, Hindi, 30 September 2026; Christian Today India]
Kashi (reported 2 October; catch-up). The Akhil Bharatiya Vyas Sangh (the national body of katha reciters), meeting at Patalpuri Math under Jagadguru Balak Devacharya, resolved on a nationwide anti-conversion campaign with village-level committees and an outreach to “Gen Z”. [Source: “काशी में गरजा व्यास संघ: कन्वर्जन के खिलाफ राष्ट्रव्यापी अभियान का ऐलान” / “Vyas Sangh roars in Kashi: nationwide campaign against conversion announced”, Panchjanya, Hindi (RSS weekly), 2 October 2026]. Religious storytellers organise as a counter-missionary force, mirroring the Christian lay-evangelist model.

Pakistan — Sindh: an FIR a month late; Lahore: a case revived (1–6 October 2026)

Tando Allahyar (FIR filed 6 October). Following the reference in last week’s issue, police registered an FIR against two men over the alleged abduction on 29 August, conversion and marriage of two Hindu minor sisters. They acted only after community pressure. The girls were recovered and placed in a shelter home by a sessions judge pending age verification. All the claims come from Shiva Kachhi of Pakistan Darawar Ittehad, via PTI. [Sources: Deccan Herald (PTI); Daily Jagran (PTI), English, 6–7 October 2026. No Pakistani outlet found.]
Lahore High Court, Maria Shahbaz (order 1 October; catch-up). Following reports of 17 April and 17 July, Justice Abher Gul Khan admitted the family’s petition to restore the FIR against the alleged abductor of the Christian girl, which a magistrate had cancelled on 7 March 2026. According to the family’s side, a police reinvestigation found the nikahnama (marriage contract) forged and the conversion certificate unverifiable. A review petition in the Federal Constitutional Court, which upheld the marriage on 3 February 2026, is pending. [Source: Morning Star News, English (Christian persecution-watch), 2/5 October 2026]

Russia — Supreme Court statistics: 716 “illegal missionary activity” cases in 2025, up 66% (published 2 October; SOVA, 5 October 2026)

The Judicial Department of the Supreme Court has released its 2025 data on Art. 5.26 KoAP (the article as a whole; §4 and §5 are not separated):

	2024	2025
Cases considered	431	716
Fines imposed, total (roubles)	4,747,000	6,437,000

There were 463 persons punished:

by type: 382 individuals, 80 legal entities, 17 officials and 4 sole proprietors;
by penalty: 411 fines, 30 warnings and 22 compulsory-labour sentences;
additionally, 10 expulsions of foreigners and 13 confiscations.

[Source: SOVA Centre, «Опубликована судебная статистика по делам о «незаконном миссионерстве» за 2025 год» / “Court statistics on ‘illegal missionary activity’ cases for 2025 published”, Russian, 5 October 2026. Discrepancy flagged: SOVA’s text refers both to “the first half of 2025” and to “the year”. The figures are given here as SOVA presents them.]

Why it matters: this is the first hard number this briefing has had on the scale of Russia’s missionary-activity enforcement. It complements SOVA’s case-by-case reporting, which shows only a fraction of it.

Russia and occupied Ukraine — Forum 18: a wave of bans on unregistered Baptists, and a pastor’s deportation upheld (6 and 9 October 2026)

Twelve communities banned. Courts in seven regions have now banned 12 unregistered Council of Churches Baptist communities, six of them in Krasnodar Region, because they did not notify the authorities of their existence. Forum 18 shows how the pieces interlock. Without notification no written authorisation for missionary activity is possible. Lack of notification is therefore itself treated as evidence of illegal missionary activity, and the ban suits are routinely paired with Art. 5.26 §4 prosecutions. Following the report of 29 August on the Saransk suit: the October District Court banned that community on 20 August 2026, citing “missionary activities” including giving religious material to minors. An appeal is pending. A Rostov assistant prosecutor’s phrase supplies Forum 18’s headline: refusing notification “hinders state oversight”. Forum 18 also recalls a pending Duma bill to ban missionary activity in residential premises, approved in committee on 17 March 2026. [Source: Forum 18, English, 6 October 2026]
Apsheronsk (Krasnodar Krai, suit filed 8 October). The town administration has sued to stop an MSC ECB congregation using a residential house and plot for worship. The hearing is set for 22 October. [Source: SOVA Centre, «Власти Апшеронска хотят запретить общине МСЦ ЕХБ использовать жилой дом» / “Apsheronsk authorities want to bar an ECB congregation from using a residential house”, Russian, 9 October 2026; source is the church’s own advocacy channel]
Occupied Luhansk: Pastor Vladimir Rytikov (appeal rejected 6 October). Following the report of 18 May 2026, the occupation “Supreme Court” upheld the annulment of the residence permit of Baptist pastor Vladimir Rytikov. He was born in Krasnodon in 1959, has led the congregation since 1990, and was a Soviet-era prisoner. The annulment rests on an unexplained FSB finding (5 February 2026) that he is a security threat, after earlier fines under Art. 5.26 §5 (foreigners’ missionary activity). Judge Olga Bondarenko heard the appeal in closed session. His lawyer plans a cassation appeal in Moscow. Rytikov: “No one could say how this threat was manifested.” [Source: Forum 18, English, 9 October 2026]
Gorno-Altaysk (follow-up, partly unconfirmed). Following the report of 25 September on Andrey Pushkinov, fined for handing out the newspaper Веришь ли ты? (“Do you believe?”) at a city festival, SOVA’s listing of 9 October headlines that he “failed to overturn the fine”. The updated text could not be retrieved, so the appeal court and date are not confirmed. [SOVA, d54581]
Khakassia (29 September; catch-up). Jehovah’s Witness Konstantin Flegentov, 49, was remanded in custody, apparently under Art. 282.2 UK. [Source: SOVA Centre, Russian, 2 October 2026]

