Proselytism.info

Proselytism and Religious Outreach Worldwide: Conflicts, Policies, and Trends – 10–16 October 2026

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No. 30 – Generated by Claude AI

Covering the period: 10-16 October 2026, with a few items from previous weeks

Table of Contents

  1. News: Debates, Reactions, and Conflicts over Missionary Activities
  2. Missionary Agency Reports and Data
  3. Documents on the Ethics of Missionary Work
  4. Academic Events and Publications
  5. Analysis
  6. Note on verification and scope

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

India — Supreme Court: conversion ends the backward-class status acquired in the Hindu caste order (judgment of 15 October 2026)

A bench of Justices Prashant Kumar Mishra (author) and Shree Chandrashekhar dismissed Tamil Nadu’s appeal against a Madras High Court (Madurai Bench) ruling of 25 June 2026. That ruling, by Justices G. R. Swaminathan and P. B. Balaji, had struck down a Tamil Nadu Government Order of 9 March 2024. The Order allowed members of Backward, Most Backward, Denotified and Scheduled Castes who converted to Islam to obtain “Backward Class Muslim” community certificates.

The petitioner, Sameer Ahamed (formerly Paramasivam), converted in 2015 and sought a “Muslim Labbai” certificate. As reported, the Court held:

  • backwardness under the Hindu caste order “cannot automatically be carried over to a different religious social order” for the purposes of Article 16(4) (reservation in public employment);
  • a jamath (a private religious body) cannot conclusively determine community status;
  • reconversion to Hinduism requires a separate, fact-specific determination of status.

[Sources: The News Minute, “Hindu backward class person converting to other religion not entitled to reservation: SC”, English, 16 October 2026; Organiser, English (RSS-aligned), 15 October 2026. The judgment text and case number were not retrieved. Discrepancy: The News Minute gives the Government Order’s number as “314”, Organiser as “31”; the petitioner’s former name is also spelt two ways. Not resolved.]

Why it matters: this is the most consequential conversion-related ruling of the week. It raises the material cost of conversion out of Hinduism for backward-class converts to Islam, and by extension bears on the long-running Dalit Christian and Dalit Muslim Scheduled Caste dispute. It also leaves the road back open: return to Hinduism is to be assessed case by case, not foreclosed. The same High Court judge, Swaminathan J., wrote the Kanzeon FCRA judgment reported last week. See Analysis §1.

India — FCRA amendment: Christian bodies testify against the asset-vesting clause (Joint Parliamentary Committee, 12 October 2026)

Following last week’s note that the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) would meet on 12 October, the committee chaired by BJP MP Sanjay Jaiswal heard stakeholders at the Parliament Annexe. According to NationPath India, those heard included:

  • the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India (CBCI) and the All India Christian Council;
  • the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India and the Centre for Advancement of Philanthropy;
  • Kapil Sibal (the report says the committee “interacted” with him; whether he gave formal evidence is unclear).

The disputed provision creates a “Designated Authority” that would take over, first provisionally and then permanently, the foreign-contribution funds and assets of an organisation whose registration is cancelled or surrendered. The Christian witnesses argued that this threatens schools, hospitals and welfare work. The government says the bill targets no religion. Jaiswal: “We have listened carefully to what everyone had to say.” Clause-by-clause scrutiny follows. The report is due by the end of the first week of the Winter Session.

[Sources: ANI, English, 12 October 2026 (names no witnesses); NationPath India, English, 13 October 2026. The witness list rests on this one small outlet.]

India — Madhya Pradesh: a house surrounded, an FIR under the Freedom of Religion Act (Satna, 11 October 2026)

On Sunday 11 October, Bajrang Dal district convener Rishabh Shukla and VHP activists surrounded a house on Chandmari Road (Dhawari), Satna. Police found about 50 people inside and detained six or seven. City Kotwali police registered a case under ss. 3 and 5 of the MP Freedom of Religion Act 2021 on a complaint by Asha Chaudhary, alleging pressure to convert through the lure of money and jobs. Amar Ujala reports that all five accused were sent to jail and that this was the second such case in the city within seven days. The accused’s religion is not stated, and no response from them or any church body was found.

[Sources: «सतना में धर्मांतरण पर बड़ा एक्शन: पैसे और नौकरी का लालच देकर बना रहे थे धर्म बदलने का दबाव, पांच हिरासत में» / “Big action on conversion in Satna: pressure to convert with lure of money and jobs, five held”, Amar Ujala, Hindi, 12 October 2026 (only the headline and URL slug could be read); State Mirror, Hindi, 11 October 2026; Free Press Journal, English, 11 October 2026. All allegations rest on the complaint and the activists’ account.]

The pattern is the familiar one: a vigilante group produces the FIR, and a gathering in a private house becomes the scene of the alleged offence (see Analysis §2).

India — Chhattisgarh: 102 families “return” at a Navratri katha, feet washed by Prabal Pratap Singh Judev (Galgaladih, Sakti district, reported 15–16 October 2026)

On the fourth day of Navratri, at a Shrimad Devi Bhagwat Katha in Galgaladih (Jaijaipur block), Prabal Pratap Singh Judev, head of the Akhil Bharatiya Ghar Wapsi Abhiyan and a vice-president of the Chhattisgarh BJP, washed the feet of members of 102 families “returning” to Sanatan Dharma. The organisers were:

  • Dharma Jagran Samanvay;
  • Dharma Sena;
  • the Seva Nyay Utthan Foundation;
  • the Dilip Singh Judev Foundation.

A motorcycle rally and a pledge to make Sakti “conversion-free” accompanied the ceremony. Neither source names the families’ previous religion or gives a count of individuals; the figure of 102 families is the organisers’.

[Sources: «सक्ती में 102 परिवारों की सनातन धर्म में घर वापसी, प्रबल प्रताप सिंह जूदेव ने चरण पखारकर किया स्वागत» / “102 families return home to Sanatan Dharma in Sakti; Prabal Pratap Singh Judev welcomes them by washing their feet”, CG Voice, Hindi, 15 October 2026; Organiser, English, 16 October 2026. Partisan sources only.]

Following the issue of 29 August on Judev’s foot-washing rite as a counter-liturgy to baptism: the rite is now embedded in a festival-season katha, the same storytelling format the Akhil Bharatiya Vyas Sangh resolved on 2 October to mobilise against conversion.

India — Jharkhand: tribal body tells churches to stop celebrating Karam and Sarhul (Ranchi, about 15 October 2026)

At a Ranchi Press Club press conference, Soma Oraon and the Kendriya Sarna Samiti demanded that churches stop celebrating the tribal festivals Karam and Sarhul. They warned:

  • if Karam is celebrated in a church, tribal members will go there the next day and perform the rituals with the customary offerings;
  • if refused entry, they will declare the premises a dhumkuria (the traditional Oraon youth dormitory).

They also raised conversion, the “delisting” of converts from Scheduled Tribe reservations, and foreign funding. A memorandum went to the Ranchi administration on 16 September.

