Evangelism Code of Conduct

The Vatican and the World Council of Churches (WCC) will create a ‘code of conduct’ for evangelism in the wake of heightened religious tension and new anti-conversion laws.

Envoys from the Vatican’s office on inter-religious dialogue and the WCC – which includes 348 churches including Protestants – met last month near Rome to begin a three-year study into a code for religious conversion.

The WCC said the code is expected to distinguish between witness and proselytism.

In a recommendation that is likely to alienate evangelicals, the churches stressed that an ‘obsession of converting others’ needs to be cured.

“Errors have been perpetrated and injustice committed by the adherents of every faith [and] it is incumbent on every community to conduct honest self-critical examination of its...doctrines.”

Muslims, Buddhists, Jews and Hindus are expected to participate in the project.

The WCC admitted that ‘many differences and disagreements among the participants remained at the end of the consultation’ and there was no unanimity even on the meaning of ‘conversion’.

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