Russia — the Orthodox Church trains “counter-sectarian mission” (Rostov-on-Don, reported 6 October 2026)

A conference on the religious landscape of Rostov Region, with about 100 participants, included a seminar titled «Противосектантская миссия: организация миссионерского диалога с неопротестантами» (“Counter-sectarian mission: organising missionary dialogue with neo-Protestants”). It set out a method in four steps:

map the Protestant groups in an area;
train activists;
hold structured doctrinal debates;
accompany those who wish to join Orthodoxy.

[Source: Synodal Missionary Department (sinmis.ru), Russian, 6 October 2026. Official Church outlet.]

Why it matters: in the same week and the same region, the state bans Baptist congregations and the majority Church trains its laity to win their members over. Counter-mission here is not only defensive. It is outreach directed at other Christians, a rare documented case of intra-Christian missionary competition, here stated by the majority side.

Israel — Yad L’Achim drives door-to-door “Edei Hashem” missionaries out of Petah Tikva (7 October 2026)

According to Yad L’Achim, its emergency centre received reports that members of the “Edei Hashem” group (עדי השם, the Hebrew name generally used for Jehovah’s Witnesses) were going house to house in Petah Tikva distributing literature “to convert Jews”. Activists confronted them and “pushed them out” of the neighbourhoods. An urgent alert went to neighbourhood groups telling residents not to accept material and parents to talk to their children. Activists then visited the households that had been “exposed” and brought them the Four Species for Sukkot, and aravot and hoshanot for Hoshana Rabbah. The group’s vocabulary is «פעילות מיסיונרית נפשעת» (“criminal missionary activity”) and «כת עדי השם» (“the Edei Hashem cult”).

[Sources: «להוציא יקר מזולל: פעילי יד לאחים בלמו פעילות מיסיונרית והביאו את מצוות החג לבתי התושבים» / “To bring out the precious from the vile: Yad L’Achim activists halted missionary activity and brought the festival’s mitzvot to residents’ homes”, Kikar HaShabbat, Behadrey Haredim, HM-News, and Yad L’Achim, Hebrew, 7–8 October 2026. Provenance: the HM-News version is labelled «תוכן שיווקי» (sponsored content) “in cooperation with Yad L’Achim”. This is the organisation’s own account and is unverified. The text does not explicitly identify the group as Jehovah’s Witnesses.]

Why it matters: the counter-measure is to restore ritual practice to the “exposed” household, with the festival as the vehicle. This continues the “counter-missionary → missionary” thread opened on 26 September (the Sukkot kiruv booklet). The resistance is completed only by the counter-missionary’s own outreach.

Café Basimta: a Christian voice. In a Jerusalem Post op-ed of 9 October, two pro-Israel interfaith figures, Jonathan Feldstein (Genesis 123 Foundation) and David Nekrutman (The Isaiah Projects), criticise the Jews for Jesus café for not disclosing its mission: “religious freedom does not eliminate the obligation to be transparent”. They ask why Christians did not hold it to account. [Source: Jerusalem Post, English, 9 October 2026]. This is the first Christian criticism of the café’s non-disclosure that this briefing has recorded. It lines up with the “disclosure” objection running through the digital-mission debate.

Iran — “deviant proselytising”: the wife of a jailed Armenian pastor summoned to serve 13 years (9 October 2026)

Lida Alexani, 58, has been summoned to Evin Prison to begin a 13-year sentence. She was convicted of “deviant proselytising contrary to the holy religion of Islam” under Article 500 bis of the Islamic Penal Code, and of “gathering and collusion”. Her husband, the Iranian-Armenian pastor Joseph Shahbazian, has been in Evin since February 2025, serving 16 years for leading a house church. They were sentenced in October 2025 with converts including Nasser Navard Gol-Tapeh. Article 18 restates the structural rule: recognised Armenian and Assyrian churches may worship but may not share their faith with Muslims, and Persian-language services have been banned since 2009. [Source: Article 18, English (London-based advocacy for Iranian Christians), 9 October 2026]

Note: Iran Press Watch republished a HRANA report on three Baha’is sentenced under the same Article 500 bis. That verdict was already reported here on 2 October and is not repeated.

Morocco — Christian groups ask the incoming government for freedom of belief (8 October 2026)

The Coordination of Moroccan Christians (التنسيقية المغربية للمسيحيين) and the Union of Moroccan Christians (اتحاد المسيحيين المغاربة) sent a memorandum to Fatima Zahra Mansouri, whom the King has asked to form the new government. Their demands:

public worship in official churches within a legal framework;
civil or church registration of Christian marriages;
an end to obstacles to registering births and Christian first names;
an optional alternative to Islamic education for Christian pupils.

They frame these as “basic and humanitarian demands” of citizenship, and note that they put the same demands to the two previous heads of government. [Source: «مسيحيو المغرب يوجهون مذكرة إلى المنصوري للمطالبة بحرية المعتقد» / “Moroccan Christians send memo to Mansouri demanding freedom of belief”, Mobachir, Arabic, 8 October 2026]

Why it matters: the demands say nothing about evangelism. They concern registration: marriage, names, schooling. Article 220 of the Penal Code (“shaking the faith of a Muslim”) goes unmentioned. Moroccan converts are asking the state for civil existence, not for a right to persuade. This parallels the Malaysian exit-registration case reported on 2 October.