[Source: Organiser, “Religious Conversion in Jharkhand: Sarna Samiti raises concerns”, English, 16 October 2026. Single partisan source, itself relying on a post on X; no Christian response found.]

Why it matters: the complaint is not that missionaries reject tribal culture but that they adopt it. Inculturation, which mission theology treats as respect, is read here as appropriation in the service of conversion. The proposed sanction is a ritual counter-occupation of church space. See Analysis §3.

India — other items (10–16 October 2026)

  • Agra (16 October). District Judge Sanjay Kumar Malik refused bail to Ayan Javed and Parvez Akhtar in the 14-accused “conversion gang” case. The case grew out of a March 2025 FIR over two missing sisters, who were recovered in Kolkata in July 2025. The prosecution alleges organised conversion and foreign funding; these are allegations, not findings. [Source: «आगरा धर्मांतरण केस: अयान जावेद और परवेज अख्तर को झटका, अदालत ने खारिज की जमानत अर्जी» / “Agra conversion case: setback for Ayan Javed and Parvez Akhtar, court rejects bail pleas”, Amar Ujala, Hindi, 16 October 2026]
  • Kanzeon judgment: further detail (follow-up). Bar & Bench‘s report of the Madras High Court FCRA ruling (6 October, reported here on 9 October) adds a sentence not in last week’s sources: if foreign funds freely facilitated conversion, “the sovereignty of the nation would be imperilled”. [Source: Bar & Bench, English, 7 October 2026 (catch-up). The judgment PDF itself was again not retrieved.]
  • Chhattisgarh High Court challenge (follow-up). International Christian Concern’s account of the 7–8 October hearing lists the provisions challenged, among them that converting two or more people counts as “mass conversion” (ten years to life), 30 days’ prior notice, third-party complaints and a reversed burden of proof. [Source: ICC, English (advocacy), 13 October 2026. ICC names the petitioner differently from the court reports; the State’s reply remains due about 28 October.]

Pakistan — HRCP’s annual freedom-of-religion report (Lahore, 16 October 2026)

The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan launched Sanctuary Denied: Freedom of Religion or Belief in 2025/26. As reported, it covers:

  • the abduction, forced conversion and marriage of Hindu and Christian girls;
  • the persecution of Ahmadis, including two incidents in Chenab Nagar (Rabwah);
  • the mob burning on 9 October of the Sheikhupura dispensary of a Christian practitioner, Kamran Gill, after a blasphemy allegation.

[Source: ANI, English, 16 October 2026. ANI is an Indian wire that regularly amplifies reports on Pakistani minorities; the HRCP report itself was not retrieved.] HRCP’s report is the main domestic civil-society benchmark on forced conversion in Pakistan.

Saudi Arabia — Supreme Court sets aside a death sentence on a Sri Lankan worker for a Facebook comment (13 October 2026)

Anojan Sivarasa, 27, a Sri Lankan Tamil worker, posted a comment in Tamil during an online row that followed a viral video from Sri Lanka, in which a young Muslim kicked a dog walking with Hindu pilgrims. He deleted it and apologised on video, but was arrested in July after a screenshot reached his employer and officials. The sentence history:

  • the Al-Ahsa Criminal Court gave him five years and a fine of SAR 3 million;
  • the appeal court raised the sentence to death on 17 September after a prosecution appeal;
  • the Supreme Court set the death sentence aside on 13 October.

Sri Lanka’s Deputy Foreign Minister announced the decision, and President Dissanayake welcomed it. Whether he will be released is unclear.

[Sources: «دیوان عالی عربستان حکم اعدام کارگر سریلانکایی متهم به توهین به پیامبر اسلام را لغو کرد» / “Saudi Supreme Court overturns death sentence of Sri Lankan worker accused of insulting the Prophet of Islam”, Mohabat News, Persian, 15 October 2026; DT Next, English, 14 October 2026. No Saudi statement seen.]

Relevance: a blasphemy case, not a proselytism case. It is included because it concerns the same non-Muslim expatriate workforce that Gulf da’wa associations address (tawʿiyat al-jāliyāt, “awareness among the expatriate communities”; see Section 2). That population is at once a field of outreach and subject to Saudi blasphemy law.

Iran — two converts: a “pardon” and a punishment (10–16 October 2026)

  • Hannah Gholami pardoned (reported 16 October). Gholami, 36, was sentenced in July 2024 to two years over house-church involvement, together with Daniel Mohammadi, Kourosh Hosseini and a fourth convert. She began serving in November 2025 and was later allowed to serve the rest by reporting daily to work at a state-run factory. On 2 October she was told she had been included in a general amnesty. The charge is not named, so it cannot be said whether Article 500 bis (“deviant proselytising”) was used. [Sources: Article 18, English, 16 October 2026; «نوکیش مسیحی، هانا غلامی مشمول «عفو» شد» / “Christian convert Hannah Gholami included in ‘amnesty'”, Mohabat News, Persian, 16 October 2026. Advocacy outlets.]
  • Ghazal Marzban denied visits (15 October). Marzban, serving 9 years 8 months for “propaganda against the state” and “gathering and collusion”, is among more than 20 women in Evin’s women’s ward denied visits after protests over conditions; she is also denied phone calls and books. Article 18 recalls earlier reports that she was refused a Bible on the ground that only Iranians born Christian may have one. [Source: Article 18, citing HRANA, English, 15 October 2026]

Why it matters: the Iranian state treats the born Christian and the convert as distinct legal persons. The Bible is permitted to one and withheld from the other. As in the Indian Supreme Court ruling above, the regulation operates on the convert’s status, not only on the missionary’s act.

Indonesia — residents march against a Simalungun Protestant church; the Regent says the permit “must be granted” (Purwakarta, 8 October; reported 10 October 2026)

Hundreds from an “Aliansi Masyarakat Purwakarta” marched to the regency office and the local Ministry of Religious Affairs office against a planned Gereja Kristen Protestan Simalungun (GKPS) church in Desa Cikopo, Bungursari. Their lawyer, Elyasa Budianto, questioned how the community-support requirements under the 2006 joint ministerial regulation had been verified. Opponents cite a residents’ meeting of 3 May 2026 at which, they say, 47 were against and 28 in favour; the outlet notes these figures are unverified. Regent Saepul Bahri Binzein replied that the project has the recommendations of the inter-religious harmony forum (FKUB) and the Ministry: «Harus diizinkan, bukan akan diizinkan. Karena itu kan hak beribadah» (“It must be permitted, not ‘will be permitted’, because it is a right to worship”).

[Source: «Pembangunan Gereja GKPS di Purwakarta Ditolak Warga, Bupati Singgung Hak Beribadah» / “Construction of GKPS church in Purwakarta rejected by residents; Regent cites right to worship”, Okebajo, Indonesian, 10 October 2026. Essentially a single local source; a parallel MTU News report could not be retrieved.]

