Implementing Missionary Activity. Theory and Practice

Violation of public security and public order;

Extremist activity;

Forcing the break-up of a family;

Infringement of a citizen’s personal rights and freedoms;

Activities damaging to the morals, health, and well-being of citizens, including the use of narcotic and psychotropic drugs, hypnosis, indecent behavior, or other unlawful acts in connection with their religious activity;

Encouragement of suicide or the refusal on religious grounds of medical assistance which jeopardizes a person’s life or health;

Obstruction of compulsory education;

Coercion of members and followers of a religious association and other persons to donate their property to the religious association;

Preventing a citizen from leaving a religious association through threatened or actual use of force or illegal action;

Inciting citizens to refuse to fulfill their civic duties established by law or to commit other illegal acts.

7. In the case of the missionary activities provided for in paragraphs 5 and 6 of this Article, the religious association is responsible for any missionary activity carried out on its behalf by its agents.

Housing Code of the Russian Federation from 29.12.2004 №188-FZ (http://www.consultant.ru/document/cons_doc_LAW_51057/)

Article 17.Purpose of premises and limits of their use. The use of residential premises

Point 3. It is prohibited for a missionary group to be located on, or conduct missionary activities on premises designated for industrial production or residential premises, except as stipulated in Clause 16 Federal laws of September 26, 1997 No. 125-FZ «About liberty of conscience and about religious associations»

Article22. Conditions for converting residential premises into non-residential premises and non-residential premises into residential premises

Point 3.2. The conversion of residential premises into non-residential premises for the purpose of religious activity is prohibited.

Russian Federation Code of Administrative Offences from 30.12.2001 number 195-FZ, Article 5.26

3. Religious organizations conducting activities without displaying/indicating the official full name of the organization, including missionary activity involving the release or distribution of literature, printed, audio and video materials without marking the material with the name of the organization, or incomplete, or deliberately false labeling on said material, —

Punishable by an administrative fine in the amount from thirty thousand to fifty thousand rubles with confiscation of literature, printed, audio and video materials.

4. Implementation of missionary activity in violation of the law on freedom of conscience, freedom of religion and religious associations-

Punishable by an administrative fine on citizens in the amount from five thousand to fifty thousand rubles; for legal entities – from one hundred thousand to one million rubles.

5. Violation provided by section 4 of this Article, if committed by a foreign national or a stateless person, —

Punishable by an administrative fine in the amount from thirty thousand to fifty thousand rubles with the possibility of administrative expulsion from the Russian Federation.

Chapter 2. General Principles of Conducting Missionary Activity

Any discussion of how to conduct religious and missionary activity on the basis of the new laws must first begin with a definition of what is and what is not missionary work.

This is a very important step, since most of the issues related to missionary work will disappear as soon as we clearly define the concept of «missionary activity».

For believers, the concept of missionary activity is inextricably linked with their faith and beliefs, and by extension, their daily lives. The Christian faith is by its very nature missional. As believers it is normal for us to do things such as preach to friends or acquaintances or post pictures and comments on social media sites quoting scripture. Is this considered «Missionary Activity» under the new laws?

Can I visit my friends and talk to them about my faith, or is this an illegal activity prohibited by law?

How do I know if I am engaging in prohibited activity or am within my legal rights? Where is the boundary?

The answer to this important question can be found in the articles of the Law «On Freedom of Conscience and Religious Associations, particularly in paragraph 1, Article 24.2:

For the purposes of this federal law, missionary activity is recognized as the activity of a religious association, aimed at disseminating information about its beliefs among people who are not participants (members, followers) in that religious association, with the purpose of involving these people as participants (members, followers). It is carried out directly by religious associations or by citizens and/or legal entities authorized by them, publicly, with the help of the media, the internet or other lawful means.

As we read this law, we see that it defines several marks or characteristics of Missionary Activity. It is very important for us to understand these characteristics, as they differentiate «missionary activity’ from other religious activities.

We have identified four main characteristics of Missionary Activity:

– Missionary Activity is carried out directly by the religious association and/or authorized persons and organizations. The spread of one’s personal faith cannot be automatically attributed to the missionary work.

– Missionary activity is aimed at those who are not yet a follower of a religious association; therefore, talking about faith among fellow believers is not missionary activity.

– The purpose of missionary activity is recruiting people to join a religious association. If you’re just talking about your faith without reference to a particular religious group, it is not missionary work.

– Missionary activity is carried out in public. Talking about one’s faith at home is not a public activity.

As noted in a letter written by the Office of the President of the Russian Federation, missionary activity is characterized by the totality of the above characteristics. The activity of a religious association, which does not contain all four characteristics, cannot be regarded as a missionary activity. Therefore, these activities are not subject to restrictions set by the Federal Law against missionary activity.

Personal testimony about one’s faith is not marked by the above characteristics; therefore, it cannot be regarded as missionary activity.

It is important to understand that the modern version of the law does not consider the activities of individuals (Russian citizens and other persons legally residing in the territory of Russia) as missionary. Such cases are covered by Article 28 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation. There are certain restrictions on religious and missionary activity for foreigners. These will be discussed in a separate chapter.

What does this mean?

If friends come to your house to visit, or you are visiting someone, and you’ve decided to talk about your faith and convictions, you are fully within your rights to do so. This basic right is guaranteed by the Russian Constitution.

Based on the postulate that missionary activity is characterized by the totality of the characteristics contained in the legal definition, we can conclude that an individual citizen engaged in the distribution of opinions on the street, with a public audience including non believers, with the intention to recruit people into a religious organization, but acting on their own initiative, without authorization from a religious organization is not conducting missionary activity.

If you find yourself in a situation similar to the one above and are confronted with law enforcement officials whose definition of missionary activity does not agree with yours, what should you do? We will cover this in a later chapter entitled «What to do if you are accused of violating the laws of missionary activity.».

Chapter 3. Religious Activities of Individuals

As we saw in the previous chapter, the laws and regulations governing missionary activity do not apply to the activities of individuals acting on their own, without official connection or authorization to conduct missionary activity on behalf of religious organizations.

The right to preach and share one’s beliefs is guaranteed under Articles 28 and 29 of the Constitution of the Russian Federation.

Article 28.

Everyone shall be guaranteed the freedom of conscience, the freedom of religion, including the right to profess individually or together with others any religion or to profess no religion at all, to freely choose, possess and disseminate religious and other views and act according to them.

Article 29.