Somalia — a young convert confined by her family (from 27 September; reported 7 October 2026)

According to Morning Star News, Mariam Fatuma, 20, who became Christian in February 2026 after contact with an outreach ministry, has been held in a room and beaten by her uncle and guardian since a cousin found her praying on 27 September. Relatives are pressing her to name whoever introduced her to Christianity. [Source: Morning Star News, English, 7 October 2026. Single, anonymous-source report from a persecution-watch service; unverifiable.] The family’s demand is to find the missionary, not just the convert.

China — one year after the Zion Church arrests: charged with “fraud” and “illegal business operations” (Beihai, 9 October 2026)

Following reports in April and May 2026, on the first anniversary of the arrests of 23 pastors and co-workers of the unregistered Beijing Zion Church, eight remain in detention in Beihai (Guangxi). They are charged with fraud (诈骗罪) and illegal business operations (非法经营罪), and the case has been sent to court. Lawyer Zhang Kai (张凯) has had his licence revoked. In 2025 commentators had expected a charge of illegal online dissemination of religious information. The state has instead chosen economic offences, as in the Hefei Ganquan Church case, where tithes were treated as fraud. [Source: «锡安教案案发一周年» / “First anniversary of the Zion Church case”, Chinese Human Rights Defenders / 权利运动, Chinese, 9 October 2026. Diaspora human-rights NGO.]

Nigeria — follow-up: the Foreign Aid Regulation Bill and religious bodies (30 September – 9 October 2026)

Following the report of 26 September on the Catholic bishops’ objections, two developments:

Civil-society coalition (30 September – 1 October). Accountability Lab, BudgIT, SERAP and others demanded withdrawal of the Foreign Aid (Regulation, Transparency and Disclosure) Bill 2026 (SB 1034), sponsored by Sen. Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo. The bill has passed second reading and would create a commission empowered to register, audit and close foreign-funded bodies. The coalition warned that it could reach “religious institutions and associations” whose members receive or contribute funds from abroad. [Source: Vanguard, English, 1 October 2026]
US multifaith letter (9 October). A coalition including the IRF Roundtable’s Africa working group wrote to Senate President Godswill Akpabio. [Source: Daily Caller, English (US conservative), 9 October 2026]

No response was found from the Muslim umbrella bodies (NSCIA, JNI), although the bill would equally affect mosque and zakat networks with foreign links.

2. Missionary Agency Reports and Data

Catholic Church — the World Mission Sunday centenary (18 October): papal message, Malawi, and a new head for the Pontifical Mission Societies (3–9 October 2026)

Leo XIV’s video message (7 October). The Pope ties the centenary to his own vocation. He credits the prayers and gifts of the faithful with supporting his missionary years as an Augustinian in Peru. He presents the theme “One in Christ, United in Mission” as a call to unity, and evangelisation as “always a work of love”, especially for “the poorest and those most in need”. [Source: Agenzia Fides, English, 7 October 2026]
Malawi (Mzuzu Stadium, 3 October). At the national centenary celebration, the Pontifical Mission Societies presented Malawi as moving from “a Church that receives missionary assistance” to one that gives. The national director, Fr Peter Madeya, reports that Malawi’s contributions to the Universal Solidarity Fund rose 80% in 2025. [Source: Agenzia Fides, 7 October 2026]. This continues the “Church of the Sheaves” thread (26 September): the former mission territory recast as a donor.
A new president of the PMS (announced 8 October). Sr Mary Teresa Barron OLA, an Irish sister, superior general of the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of the Apostles since 2018 and former president of the International Union of Superiors General, is appointed adjunct secretary of the Dicastery for Evangelization (Section for First Evangelization) and president of the Pontifical Mission Societies, with effect from 4 January 2027. Her words: “a missionary perspective and understanding are very important in a synodal Church.” [Source: Agenzia Fides, 8 October 2026.]
A history of the day in wartime (8 October). A Fides series recalls the World Mission Sunday messages of 1939–49 (Archbishop Celso Costantini, Pius XII). Those messages rejected the use of missions for national interests and pressed for local clergy. A 1940 missionary letter is quoted: “We will stay.” [Source: Agenzia Fides, 8 October 2026]. The tradition reckoning with its own past: in this telling the centenary history is one of mission dissociating itself from empire.
Society of African Missions (9 October). Superior General Fr François du Penhoat says that with local Churches now established across Africa, mission is harder to define: “everyone is a missionary; the whole Church is missionary”. He gives the SMA’s figures: 902 members and more than 400 in formation, new houses in Tanzania and Zambia, and a new mission in Chad. On method, the SMA does not send members to their home countries. It is wary of “virtual” or short-term outreach. His key line: “It is easy to send people all over the world; it is much more difficult to form true missionaries.” [Source: Agenzia Fides, 9 October 2026]
France: the 11th Congrès Mission (from 9 October). This year the congress is held “de façon délocalisée dans plusieurs villes de France” (“in a decentralised way in several French cities”). The Lyon province edition (9–11 October) was chosen by its bishops to « relever le défi de l’unité pour leurs huit diocèses » (“take up the challenge of unity for their eight dioceses”). Its theme verse is Acts 8:36, « Voici de l’eau : qu’est-ce qui empêche que je sois baptisé ? » (“Here is water: what prevents me from being baptised?”). [Source: Revue Mission, «Nos bons plans pour le Congrès Mission» / “Our tips for the Congrès Mission”, French, 6 October 2026 (paywalled; standfirst only)]

Southern Baptist IMB — “the privacy of their own cell phones”: digital first contact in island Southeast Asia (5 October 2026)

IMB teams in island Southeast Asia make first contact through Jesus-focused social-media ads and videos. Viewers who respond are passed to a “responder”, either a local believer or a missionary, who prays with them, answers questions and disciples them. The stated sequence is contact, then evangelism, then discipleship. The rationale is candid:

face-to-face witness has become harder, because foreigners meet suspicion in sparse, animist settings and young people are less comfortable talking in person;
digital work is therefore described as a “plausible and effective entry point”;
the article cites a figure of 82.4% of the region online (We Are Social).

