Can preaching alone, with no convert in sight, cost a believer his right to stay? India’s Madras High Court says yes: a US citizen of Indian origin lost his OCI status for preaching in villages without permission. The same week, India’s Supreme Court took up a challenge to Chhattisgarh’s 2026 anti-conversion Act, Russia fined four people for “missionary activity” at a Muslim prayer site in Yekaterinburg, and a Kuwaiti da’wa committee reported 1,407 converts in three months, most of them reached online abroad. From Rome’s “Church of the Sheaves” to Orthodox missionaries trained against neopaganism, this briefing traces a shift: the offence is moving from conversion to unlicensed speech.
Proselytism and Religious Outreach Worldwide: Conflicts, Policies, and Trends – 26 September – 2 October 2026
In Chhattisgarh, more than a thousand non-Christians filed declarations stating that they attend church of their own free will. Hindu groups took the filings to the district authorities, and churches in Dhamtari now post notices warning non-Christians that they enter at their own risk. Documents meant to prove voluntariness have become evidence of exposure. This week’s briefing also covers a Rajasthan court’s first reading of the State’s 2025 conversion law, Russian fines and donation prosecutions, an Indonesian church opposed purely as a permit dispute, the Muslim World League courting Brussels, Wycliffe’s record translation year, and Southern Baptist and Adventist agencies drawing a line around what AI may do in mission.