Note: the report contains no kristenisasi rhetoric. The objection is framed procedurally, as with the Palu church dispute reported on 2 October. Here, unusually, the local executive sided with the minority.

Russia — Muslim prayer at home and an unlicensed madrasa punished as “illegal missionary activity” (SOVA, 13 and 15 October 2026)

  • Krasnodar Krai, Otradnensky district. A farmer from Chechnya, named only as “Husein M.”, held a collective prayer (namaz) in his home on 31 July. On a complaint from the security services, the Justice Ministry drew up a protocol under Art. 5.26 KoAP. In late September a court fined him 10,000 roubles and ordered him to notify the authorities that a religious group had begun to operate. [Source: «На Кубани фермер из Чечни оштрафован за намаз в жилом доме» / “Farmer from Chechnya fined in Kuban for namaz in a residential house”, SOVA Centre, Russian, 13 October 2026, relaying a Telegram channel]
  • Novosibirsk district. A magistrate fined an unnamed man 5,000 roubles under Art. 5.26 §4 for running an Islamic school without an educational licence or any link to a registered religious organisation. [Source: «В Новосибирском районе оштрафован организатор незаконного медресе» / “Organiser of illegal madrasa fined in Novosibirsk district”, SOVA Centre, Russian, 15 October 2026. Single source.]

Why it matters: in neither case is anyone alleged to have tried to convert anyone. Prayer among co-religionists in a private house, and religious instruction, are classified as “missionary activity” because they lack notification or affiliation. This continues the pattern documented by Forum 18 last week for unregistered Baptists, now applied to Muslims, and it bears directly on the pending Duma bill on missionary activity in residential premises (no new step found this week). Krasnodar Krai is also the region of the Apsheronsk Baptist case, due in court on 22 October.

Russia — Scientology searches in ten regions; a donor to a Ukrainian charismatic network convicted (13–15 October 2026)

  • Scientology (15 October). Searches were carried out on representatives of the International Church of Scientology in ten regions, including Altai Krai and Kaliningrad, in a criminal case under Art. 284.1 UK (involvement in an “undesirable” organisation). The case is linked to two people detained in Barnaul in December 2025, who allegedly promoted Hubbard’s methods as “coaching” through a sole proprietorship. Media say investigators are also interested in the foundation «Защитим детей от наркотиков и алкоголя» (“Protect Children from Drugs and Alcohol”). No charge against it is reported. [Source: «Обыски у саентологов в разных регионах» / “Searches of Scientologists in various regions”, SOVA Centre, Russian, 15 October 2026, relaying Izvestia and a Telegram channel]
  • Izhevsk (verdict 12 October). Antonina Vershinina, 69, received a one-year suspended sentence under Art. 284.1 §2 for sending 183,020 roubles (December 2022 – March 2024) to the Ukrainian “Vozrozhdenie” centre and foundation of the charismatic pastor Vladimir Muntyan. She pleaded guilty. [Source: «Жительница Ижевска приговорена к условному сроку за финансирование организаций В. Мунтяна» / “Izhevsk woman given suspended sentence for financing V. Muntyan’s organisations”, SOVA Centre, Russian, 13 October 2026]

The undesirable-organisations regime is reaching front-group outreach (coaching, anti-drug campaigning) and small donors. The first is the same concern Western anti-cult agencies voice about entrisme; the second applies the finance logic discussed in last week’s Analysis.

Russia and beyond — Jehovah’s Witnesses (8–15 October 2026)

  • Votkinsk (12 October): four Witnesses arrested on Udmurt FSB materials. Two men, 60 and 61, are charged under Art. 282.2 §1 (organising), allegedly including “recruiting new members”; two women, 21 and 61, under §2 (participation). All are in custody until 8 December. [«В Воткинске арестованы четверо Свидетелей Иеговы» / “Four Jehovah’s Witnesses arrested in Votkinsk”, SOVA Centre, Russian, 12 October 2026]
  • Kaltan, Kemerovo Region (15 October): a congregation’s coordinator was sentenced to six years plus a five-year ban, for organising meetings by video link in 2020–21. [«Руководитель «Свидетелей Иеговы» из Калтана отправился на шесть лет в тюрьму» / “Head of Kaltan Jehovah’s Witnesses sent to prison for six years”, RIA Kuzbass, Russian (state-aligned regional outlet), 15 October 2026]
  • South Ossetia (8 October; catch-up): the region’s KGB opened a case against five Witnesses under an Art. 282.2 §1 mirroring Russia’s. The ban is spreading into occupied Georgian territory. [«В Южной Осетии завели дело на участников организации «Свидетели Иеговы»» / “Case opened in South Ossetia against members of the Jehovah’s Witnesses organisation”, Vzglyad, Russian, 8 October 2026]

Occupied Ukraine — Forum 18: first court ban of a Council of Churches Baptist community, and “missionary” fines in Donetsk and Luhansk (12 October 2026)

Following last week’s Forum 18 reports (articles 3072 and 3073), article 3074 documents three developments:

  • The first ban. On 25 August 2026, Judge Yevgeniya Lysenko halted the activity of the Council of Churches Baptist community in Zhovtnevy District, Luhansk (pastor Nikolai Belovodsky), on a prosecutor’s suit for worshipping without registration or notification. This is the first such ban in occupied Ukraine.
  • “Missionary” fines. Fines under Art. 5.26 §4 and §5 KoAP have been imposed in Krasnodon and in Donetsk’s Budennovsk and Kirov districts. Pastor Andrey Orlovsky was fined 10,000 roubles, reduced to 5,000 by the Donetsk “Supreme Court” on 3 September; a cassation appeal was lodged on 5 October.
  • Other confessions. The Orthodox Church of Ukraine’s churches in occupied Zaporizhzhia are to be transferred to the Moscow Patriarchate (announced 28 July). The Greek Catholic church in Tokmak was seized on 12 April.

[Source: “OCCUPIED UKRAINE: Baptist community banned, alongside Jehovah’s Witnesses, Orthodox Church of Ukraine, Greek Catholics”, Forum 18, English, 12 October 2026. Discrepancy: a sidebar says the Luhansk “Supreme Court” rejected Pastor Rytikov’s suit on 6 October, while the main text says an appeal is “being prepared”. Not resolved.]

Russia’s 2016 “missionary activity” regime is being exported wholesale to occupied territory and applied to local Protestants with no foreign link.

Kyrgyzstan — Reform Adventists fined, not jailed (Forum 18, 14 October 2026)

Following the lead carried since late August, Bishkek’s Birinchi May District Court fined five members of the banned True and Free Reform Seventh-day Adventist Church between 18 August and 28 September: Olga Selova, Igor Kozlov, Sergey Kozlov, Yevgeny Zhuravsky and Valeriya Yantsen. Fines were 10,000–20,000 soms. The charges were reduced from Criminal Code Art. 332 (distributing “extremist” materials, up to seven years) to Art. 331 §5 (participation in a banned organisation). The church was banned in March 2025, and its pastor, Pavel Shreider, was deported on 9 April 2026. The investigator, Adilet Asanbayev, told Forum 18 he “would keep them in prison if it depended on me”. [Source: Forum 18, English, 14 October 2026]

The evidence was literature and home meetings. The tools are the “extremism” statutes that Central Asian states also use against the Tablighi Jamaat (whose Taldykorgan verdict is still unpublished) and Ahmadis.