Missionary Amanda Clarkston, 33 years in the region, says locals are “more open to watching those things in the privacy of their own cell phones.”

[Source: IMB, “Digital doors open the gospel for islanders in Southeast Asia”, imb.org, 5 October 2026. The IMB page would not load; the text was verified through the Biblical Recorder reprint.]

Also from the IMB: “Oklahoma Baptists join Sending Church Lab to strengthen missionary support” (imb.org, 8 October 2026). Only the headline is confirmed.

Note on the IMB AI framework (lead from 3 October): no framework document was located. The nearest primary statement is from Don Barger, in a Baptist Press survey of 16 February 2026: “Souls care for other souls, not algorithms.” [Baptist Press]

Seventh-day Adventist Church — OneVoice27 in Cuba, in Thailand “beyond the screen”, and lay evangelists in Europe (3–7 October 2026)

Cuba (3 October). The “Una Voz que Reaviva” (“A Voice That Revives”) caravan crossed 12 of Cuba’s 15 provinces, running generators through power cuts. It organised 12 new congregations, bringing the total to 402 organised churches, against about 100 in 1990. Union president Joel Pérez: “The church is active. The church keeps moving forward.” [Source: ANN, English, 3 October 2026]
Northern Thailand (6 October). Three churches (Kamphaeng Phet, Phitsanulok, Phetchabun) adopted a face-to-face model because digital engagement is low there. Six outreach teams with 18 volunteers distributed 800 Thai copies of Steps to Christ and ran English classes for about 120 public-school pupils. The framing: media start conversations, but mission “ultimately moves through people”. [Source: ANN, 6 October 2026]. A Buddhist-majority setting where the agency inverts its own digital strategy.
Europe (ASi Europe convention, Fribourg, Switzerland, 23–26 September; reported 5 October). More than 300 lay “evangelists” from over 20 countries attended. The board reviewed 100 mission proposals and funded 60. President Carlos Dias: “Before business, we live to share Jesus.” The framing is lay business witness in a “secular, post-Christian” Europe. [Source: Adventist Review, 5 October 2026]
Adventist Record, “Western Highlands Adventists called to digital mission at OneVoice27 launch” (Papua New Guinea, 7 October 2026). Headline only; the page did not load.

Assemblies of God — the World Congress comes to Africa for the first time (Accra, 14–16 October 2026)

The 10th World Assemblies of God Congress meets in Accra on 14–16 October, the first time in Africa in the fellowship’s 115-year history. The theme is “Commissioned: One Mandate, Every Nation”. Organisers expect delegates from more than 100 countries and free evening gospel rallies at the Accra Sports Stadium. The fellowship claims about 89.9 million members. Strategy will centre on the “MM33” goal of one million new churches by 2033, tied to the bimillennium of the resurrection. [Source: Ghana News Agency, English, 6 October 2026]

LDS Church — General Conference without missionary announcements (3–4 October 2026)

The October General Conference brought no new missions, no temple announcements and no change to missionary service. Given recent practice, the absence is itself notable. Bishop Sean Douglas spoke on “The Hour of Your Mission Is Come”, urging young people to make a mission a priority: “You are what you preach.” President Dallin H. Oaks‘s closing invitation “to the world” promoted the Salt Lake Temple open house from April 2027. [Sources: Newsroom; Church News, 4 October 2026]

Russian Orthodox Church — the relic of St Innocent of Moscow completes a two-year missionary tour (6 October 2026)

The Synodal Missionary Department reports the end of the two-year “Second Missionary Journey of St Innocent of Moscow”. From September 2024 to October 2026 the saint’s head relic travelled through 38 dioceses of Siberia and the Far East, accompanied by liturgies, processions, film screenings, talks and the distribution of Innocent’s catechetical tract. [Source: sinmis.ru, «Завершился двухлетний этап “Второго миссионерского путешествия святителя Иннокентия Московского”» / “The two-year stage of the ‘Second Missionary Journey of St Innocent of Moscow’ has ended”, Russian, 6 October 2026]. The nineteenth-century missionary to Alaska and Siberia is re-enacted as an internal mission to a nominally Orthodox population. Compare the Rostov counter-sectarian seminar in Section 1.

