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An Indian Catholic bishop has stressed the need to maintain harmonious relations with the majority Sikh community in northern Punjab state amid reports of rising conversions to Christianity. A Sikh youth group in the state has launched an awareness campaign to stop conversions and the establishment of new churches. “We are aware of the campaign, it is the result of activities of some house churches and their ministries that have damaged the reputation of mainstream churches,” said Bishop Agnelo Rufino Gracias, the apostolic administrator of Jullundur diocese. He told on Jan. 16 that the campaign to counter conversions “is a wakeup call for all of us to keep intact the rapport we have made with the Sikh community.”
The Sikh Youth Federation-Bhindran-wala said it aimed to expose the truth regarding various allurements, promises of miraculous healing, and other fraudulent practices adopted by Christian groups to convert people, reported the Times of India newspaper on Jan 15. Its president Bhai Ranjit Singh said, “The rise in conversions and establishment of new churches, particularly in the districts of Amritsar, Gurdaspur, and Pathankot, prompted us to act.” He said there was an urgent need to engage with Sikh and Hindu people in the state and “understand why they are changing their faith, and encourage them to remain committed to their own religion.”
Gracias, the Auxiliary Bishop Emeritus of Bombay who was appointed apostolic administrator of Jullundur diocese in 2023, said that “there is nothing wrong with the campaign” by the Sikh youth group. “It may have been disturbed by the house church ministries that are very aggressive, but as far as the Catholic Church is concerned it does not believe in forced conversion,” the prelate said. Gracias further said that because of a few house church pastors “we cannot and should not make our relations complicated with the Sikh people.”
Sanwar Bhatti, president of the Protestant United Church of Northern India Trust Association, said the campaign by the Sikh youth group has been going on for the past six months or so. “It will have no impact on our relations with the Sikh community. We have shared a good rapport with them in the past and present, and will continue to do so in future,” he told. Bhatti said the activities of certain church ministries are creating a misunderstanding among Christians and Sikhs in the state. “But we have to sit together and find a solution,” he added.
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