Kazakhstan — a regional court upholds the right to share beliefs (ruling 6 August; published 12 October 2026)

The Atyrau Regional Court found that police acted unlawfully in detaining Jehovah’s Witness Nurai Karamanova, once overnight for about 18 hours, on “soliciting” grounds for preaching. The Witnesses say more than 80 of their members have been charged in Kazakhstan in five years. Karamanova: “Telling others about Jehovah and his purpose is an important part of my worship.” [Source: “Court Upholds Right to Peacefully Share Religious Beliefs in Kazakhstan”, jw.org, English, 12 October 2026. The ruling is two months old and reported by the beneficiary; no statute is cited.]

South Korea and Australia — Shincheonji: party entryism and charity status (10–16 October 2026)

  • South Korea. On 13 October the ruling Democratic Party said it had completed an internal probe into alleged mass enrolment of Shincheonji members. Party leader Kim Min-seok had alleged at the 17 August convention a “secret three-way alliance” between Shincheonji, anti-Lee Jae-myung forces and factionalists. Supreme Council members Choi Min-hee and Han Min-soo say the findings rest only on roster cross-checks, with no verified membership and no proof of organised voting. A closed council meeting on 14 October reached no conclusion. [Sources: Seoul Economic Daily, 15 October; Seoul Economic Daily, 16 October 2026, English. Allegations unverified.]
  • Australia. Eight months after the charities regulator (ACNC) announced an investigation, Shincheonji’s Melbourne entity still holds charity status under “advancing religion”. Maria Esguerra of the Olive Leaf Network says recruitment has moved to a “hybrid” model across social media, Discord, campus clubs and dating apps, targeting international students. The ACNC and the minister declined to comment; Shincheonji did not respond. [Source: ABC News, English, 10 October 2026. Critics’ and ex-members’ allegations.]
  • Japan (minor). The national lawyers’ group for victims of the former Unification Church (led by Susumu Murakoshi) has waived its planned 38,000-yen fee for filing donation-damage claims with the liquidator. [«献金被害申請、手続きを無償に 旧統一教会の被害対策弁護団» / “Donation-damage claims made free of charge: former Unification Church victims’ lawyers”, Kyodo via Daily Sports, Japanese, 16 October 2026]

Why it matters: recruitment by a new religious movement is being tested through party membership rules (Korea) and charity law (Australia), not through criminal law. The Australian report also adds Discord and dating apps to the digital-outreach beat, here from the critics’ side.

Sri Lanka — context only: monks’ sit-in for Gnanasara Thera (from about 13 October 2026)

A Maha Sangha march and sit-in outside the Presidential Secretariat in Colombo demands the release of Ven. Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara Thera, the Bodu Bala Sena leader long associated with anti-conversion and anti-Muslim campaigning. The Presidential Secretary intervened on 15 October. [Sources: Newswire; Lanka Newspapers, English, 15 October 2026.] None of the retrieved reports raises conversion; the item is noted as context for the Buddhist-nationalist milieu, not as a proselytism conflict.

2. Missionary Agency Reports and Data

Catholic Church — Catholic Church Statistics 2026 (Agenzia Fides, 16 October 2026)

Fides’s annual dossier for World Mission Sunday, which this year is the centenary (18 October), gives population figures as of 30 June 2024 and all other figures as of 31 December 2024. Its opening line: “The number of Catholics worldwide is increasing, and the number of priests is growing again, albeit slightly.”

Indicator Figure Change on previous year
Catholics 1,422,144,000 (17.8% of world population) +16.69 million
— Africa 288.3 million +7.58 million
— Europe 287.2 million —
Priests 407,421 +425 (Africa +1,676; Asia +1,065; Europe −2,483)
Major seminarians 103,604 −2,891 (Africa +786; Asia −2,733)
Women religious 580,131 −9,292
Catechists 2,889,336 +22,370
Lay missionaries 463,079 +18,473
Mission stations with a resident priest 4,187 +987
Mission stations without a resident priest 107,415 −12,162

Of 3,047 ecclesiastical circumscriptions, 1,130 depend on the Dicastery for Evangelization. [Source: Agenzia Fides, English, 16 October 2026. Figures as summarised from the page; the European change was not given in the retrieved summary.]

Note: Africa now has more Catholics than Europe. Africa also supplies the whole net growth in priests, while Europe loses nearly 2,500 a year. The “Church of the Sheaves” framing reported on 25 September (former mission territories as the Church’s centre of gravity) here acquires its statistical base.

Catholic Church — the World Mission Sunday centenary in the missionaries’ own words (10–16 October 2026)

Fides ran a series of interviews with mission superiors in the run-up to the centenary. Their framing is consistent: presence before speech, mission as “circular”, dialogue as part of mission. None uses the word proselytism.

  • Comboni Missionaries (15 October). Superior General Fr Luigi Codianni (about 1,450 priests and brothers in 40+ countries) dates his vocation to the 1988 killings of young people in São Paulo’s Parque Santa Madalena: “Before even speaking about God, we must make those young people feel that their lives have value.” And: “Charity does not replace proclamation, but gives it credibility.” He concedes that historically “a model prevailed in which some Churches gave while others received”. [Fides]
  • Consolata Missionaries (13 October). Fr James Lengarin, a Kenyan and the institute’s first African superior general (948 missionaries in 33 countries, 613 of them in Africa), describes a move away “from seeing mission as a movement from a few Christian countries towards distant lands” to a mission “increasingly circular”. Interreligious dialogue “belongs to mission”; evangelising is witness “with respect and truth”, not “conquering”. He lists the “digital continent” among the new peripheries. [Fides]
  • Colombia, Sonsón-Rionegro to Mitú (12 October). In June, 54 diocesan missionaries from Antioquia went to Indigenous communities of the Apostolic Vicariate of Mitú (Vaupés, Amazonia), in a church-to-church twinning. Fr Renzo Martínez: “We could have thought we were going there to carry out a mission… we were there to experience an encounter.” He asks: “Who is evangelizing whom?” The piece leads into the DOMUND centenary congress, La Ceja del Tambo, 16–18 October. [Fides]
  • Côte d’Ivoire, Korhogo (16 October). An SMA missionary, Fr Dario Dozio, returning to the mostly Muslim and animist north after ten years: in 1980 the diocese had one African priest and over 100 mostly French SMA priests; today he is “the only white person there”. Southern Ivorian bishops now send young priests north as fidei donum missionaries. [Fides]
  • Kazakhstan, Karaganda (10 October). The new bishop, Piotr Pytlovany, has a diocese of 711,000 km² with about 8,500 Catholics: “Mission does not mean organizing an ever-increasing number of events”; “We do not help someone because they are Catholic. We help because they are a human being.” He asks for calm dialogue with the authorities, including on freedom to proclaim. [Fides]

Reading: Codianni’s concession and Dozio’s role reversal are examples of a tradition reckoning with its own past. Pytlovany, a Catholic bishop in a state that prosecutes alleged Tablighis and fines Witnesses for “soliciting”, describes a deliberately low-visibility, service-first model of mission.