Muslim World League — Brussels, continued, and “direct and official coordination with each government” (4–8 October 2026)

Following last week’s report on the MWL’s Brussels programme (30 September – 2 October), three further items:

4 October. The Belgian Foreign Ministry hosted a dialogue with Secretary-General Mohammed Al-Issa at the Egmont Palace, “أهمية الحوار في عالمٍ مُتغيّر” (“The importance of dialogue in a changing world”). Foreign Minister Maxime Prévot received him beforehand. [MWL, Arabic, 4 October]
5 October. Meeting leaders of Belgium’s Muslim community, Al-Issa told them to take fatwas from “trusted local scholars” who know local conditions, invoking the principle that rulings change with time, place and circumstance. [«أمين عام رابطة العالم الإسلامي يلتقي قياداتِ المُكَوِّن الإسلامي في بلجيكا» / “MWL Secretary-General meets leaders of the Muslim component in Belgium”, MWL, Arabic, 5 October 2026]
8 October. The League stated that it continues its educational work “في أماكن الاحتياج الإسلامي” (“in places of Islamic need”) “in direct and official coordination with each government”, centred on the Makkah Charter. No countries or figures were given. [MWL, Arabic, 8 October 2026]

Read together, these complete the picture drawn last week. In a country that removed the MWL from the Great Mosque of Brussels in 2018, the League now presents its da’wa as localised (local scholars, local fatwas) and state-coordinated. These are exactly the two assurances its European critics demanded. (Official Saudi-funded channel.)

Turkey — Diyanet: a Finnish request for imams and translations (7 October 2026)

Safi Arpaguş, President of Religious Affairs since this summer, received Gölten Bedrettin, president of the historically Tatar Finnish Islamic Community. She asked Diyanet to translate its publications into Finnish, to assign Diyanet religious officials to Islamic centres in Finland, and to share its experience of Qur’an-recitation competitions. [Source: «Başkan Arpaguş, Finlandiya İslam Cemaati Başkanı Bedrettin’i kabul etti» / “President Arpaguş receives Finnish Islamic Community President Bedrettin”, Diyanet Haber, Turkish (official), 7 October 2026]

The opposition daily BirGün counted 20 foreign trips by Arpaguş in his first year. [«Makam tozlandı: Arpaguş Suudi’yi dörtledi» / “The office gathers dust: Arpaguş makes his fourth Saudi trip”, BirGün, Turkish, 6 October 2026]. Minor items. The Finnish request illustrates that Diyanet’s overseas presence often answers a demand from diaspora communities rather than originating in Ankara.

Ahmadiyya and Chabad — outreach as visibility (2–5 October 2026)

Ahmadiyya. The 38th Jalsa Salana Australia (2–4 October, Masjid Baitul Huda, Marsden Park, Sydney; more than 4,000 expected) was presented as a response to Islamophobia: “Our doors and hearts are always open to the public.” [Source: Medianet press release, September 2026 (organisers’ own announcement)]
Chabad. Intown Chabad in Dallas reports “hundreds of young Jews” over the High Holy Days, through monthly First Friday gatherings of 250–300 people and a running club. [Source: Chabad.org, 5 October 2026]. Intra-Jewish kiruv with no counter-missionary edge, set beside Yad L’Achim’s festival outreach in Section 1.

Gulf da’wa statistics

The Riyadh Al-Sahafa Da’wa Association (جمعية الدعوة بالصحافة) posted «المسلمون الجدد لشهر سبتمبر 2026م» (“New Muslims for September 2026”) on 4 October. The Association for Da’wah, Guidance, and Expatriate Awareness in the Al-Sahafah District has announced a total of 58 new Muslims for the month of September, comprising 20 men and 38 women. All the converts are from African or Asian countries. August’s report gave 61. No H2 figures yet from Dubai IACAD or Kuwait Al-Najat.

3. Documents on the Ethics of Missionary Work

Astana: world religious leaders approve an ethical code on AI in religious contexts (7 October 2026)

The 24th Secretariat meeting of the Congress of Leaders of World and Traditional Religions (Astana), an initiative of President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, approved three documents. The relevant one is an ethical code on the use of AI in religious contexts. It targets:

distortion of sacred texts;
deepfakes made in religious leaders’ names;
algorithmic discrimination;
“manipulation of people’s beliefs”.

It also affirms AI’s value for access to religious knowledge. Fides frames it through “the primacy of the human person over the algorithm”. Vice President Erlan Karin: “technological development cannot outpace our moral responsibility.” [Sources: Agenzia Fides, 7–8 October 2026; Astana Times, English]

Status and significance: an interreligious instrument sponsored by a state. Neither report uses the word proselytism. Still, “manipulation of beliefs” is the classic vocabulary of anti-proselytism instruments, now carried into AI-mediated religion. The sponsoring state is the same one prosecuting nine alleged Tablighi members on the strength of covert recordings (Taldykorgan). Compare the MWL’s proposed UN “Code of Ethics for AI” (25 September). Two state-backed religious bodies are now drafting the norms for AI and religion.

MIVILUDES–CEF convention as a normative text (6 October 2026)

The convention (Section 1) is in substance a normative document. It defines the ground on which a majority Church and a state agency agree to police emprise, and asserts that this policing is compatible with “la liberté de croire” (“the freedom to believe”). (Status: bilateral institutional agreement.)

An agency’s method statement on why digital outreach works

The IMB’s island Southeast Asia piece states plainly why digital outreach works: it reaches people in “the privacy of their own cell phones”, away from community suspicion. Set this beside the Adventist Thai decision to go face to face because the screen does not work there, and the SMA‘s wariness of “virtual” mission. Three method statements in one week locate the ethics of digital contact differently. (Status: agency statements.)

Madras High Court on FCRA and conversion (6 October 2026)

The holding that conversion “by inducement or force”, and equally ghar wapsi, disqualifies a body from foreign funding is a judicial articulation of the line between legitimate and illegitimate outreach. (Status: judicial reasoning, reported second-hand.)

4. Academic Events and Publications

New journal articles

1. Yun Zhou, “Evangelizing Public Space: Christian Outreach in Republican China.” Modern China, OnlineFirst, 29 September 2026. DOI: 10.1177/00977004261476645. Local Chinese evangelists used street, park and riverbank preaching to create an “evangelical public space” that cut across ties of place and kinship, in towns and villages alike. A historical study of public proselytism as a producer of public space, a useful counterpoint to contemporary disputes over evangelism in public.

2. Ilham Riyadi & Abdul Razak, «Komunikasi dakwah persuasif Muhammadiyah dan praktik keberagamaan masyarakat adat» / “Muhammadiyah’s Persuasive Da’wah Communication and the Religious Practices of an Indigenous Community.” Lektur: Jurnal Ilmu Komunikasi 9(3): 205–216, 29 September 2026. DOI: 10.21831/lektur.v9i3.28358. A case study of how Muhammadiyah preachers changed religious practice among the Balla Tujua Onto customary (adat) community in South Sulawesi. They worked gradually, through face-to-face dialogue and alliances with customary leaders. Majority-religion outreach to an Indigenous religion, described by its practitioners’ tradition as persuasion. It pairs with this week’s Sukma resolution and Combès (no. 9).

3. Zaifuddin Md Rasip, Nur Shahmirdha Sarrulan, Hajar Opir, Wan Yusnee Abdullah & Moh Subhan, “Indigenous Muslim Converts in Sabah Malaysia: Educational Development and Post-Conversion Adaptation.” International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences 16(7): 1114–1131, 30 July 2026 (more than two months old; not previously reported). DOI: 10.6007/ijarbss/v16-i7/28708. Traces the growth of conversion to Islam among Sabah’s Indigenous peoples since 1963. It lists the difficulties converts face: red tape, family opposition, money problems, stigma, and a shortage of local teachers. A rare look at the post-conversion side of da’wa in East Malaysia, where Christian–Muslim competition for Indigenous converts is politically charged. A companion piece by largely the same team in IJARPED 15(3), 18 August 2026, 10.6007/ijarped/v15-i3/28758, rests on the Crossref record only.

4. Fadhilah Ariani & Sujadi, “The Intensification of Islamic Proselytization Through Maritime Trade in Aceh Darussalam Sultanate, 1607–1675 CE.” Thaqafiyyat 25(1): 1–19, 23 July 2026 (more than two months old). DOI: 10.14421/thaq.2026.25101. Shows how customs revenue and zakat financed mosques, schools and texts, and how Aceh’s role as the departure point for the Mecca pilgrimage tied trade to the spread of Islam. A historical study of da’wa finance.

5. Daniel John Pratt Morris-Chapman, “Migration and the Logic of Reverse Mission.” Religions 17(10): 1187, 9 October 2026. DOI: 10.3390/rel17101187. Questions Jehu Hanciles’s concept of “reverse mission” from the standpoint of Indigenous epistemologies. The case is Akan Ghanaian Christian migrants in Britain and how their theology can be communicated in a post-Christian West. Directly relevant to the “Church of the Sheaves” thread.

6. Nguyen Dinh Nguyen Le, “‘Ông Trời có mắt’ [Heaven has eyes]: Do the Vietnamese gods share the same eyes? A missional reflection on Ông Trời in Vietnamese religiosity.” Missiology, OnlineFirst, 5 August 2026 (two months old). DOI: 10.1177/00918296261473212. Reads the “divine eye” motif across the Three Teachings, Caodaism and Christianity, drawing on Ricoeur and Terry Muck’s “fulfilment theology”. It argues for humble, dialogical mission in Vietnam. A missiologist’s case for contextualising rather than confronting local religiosity.

7. Felicita Tramontana, Hélène Vu Thanh & Christian Windler, “Introduction: Accounting Practices in Missionary Territories (Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries).” Itinerario, FirstView, pp. 1–15, 16 September 2026. DOI: 10.1017/S0165115326100898. Introduces a special issue that reads missionary account books as evidence of norms, governance and self-image. Rules against missionaries trading shaped what was recorded, and mission finance depended on global credit networks, often with non-European partners. Historical background to today’s argument that conversion is best regulated as a financial flow (FCRA, TTI, Zion Church).

8. Isabelle Combès, «La Purísima de Tarairí. Una misión chiriguana a través de sus bautismos» / “La Purísima de Tarairí: A Chiriguano Mission through Its Baptisms.” Revista del Museo de Antropología 19(2): 263–274, 31 August 2026. DOI: 10.31048/v7t5gf20. Analyses a 19th-century Franciscan baptismal register from the Bolivian Chaco. Missionaries adapted to Indigenous naming customs. Real conversions were very few, and a small group of prominent converts kept Chiriguano politics going under a Christian guise. Includes methodological cautions on using baptism registers as data.

9. Ceyda Özmen, «Misyoner Çeviriler: Osmanlı İmparatorluğu’nda Amerikan Board’un Faaliyetleri (1820–1923)» / “Missionary Translations: The Activities of the American Board in the Ottoman Empire (1820–1923).” Çeviribilim ve Uygulamaları Dergisi no. 40: 181–201, 24 July 2026 (more than two months old; noted as a candidate on 2 October). DOI: 10.37599/ceviri.1859907. Treats translation (Bibles, textbooks, and the standardisation of written Armenian and Bulgarian) as the American Board’s (ABCFM) core practice. A Turkish-language contribution to the misyonerlik literature that is more analytical than polemical.