Southern Baptist IMB and NAMB — a record Lottie Moon offering (13 October 2026)

The Lottie Moon Christmas Offering for international missions reached a record $212.5 million in 2025–26, more than $5 million above the previous year. The Annie Armstrong Easter Offering (North American missions) brought $73.6 million. The report adds:

  • Southern Baptists planted 699 churches in 2025, the most since 2016;
  • baptisms rose for the fifth straight year;
  • IMB missionary applicants are up 500% since 2018, to more than 1,600.

IMB President Paul Chitwood: “God is giving our generation unprecedented opportunity to send missionaries to the most unreached peoples and places.” [Sources: IMB, 13 October 2026 (page did not load); text verified through the Biblical Recorder reprint]

Also from the IMB: “IMB missionaries use home, cafes, apps to open doors for gospel conversations in Spain” (imb.org, 15 October 2026). Only the headline is confirmed; the page returned a server error. Its three venues (home, café, app) are the same ones that recur in this week’s Section 1 conflicts.

Seventh-day Adventist Church — Annual Council: $99 million for OneVoice27, “Do we still take world mission seriously?” (11–16 October 2026)

  • Budget. The General Conference Treasurer confirmed $99 million earmarked for OneVoice27 in 2027, up from an initial $27 million. It is described as the Church’s largest single investment in one initiative. Half goes directly to the world divisions, weighted by “mission challenges” and financial capacity. Mission offerings are 9.8% above the previous year. A further $126 million is targeted over the quinquennium for “Mission Refocus” and its three “windows”: the 10/40, the Post-Christian and the Urban. [Source: “Treasurer Confirms Record Mission Investment Ahead of OneVoice27”, ANN, report of 12 October, published 16 October 2026]
  • Secretariat report. GC Secretary Rick McEdward asked: “Do we still take world mission seriously? When will our mission be complete?” and “I think we can do better.” He put the ratio of cross-cultural missionaries at about one per 45,000 members and proposed targets of one per 10,000 or one per 5,000 (the latter about 4,800 full-time missionaries). Global Mission funds $5.4 million for 110 “unentered cities” and $540,000 for digital ministry in the 10/40 and post-Christian windows. He spoke of “actively moving budgets to the front line of mission”. [Source: Adventist Review, 12 October 2026]
  • Global Mission Centers: Bible studies for Muslims and city-dwellers (11 October). Six contextualised study guides were introduced, among them “Prophecies of the Coming Messiah”, a 12-part series from the Global Mission Center for Adventist-Muslim Relations, and “Urban Life in the Word”. Petras Bahadur says the studies “encourage respectful conversation and careful reading of Scripture within relationships of trust and friendship”. [Source: Adventist Review, 13 October 2026]
  • AKAI launched inside a new app (13 October). Following the report of 17 July 2026 on the planned AKAI chatbot (“Adventist Knowledge is Adventist Intelligence”), the General Conference has placed it inside a new Adventist+ Bible and media app (the Bible in more than 2,000 languages). Its answers are restricted to the Bible, the Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists and the 28 Fundamental Beliefs. It is barred from giving spiritual guidance, and when asked to pray it connects the user to a human being. The app “will not try to nudge them to simply watch more.” [Source: ANN, 15 October 2026]
  • Inter-America: 10,000 content creators (16 October). The Inter-American Division aims to mobilise 1,000 core “creative disciples” and 10,000 content creators, with an online meetup from Miami on 22 October and campaigns in September 2027. Daniel Torreblanca: “We want to see a movement of 10,000 content creators.” [Source: ANN, 16 October 2026]

Reading: the Adventist Church is simultaneously scaling up (budget, missionary ratios, unentered cities) and writing limits into its tools (a chatbot that will not pray, an app that will not maximise attention). Muslim-directed material is framed as “respectful conversation” within “trust and friendship”, the vocabulary of the WCC–PCID–WEA Christian Witness in a Multi-Religious World (2011), whose guidelines this reflects without citing.

Assemblies of God — the World Congress opens in Accra (14–16 October 2026)

Following last week’s announcement, the 10th World Assemblies of God Congress opened in Accra on 14 October with more than 10,000 delegates from over 100 countries, under the theme “Commissioned: One Mandate, Every Nation”. President John Mahama, a member of the AG, attended: “I have no regrets.” Global Chairman Dominic Yeo spoke of “God’s prophetic timing to bring an unequalled revival to Africa through Ghana”. Morning sessions were moved to the Accra International Conference Centre after technical problems. No resolutions or outcome figures had been published by 16 October. [Sources: Graphic Online, 14 October 2026; MyJoyOnline, 12 October 2026]

A sitting head of state at a global Pentecostal mission congress, in Africa, is itself a datum on the political standing of Pentecostal mission there.

Bible translation and the Witnesses — scripture statistics (5–9 October 2026)

  • Wycliffe UK updated its ProgressBible snapshot on 5 October (catch-up; follow-up to the September figures reported on 25 September): 7,394 languages; 812 complete Bibles (+5 in the month) and 1,863 New Testaments (+19); translation in progress in 4,444 languages; 512 languages (36.3 million speakers) with no Scripture and no work under way, against 1,892 five years ago. [Wycliffe UK]
  • Jehovah’s Witnesses released Bible books in four languages in September: Runyoro-Rutooro, Bolivian Sign Language, Emberá (Catío) and Tlapanec. [jw.org, 9 October 2026 (catch-up)]

Muslim World League — “an active presence” for Muslim minorities (14 October 2026)

A short programmatic statement says the League cares for Muslim communities worldwide and works to strengthen their «حضورِها الفاعِل في مُجتمعاتِها» (“active presence in their societies”), in line with moderation, coexistence and social harmony. It says it holds dialogue meetings with government and parliamentary figures while stressing respect for the distinctiveness of religious identity. No countries, figures or programmes are given. [Source: «تعتني رابطة العالم الإسلامي بالجاليات الإسلامية حولَ العالَم…» / “The MWL cares for Muslim communities around the world…”, themwl.org, Arabic, 14 October 2026. Official self-presentation.]

Following last week’s report on the League’s 8 October statement (“direct and official coordination with each government”), the vocabulary is now integration and presence, not da’wa, a word neither statement uses. No new text of the MWL’s proposed UN AI code was found.