10. S. K. Balenko (Hieromonk Seraphim), «Распространение секты «Новый Израиль» на территории Екатеринославской епархии в начале ХХ в. и противодействие этому со стороны Православной Церкви» / “The Spread of the ‘New Israel’ Sect in the Yekaterinoslav Diocese in the Early 20th Century and the Orthodox Church’s Response.” Russian Journal of Church History 7(3): 87–105, 23 September 2026. DOI: 10.15829/2686-973X-2026-246. Orthodox “internal mission” (counter-sectarian work) failed to stop the sect’s growth. The state refused it registration, and many members emigrated to Uruguay. A historical prototype of this week’s Rostov “counter-sectarian mission” seminar.

11. Katja Triplett, “Disability history of the early Catholic mission in Japan: the case of visually impaired bards from the Buddhist tradition.” Religion, pp. 1–25, online 22 September 2026. DOI: 10.1080/0048721X.2026.2731820. Concerns blind biwa bards of the Buddhist tradition and the early Jesuit mission.

12. Anthony J. Miller, “Exiles, Refugees, and Evangelists: Missionary and Chinese Christian Mobility in the Asia–Pacific War, 1937–1945.” Asian Studies Review, pp. 1–15, online 26 August 2026. DOI: 10.1080/10357823.2026.2713678.

13. Mohd. Usman Bhatti & Muneeb Yousuf, “Internal xenophobia and the ‘othering’ of the Ahmadiyya community in Pakistan.” National Identities, pp. 1–25, online 4 August 2026 (two months old). DOI: 10.1080/14608944.2026.2702964. Listed for the Ahmadiyya beat.

14. Lukas Gabriel Grzybowski, “(Re)thinking Iceland’s Christianization: Alternative Theoretical Frameworks for the Investigation of Religious Change.” European Journal of Scandinavian Studies 56(1): 35–54, online 8 August 2026. DOI: 10.1515/ejss-2026-2006. Rejects a teleological reading of Iceland’s conversion. It re-reads Íslendingabók, Hungrvaka and Kristni saga through constructivism and Vorstellungsgeschichte (history of mental representations). Theoretical interest for conversion studies.

15. Yosi Yisraeli, “Vindicating Converso Religiosity: Alonso de Oropesa on the Pauline Conversion as a Jewish–Christian Transformation.” Religions 17(7): 862, 21 July 2026 (more than two months old). DOI: 10.3390/rel17070862. Shows that Oropesa’s pro-converso theology framed Jewish heritage as preserved through spiritual transformation. Relevant to the long history of Christian theologies of Jewish conversion behind today’s Israeli counter-missionary sensitivities.

Also in the window, Crossref record only (title only), noted without summary:

Eldinov, Mekushkin & Biryukova, “Christianization of Late Antique and Early Medieval Abkhazia…”, Christianity in the Middle East, 1 October 2026, 10.65324/cme031.
Adegbite, “‘Exposing Her Nakedness’: Indigenous Hermeneutics and Female Self-Exposure in Moravian Missionary Archives”, Journal of Africana Religions 14(2), August 2026, 10.5325/jafrireli.14.2.0192.
Bouroutis, “Promoting Francophonie. Missionary Education and Philanthropy”, Balkanistic Forum, 8 October 2026, 10.37708/bf.swu.v35i2.11.
Lee, “A Study on the Missionary Method of K Culture…”, Theology of Mission, 31 August 2026, 10.14493/ksoms.2026.3.293.

Books

Follow-up to the issue of 3 October, which listed these books by review only. ISBNs are now verified from the reviewed-book data in Missiology‘s Sage review records (published 26–29 September 2026):

Harvey C. Kwiyani, Decolonizing Mission (London: SCM Press, 2025), xv + 235 pp. ISBN 978-0-334-06319-3. Review DOI.
Holly Berkley Fletcher, The Missionary Kids: Unmasking the Myths of White Evangelicalism (Minneapolis: Broadleaf Books, 2025), viii + 291 pp. ISBN 979-8-88983-203-4. Review DOI.
John Corrigan, Melani McAlister & Axel R. Schäfer (eds.), Global Faith, Worldly Power: Evangelical Internationalism and U.S. Empire (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2022), 410 pp. ISBN 978-1-4696-7059-1. Review DOI.

Conferences and diary

CESNUR 2026, “Religions and New Spirituality in East Asia and Beyond”, Taichung and Nantou, Taiwan, 10–14 October 2026. Programme. Relevant sessions:
- “New Perspectives on Shincheonji” (11 October), including Doherty & Smith on campus controversy and Vardé on Bible courses and anti-cult rhetoric in Latin America;
- “Christian Gospel Mission in South Korea and Taiwan” (12 October);
- “Deconstructing the Anti-Cult Playbook”.
10th World Assemblies of God Congress, Accra, 14–16 October 2026 (see Section 2).
Fuller Seminary Missiology Lectures, “Spiritual Formation in World Christianity”, Pasadena and online, 14–16 October 2026. IAMS notice
Centenary of World Mission Sunday, 18 October 2026.
Lausanne Diaspora Missions consultation, Nadi, Fiji, 19–23 October; Lausanne Nigeria Congress, Abuja, 27–30 October 2026. lausanne.org/gatherings
Apsheronsk (Krasnodar Krai) hearing on the Baptist house, 22 October 2026.
Chhattisgarh High Court: State’s reply on the interim application due about 28 October 2026.
Ukraine Supreme Court: Korets convent appeal, 10 November 2026.
Bradeen v. Bickford: cert petition deadline about 30 November 2026.
World Buddhist Sangha Council 60th anniversary, Sri Lanka, 27 November – 2 December 2026. wbsc2026.com
American Society of Missiology 2027, “Missional Imagination: Preparation for Kingdom Innovation”, St Mary’s College, Notre Dame, Indiana, 17–19 June 2027. ASM
IAMS Europe / AFOM 2027, Paris, June 2027 (reported 25 September).

5. Analysis

1. The majority church joins the regulation of outreach — as the state’s partner, or as a counter-missionary in its own right

Three items from three countries, unconnected with one another, show a majority religious institution taking a place inside the system that governs outreach.

France. The Catholic bishops sign a convention with MIVILUDES. The state’s anti-cult agency and the majority Church will share information and jointly analyse emprise, including inside Catholic communities.
Russia. The state bans unregistered Baptist congregations by the dozen and fines missionary activity at a rate of over 700 cases a year. In the same region, the Orthodox Missionary Department trains activists in a “counter-sectarian mission” that maps neo-Protestant groups, debates them, and receives their converts.
Israel. Yad L’Achim expels door-to-door Witnesses from a city’s neighbourhoods and then brings the Four Species to the “exposed” homes.

The French case is the novel one. For decades the Catholic Church in France was one of the most articulate critics of the lutte antisectes, because the concept of dérive sectaire could reach its own charismatic communities. The convention settles that tension by internalising it. The Church accepts emprise as the relevant harm and in return becomes a co-author of how it is detected. Unlike Russia’s regime, the French one is formally indifferent to who is recruiting. Its object is a psychological process, not a rival’s growth. Yet in both systems the majority church gains a recognised role in defining what counts as illegitimate religious influence. The Russian and Israeli cases add a further step: once resistance is organised, it becomes outreach in its turn. Counter-mission is mission aimed at those the rival might reach (Rostov), or at those the rival has already reached (Petah Tikva). This extends the thread opened on 25 September (“counter-missionary → missionary”).

2. The community veto: below the state, the village and the funeral

The anti-conversion statute is the visible instrument. This week shows how much happens beneath it.

Sukma. A gram sabha uses PESA, a law designed to protect Adivasi self-government, to deny land to Christians and to license outside preachers through its own “Peace and Justice Committee”.
Dhamtari. A village makes its participation in a funeral conditional on a convert’s ritual return, without any official present.
Apsheronsk. A town administration moves against worship in a private house.

Earlier issues reported the Palu church-permit dispute and the Atliaca defence of el costumbre against Catholic re-evangelisation.

Two observations follow.

First, the community veto works through the life-cycle and through land. The pressure points are burial, cemetery space, church sites and the funeral. These are the points at which a convert still needs the community.

Second, the same customary authority can be ally or obstacle to outreach, depending on who is reaching out. This week’s Section 4 makes the comparison almost experimental:

South Sulawesi: Muhammadiyah preachers changed the religious practice of an adat community by working through its customary leaders, and the article presents this as persuasion (Riyadi & Razak).
Sukma: customary self-government is invoked to keep out Christian preachers.
Colonial Chaco: Franciscans adapted to Chiriguano naming customs while real conversions stayed rare (Combès).

The customary order is not anti-missionary by nature. It is a gatekeeper, and whether outreach succeeds depends on whether the missionary is admitted through the gate or goes around it.

3. Money, not belief, as the legal object — now in four jurisdictions at once

This week’s items converge on finance as the legal handle on outreach:

India: the Madras High Court holds that conversion by inducement disqualifies a body from foreign funding (FCRA). The TTI case treats foreign debit cards as a UAPA matter, and the FCRA amendment’s committee meets on 12 October.
China: Zion Church pastors are charged with fraud and illegal business operations, not with any religious offence.
Nigeria: a foreign-aid regulation bill would give a commission power to close foreign-funded bodies, with churches, mosques and zakat networks within its reach.
South Korea (outside the window, flagged as a lead): a February 2026 change to gift-tax rules exposes overseas mission funds to taxation. It was triggered by litigation over a Shincheonji transfer abroad.

A finance-based regime has a structural advantage, from the state’s point of view, over a conversion statute. It needs no convert, no hearer and no proof of inducement, only a flow of money. It also has a feature the Madras court made explicit: it can be formally even-handed. The same bar applies to ghar wapsi organisations. The Itinerario special issue (Section 4) shows that missionary accounts were already, in the seventeenth century, records shaped by prohibitions on missionaries trading. Reading mission through its accounts is old. Prosecuting it through them is the new step.

4. Where the encounter happens: “the privacy of their own cell phones”

The briefing’s working thesis that the offence is increasingly constituted by a witness rather than a convert (“someone saw”) has a mirror image this week, stated by a missionary agency itself. The IMB explains that in island Southeast Asia digital first contact works because people are “more open to watching those things in the privacy of their own cell phones”. The phone is valued precisely because no one else sees. The Adventists in northern Thailand went the other way, face to face, because the screen did not reach their audience.

Read with the Russian figures (716 cases, many arising from a passer-by’s complaint), the Indian village notices and the Petah Tikva door-to-door confrontation, the pattern is clear:

Enforcement concentrates where outreach is visible: doorsteps, festivals, prayer halls, newspapers handed out in the street.
Agencies move outreach to where it is invisible.

The Astana AI code’s concern with “manipulation of beliefs” and the MWL’s AI strategy suggest that the next regulatory frontier is the invisible channel itself. Whoever writes the norms for AI-mediated religion will be writing, in effect, the first rules on proselytism that operate without a witness.

All sources cited are hyperlinked to their original locations. Corrections and additions welcome.

This text was generated by Claude (Anthropic), Claude Opus 5.5, on 9 October 2026. It has been published after editing. https://claude.ai.

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