Gulf da’wa statistics — Kuwait (catch-up: 17 August 2026)

Not previously reported: Kuwait’s Islam Presentation Committee (لجنة التعريف بالإسلام, part of the Al-Najat Charity) reported 2,145 conversions in the first seven months of 2026. Of these, 1,794 were inside Kuwait and 351 through online da’wa, with 467 in July alone, according to Dr Ghaleb Al-Osaimi. [Source: «”التعريف بالإسلام”: 2145 مهتدياً منذ بداية العام» / “‘Islam Presentation’: 2,145 converts since the start of the year”, Al-Rai, Arabic, 17 August 2026.] The online share, about one in six, is the first such breakdown this briefing has seen from a Gulf body. No Q3 or October figures were found for Kuwait, Dubai (IACAD) or the Saudi jāliyāt offices.

3. Documents on the Ethics of Missionary Work

No new institutional ethics document on mission or proselytism was found in the window. The following are normative in substance and are reported with their status stated.

Astana — the AI code: title and stated principles (adopted 7 October 2026)

Following last week’s report on its adoption, the document’s title is now known: “Code of Ethics for the Use of Artificial Intelligence in the Religious Sphere” (Report.az). The full text has not been published. Kazinform reports these principles:

  • “technological development must not outpace moral responsibility”;
  • “the greater the capabilities of algorithms, the greater the responsibility of human beings”;
  • safeguards against altered sacred texts, AI-generated fakes attributed to religious leaders, biased algorithms and “manipulation of beliefs”;
  • positive uses: preserving heritage, translation and wider access to religious knowledge.

[Sources: Report.az, 7 October 2026; Kazinform / kt.kz, 7 October 2026; Open.kg, 9 October 2026. Status: interreligious instrument sponsored by a state; the text was not seen. Proselytism and missionary use of AI are not mentioned in the reported summaries.]

An agency writes its own limits into the machine: Adventist AKAI and Adventist+ (13 October 2026)

The design rules reported in Section 2 amount to a short ethics of AI-mediated outreach:

  • the chatbot answers only from closed, confessional sources;
  • it gives no spiritual guidance;
  • it hands prayer to a human;
  • the app does not optimise for attention.

Each rule answers, in advance, a criticism of digital proselytism: manipulation, concealed origin, and engagement for its own sake. Set beside the Astana code, it is the agency’s version of the same concern that a state-sponsored interreligious body is trying to regulate from outside. (Status: agency product design, described by the agency.)

Missionary superiors on the boundary between witness and conquest (10–16 October 2026)

The centenary interviews in Section 2 state, in the first person, a working boundary:

  • Lengarin: witness “with respect and truth”, not “conquering”; “the dialogue of life often precedes theological dialogue and makes it credible”;
  • Codianni: “charity does not replace proclamation, but gives it credibility”;
  • Pytlovany: help is given “because they are a human being”, not because they are Catholic.

Read against the Indian statutes that define social service as “allurement”, these are claims that service is not inducement. (Status: interviews, not magisterial documents.)

Atyrau Regional Court on “soliciting” (ruling of 6 August; reported 12 October 2026)

A Kazakh appellate court’s holding that preaching does not justify detention is a judicial articulation of the line between legitimate witness and a public-order offence. (Status: judgment reported second-hand by the party.)

4. Academic Events and Publications

Window: 16 July – 16 October 2026, per the reader’s ruling of 7 August. Every item below was grepped against the archive (author, title keywords, DOI). Items more than a month old are flagged. Crossref was again heavily rate-limited (several HTTP 429 responses); see “Retrieval checks”.

New journal articles: page or full record retrieved

1. Miguel Ángel Mansilla, Alicia Agurto Calderón & Romina Chain Carufe, «El alcohólico como campo misionero del pentecostalismo chileno» / “The Alcoholic as a Missionary Field of Chilean Pentecostalism.” Intus-Legere Historia 20(1): 219–251, 10 August 2026 (more than two months old; not previously reported). DOI: 10.15691/07198949.2026.011. Chilean Pentecostals carried anti-alcohol outreach into poor neighbourhoods, taverns and rural areas that secular temperance campaigns did not reach. Converted ex-drinkers preached alcoholism as both illness and demonic victimisation, curable only through conversion and Spirit baptism. The recovered drinker became the movement’s most persuasive evidence, and the message appealed especially to women. A study of a target population chosen as a mission field, and of the hostility and admiration that choice provoked.

2. A. K. Amberg, “CPM as social movement: Placing church planting and disciple making movements in conversation with the wider study of social movements.” Missiology, OnlineFirst, 15 October 2026. DOI: 10.1177/00918296261496817. Reviews movement sociology and brings it into conversation with Church Planting Movement (CPM) and Disciple Making Movement (DMM) strategies. It argues that “movement” is not a neutral term and that missiologists have rarely engaged the scholarly literature on it. Relevant because CPM/DMM methods underlie much of the rapid house-church growth that states such as India and Russia now prosecute.

3. سارة محمد صالح الحسني (Sara Mohamed Saleh al-Husni), «أثر التنصير في إثارة الحروب والنزاعات الإفريقية: دراسة تحليلية» / “The Impact of Christianization [tanṣīr] on Instigating Wars and Conflicts in Africa: An Analytical Study.” Al-Majalla al-ʿIlmiyya bi-Kulliyyat al-Ādāb (Scientific Journal of the Faculty of Arts, Egyptian Knowledge Bank), no. 65 (2026): 805–836, 1 October 2026. DOI: 10.21608/jartf.2026.533023. No summary beyond the title. Listed as a datum on Arabic academic anti-missionary discourse: the term tanṣīr (“Christianisation”, the polemical counterpart of tabshīr, “evangelisation”) and the thesis of mission as a cause of African conflict.

New journal articles: Crossref record only (no summary beyond the title)

Missiology and mission journals

  • Agbonkhianmeghe E. Orobator, “Afternoon, sunset, or dawn? Opportunities and pathways for reshaping global Christianity in ‘the West’ and ‘the rest'”, Missiology, 15 October 2026, 10.1177/00918296261492263.
  • Samuel Privara SJ, “Mission of the synodal church at the margins: Discerning hope in the post-Christian West”, Missiology, 5 August 2026 (more than two months old), 10.1177/00918296261473220.
  • Abigail Clayton, “The persuasive beauty of missional theosis”, Missiology, 8 October 2026, 10.1177/00918296261492261.
  • International Bulletin of Mission Research, October 2026 issue:
    • Josh Wallace, “Re-Bounded? The Reception and Transformation of Paul Hiebert’s Bounded- Versus Centered-Set Rubric for Church and Mission”, 10.1177/23969393261422738;
    • Doug Liao, “‘Follow the Money’: The Finances of Mission Printing in Nineteenth Century Thailand”, 10.1177/23969393261450366;
    • Joseph Bosco Bangura, “Apostle Dora Dumbuya, Jesus Is Lord Ministries, and the Retrieval of Matrilineal Pentecostalism in Sierra Leone”, 10.1177/23969393261450365;
    • Mookgo Solomon Kgatle & Paul Mngadi, “Missional imagination in Neo-Prophetic churches and ministries in the Fourth Industrial Revolution era”, 10.1177/23969393261450367 (digital evangelism).
  • Fred Adadey, “African Pentecostalism and Diasporic Mission in Southeast Asia”, Pentecost Journal of Theology and Mission 6(2), 3 October 2026, 10.62868/pjtm.v6i2.302.
  • Theology of Mission (Korea Society of Mission Studies), 2026 no. 3, 31 August 2026 (articles from the same issue not previously listed):

Conversion, da’wa and law

  • Rishiram Adhikari & Chandra P. Dhakal, “The Effect of Religious Conversion on the Preservation of Indigenous Knowledge System in Nepal”, Journal of Indigenous Knowledge and Practice 2(1), 17 August 2026, 10.3126/jikap.v2i1.98109. (The name “Adhikari” appears in the 2 October archive list; the context could not be confirmed as this article. Listed with that caveat.)
  • Nasichah, Ade Rina Farida, Eko Purwanto & Ahmed Abdul Malik, “Active Reception Communication and Rational Choice in Religious Conversion: A Case Study of a Former Christian Leader”, Nyimak 10(2), 4 September 2026, 10.31000/nyimak.v10i2.15348 (Indonesia; Christian-to-Muslim conversion).
  • Pudoli Sandra et al., “Post-Marriage Religious Conversion From The Perceptive of Legal System Theory and Sadd Al-Dariah”, Jurnal Ilmiah Living Law 18(2), 25 August 2026, 10.30997/jill.v18i2.24992.
  • M. Akbar Prakoso, “Beyond Religious Commitment: Tafaqqud as a Community-Based Mechanism for Safeguarding Family Maintenance in Jamaah Tabligh, Jambi”, Nalar Fiqh, 9 October 2026, 10.30631/nf.v7i1.2779 (Tablighi Jamaat).
  • Abu Bakar, Balyana & Syahrir Karim, «Kolaborasi Kepolisian dan Jamaah Tabligh dalam Menanggulangi Kriminalitas di Kota Makassar» / “Police–Jamaah Tabligh Collaboration in Tackling Crime in Makassar”, Jurnal Litbang Polri 29(2), 1 September 2026, 10.46976/litbangpolri.v29i2.365. The Indonesian police treat as a partner the movement that Kazakhstan prosecutes as extremist.
  • Dira Cikal Rahnawati et al., «Respon Viewers terhadap Konten Dakwah Hanan Attaki di TikTok» / “Viewer Responses to Hanan Attaki’s Da’wah Content on TikTok”, Jurnal Riset KPI 6(1), 23 July 2026 (nearly three months old), 10.29313/jrkpi.v6i1.9949.
  • Afifatur Rohimah & Mevy Eka Nurhalizah, «Dakwah, Branding, dan Viralitas» / “Da’wah, Branding and Virality”, Journal of Islamic Communication Studies 4(2): 222–232, 17 July 2026 (three months old), 10.15642/jicos.2026.4.2.222-232.
  • Koray Durak, “From Muhājirūn in Hijaz to Magaritai in Byzantium: A Linguistic and Cultural Journey of Religious Conversion”, Al-Masāq, 26 August 2026, 10.1080/09503110.2026.2719128.
  • Mary Channen Caldwell, “Music, Conversion, and Musical Conversion in Medieval France”, Medieval Encounters, 10 September 2026, 10.1163/15700674-12340251.

History of missions

  • Longhai Gao & Sijie Wang, “Printing the Americas for Catholic Europe: Jesuit Knowledge, Missionary Imagination, and Identity in the German-Speaking Lands, 1546–1800”, Religions, 14 October 2026, 10.3390/rel17101212.
  • Myriam Carmen Iuorio, “Recovering Perceptions of Disability in Italian Missionary Narratives from West Central Africa”, Renaissance Quarterly, 1 September 2026, 10.1086/742289.
  • Hervé Pennec, «Pedro Páez et l’História da Etiópia : circulation, réception et postérité d’une œuvre missionnaire écrite au XVIIe siècle» / “Pedro Páez and the História da Etiópia: Circulation, Reception and Afterlife of a Seventeenth-Century Missionary Work”, Africana Studia 43, 28 September 2026, 10.21747/0874-2375/afr43a15.
  • Marie Brualla Challet, «Les médecins de marine face à l’œuvre missionnaire» / “Naval Doctors and the Missionary Enterprise”, Revue historique des armées 322, 27 July 2026, 10.3917/rha.322.0055.
  • Christopher Mayombo Mayombo, «La question identitaire dans le processus d’évolution de l’Église de l’Alliance chrétienne et missionnaire du Gabon de 1933 à 2025 : mythe ou réalité ?» / “The Identity Question in the Development of the Christian and Missionary Alliance Church of Gabon, 1933–2025: Myth or Reality?”, Mazayu, 14 October 2026, 10.55595/v384p885.
  • Jonatan David Arrieta Rojas, «El compromiso social del cristiano: La influencia ideológica del misionero presbiteriano Richard Shaull en Orlando Fals Borda» / “The Christian’s Social Commitment: The Ideological Influence of the Presbyterian Missionary Richard Shaull on Orlando Fals Borda”, Revista de Sociología (Chile), 15 August 2026, 10.5354/0719-529x.2026.84754.
  • Mario Fabregat Peredo, «El misionero capuchino bávaro Jerónimo de Amberga durante su estadía en La Araucanía… (1902–1921)» / “The Bavarian Capuchin Missionary Jerónimo de Amberga in La Araucanía (1902–1921)”, Revista TEFROS 24(2), 1 August 2026, 10.63207/tefros.v24n2.a8.
  • Natie Philander, “The Missionary Institute of the Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa: Origin, Development, and Function”, Studia Historiae Ecclesiasticae, 24 July 2026 (nearly three months old), 10.25159/2412-4265/20654.
  • Matthew E. Roe, “The Baptist Missionary Society and London Particular Baptists, 1792–96”, Baptist Quarterly, 5 September 2026, 10.1080/0005576x.2026.2724663.
  • Huijie Zhang, Shu Wan & Fuhua Huang, “Negotiating Modern Womanhood: Missionary Physical Education and Women’s Sport in Early Twentieth-Century China”, International Journal of the History of Sport, 17 September 2026, 10.1080/09523367.2026.2732037.
  • Tetiana Shakhrai, “The Christianization of Rus’ as a Civilizational Choice…”, Ethnology Notebooks, 22 September 2026, 10.15407/nz2026.04.1256.

Books

  • Stephanie Schmidt, Child Martyrs and Militant Evangelization in New Spain: Missionary Narratives, Nahua Perspectives (Austin: University of Texas Press, 8 April 2025), 224 pp. Hardcover ISBN 978-1-4773-3054-8. [Verified on the UBC Press distributor page.] Following the issue of 9 October, which flagged the book for ISBN verification. Reviewed three times in the window: by Mark Christensen in Hispanic American Historical Review (10.1215/00182168-12488131), Verónica A. Gutiérrez in Colonial Latin American Review (10.1080/10609164.2026.2687263) and Ryan Dominic Crewe in The Americas (10.1017/tam.2026.10169). The book studies Franciscan narratives of Nahua children killed for attacking their parents’ religion. It concerns the earliest Christian mission to treat converted children as agents against their own families, a theme that recurs in today’s custody and “alienation” litigation (Bickford v. Bradeen).
  • Reviewed in the window; ISBNs not yet verified (listed by review DOI only):

Conferences and diary

  • DOMUND centenary congress, “One in Christ, United in Mission”, La Ceja del Tambo (Antioquia, Colombia), 16–18 October 2026. Announced in Fides, 12 October; no separate conference site was found.
  • 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.
  • Adventist Inter-America “Creative Disciples” online meetup, 22 October 2026.
  • Chhattisgarh High Court: State’s reply on the interim application due about 28 October 2026.
  • IAMS / Mission Studies journal-writing workshops (MIST), online: 13 November 2026 (Nigel Rooms), 26 February 2027 (Dorottya Nagy), 14 May 2027 (Eugene Baron). IAMS
  • Ukraine Supreme Court: Korets convent appeal, 10 November 2026.
  • Bickford v. Bradeen: certiorari deadline about 30 November 2026.
  • World Buddhist Sangha Council 60th anniversary, Sri Lanka, 27 November – 2 December 2026. wbsc2026.com
  • FCRA amendment JPC report: due by the end of the first week of the Winter Session.

5. Analysis

1. Regulating the convert instead of the missionary: status as the instrument

This week the clearest pressure on conversion came not from anti-conversion statutes but from rules that attach consequences to the convert’s legal status.

  • India. The Supreme Court holds that a backward-class Hindu who becomes Muslim leaves his reservation status behind, while a return to Hinduism is to be assessed on its facts. The asymmetry noted on 2 October (statutes exempting “return to the previous religion”) now has a counterpart in reservation law: the exit costs something, the return need not.
  • Iran. The state distinguishes the born Christian, who may hold a Bible, from the convert, who may not. A convert’s sentence can be ended by amnesty, but her category is unchanged.
  • Russia. Muslims praying at home are fined because no one notified the state that a “religious group” existed. The obligation attaches to a status (unregistered group) rather than to any act of persuasion.
  • Earlier issues: Morocco’s converts (9 October) asked the state for names, marriages and schooling, and Malaysia’s Court of Appeal (2 October) sent a convert’s status to the Syariah courts.

Status-based regulation needs no missionary, no inducement and no complaint, which makes it more durable than the criminal statutes it sits beside. It is also easier to present as neutral: the Indian Court spoke of “social orders”, not of religions. Proselytism research has concentrated on the regulation of the missionary act. In the countries tracked here, much of the pressure now falls on the post-conversion life: certificates, reservations, possessions, registration.

2. The house as the scene of the offence

Count where this week’s enforcement happened:

  • a farmer’s home in Krasnodar Krai, where collective namaz was ruled “missionary activity”;
  • an unlicensed madrasa near Novosibirsk;
  • a house in Satna surrounded by Bajrang Dal activists, with 50 people inside;
  • a Baptist community in Luhansk banned for meeting unregistered;
  • home meetings as the evidence against Kyrgyz Reform Adventists;
  • the Iranian house churches behind both convert cases;
  • the Apsheronsk Baptist house (hearing on 22 October), and the Duma bill on missionary activity in residential premises.

The private dwelling is where unregistered religion meets the state’s demand for visibility. Two different logics converge on it:

  • Russia and Central Asia treat the house as an unnotified public space: the offence is that the state was not told.
  • India treats it as a concealed site of inducement: the offence is presumed because the gathering is hidden.

The agencies, meanwhile, describe the same venues as their method: the IMB’s Spain report is titled “home, cafes, apps”; the Adventists speak of “relationships of trust and friendship”. As last week’s Analysis noted for the phone, outreach moves to where it is least visible, and enforcement follows it there. The house is the older version of the same contest.

3. Inculturation contested: when adopting the other’s festival becomes the offence

The Kendriya Sarna Samiti’s demand that churches stop celebrating Karam and Sarhul inverts the usual charge against missionaries. One line of complaint is that mission destroyed Indigenous culture. Another one is that mission absorbs it, so that the festival becomes a door into the church. The proposed response is a ritual counter-occupation: perform the rites inside the church, or declare it a dhumkuria.

Set this against the missionaries’ own accounts this week:

  • the Colombian diocesan team at Mitú, who ate at the maloca and asked “Who is evangelizing whom?”;
  • the Adventist Global Mission Center for Adventist-Muslim Relations, publishing “Prophecies of the Coming Messiah” for Muslim readers;
  • Judev’s foot-washing ghar wapsi rite, embedded in a Navratri katha, which borrows the form of the rival’s sacrament in the opposite direction.

The comparison sharpens a thread opened on 29 August and 11 September (the internal ethical regulation of missionary adaptation). Every tradition represented here adapts its outreach to the target’s culture, and every resisting tradition can read that adaptation as deception. What differs is who gets to say where respect ends and appropriation begins:

  • mission theology locates the line in the missionary’s intention (encounter, not conquest);
  • the Sarna Samiti locates it in ownership of the rite;
  • Indian anti-conversion law locates it in effect (did it induce?).

4. Growth and its regulation advance together

The week’s mission data show expansion on every measure the agencies publish:

  • Catholics: Africa overtakes Europe; Catholic lay missionaries +18,473;
  • Southern Baptists: a record $212.5 million offering, and missionary applicants up fivefold since 2018;
  • Adventists: $99 million for one campaign, a target of 4,800 cross-cultural missionaries, and 10,000 content creators in Inter-America;
  • Assemblies of God: a head of state at the World Congress.

The regulatory side grows in the same week and increasingly targets the channels of that growth:

  • foreign-funded assets (India’s FCRA “Designated Authority”);
  • small cross-border donations (the Izhevsk donor to Muntyan);
  • front organisations (the Scientology searches);
  • charity status (Shincheonji in Australia);
  • party membership rolls (Shincheonji in Korea).

The two trends are linked rather than coincidental. As mission becomes more professionalised, capitalised and data-driven, it presents states with administrable objects (accounts, registrations, apps) that the older, person-to-person missionary did not. The agencies’ answer is partly self-limitation: the Adventist chatbot that will not pray, Codianni’s “charity gives proclamation credibility”, Pytlovany’s “we help because they are a human being”. Those are claims addressed past the believer to the sceptic, as noted on 12 September. No regulator has yet accepted one.

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 16 October 2026. It has been published after editing. https://claude.ai.

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