The
celebration took place in an auditorium within the offices of the Printing Company,
a joint venture of China’s Amity Foundation and the UBS, located just outside
Nanjing.
NANJING, China — In what is becoming almost a regular celebration of joy and accomplishment, a delegation from the UBS in December joined with leaders of the Amity Printing Company, the China Christian Council and the State Administration for Religious Affairs (SARA) to mark the printing of the 25 millionth Bible for the Christians of China.
The
celebration took place in an auditorium within the offices of the Printing Company,
a joint venture of China’s Amity Foundation and the UBS, located just outside
Nanjing.
The first Bible rolled off the presses of the Amity Printing Company on October 14, 1987. The one millionth copy came off the press on 26 September 1989. The Chinese Church celebrated the printing of five million copies on 26 February 1993, and on 4 December 2000, they celebrated the printing of 25 million Bibles.
At the celebration service, Bishop K H Ting, Honorary President of the China
Christian Council, presented Mr Macdonald with Amity’s first ‘25 millionth
copy’ of the Bible.
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“I am thankful to the United Bible Societies, who are our partners in this ministry, and I am also thankful that the Bible is no longer a ‘foreign book’ in China,” Bishop Ting said. “Many intellectuals, the university community and high school faculties and students are buying and seriously studying the Bible.”
On behalf of UBS, Mr Macdonald in turn presented the second ‘25 millionth copy’ to Bishop Ting. Mr Kua called the exchange “a simple but significant gesture symbolising the close partnership between UBS and the Chinese Church.”
Addressing the international gathering in the small auditorium, Mr Macdonald stressed the importance of incorporating the message of the Bible into daily life.
“The Bible is a book for living before it is a book of theology,” he explained. “It is a book for people before it is a book for theologians. It is a life-changing book. It is a book that, if read, believed and practised, will change society and make the world a better place in which to live.”
Ms Guo Wei, SARA’s Deputy Director of Foreign Affairs, echoed Bishop Ting’s comment that the Bible was no longer a ‘foreign book’ in China.
“Over the last 20 years, the Bible has become the second bestseller in the nation, second only to Deng Xiaoping’s collections,” she noted.
Also
addressing the group were Dr Jen-li Tsai, chairman of the Board of Directors
of Amity Printing Company, Dr Han Wenzao, President of the Board of Directors
for APC and President of the China Christian Council, and the Rev Bao Jiayuan,
Associate General Secretary of the China Christian Council.
Mr Bao reported that Bible distribution centres – 70 in all – are now located in every province, municipality, and autonomous region in China, with the exception of Tibet.
“The Bible is printed in several languages and in various sizes,” he noted, listing Han Chinese in both simplified and traditional script, bilingual English and Chinese, Braille, and seven minority languages. “The Printing Company also prints Bible commentaries, Study Bibles, and scriptural wall calendars, desk calendars and pocket calendars.”
Also present at the celebration were representatives from the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod and Presbyterian Church-USA. Local guests included representatives from the Amity Christian Art Centre, the Nanjing Theological Seminary, the Jiangsu Bible School and churches in Jiangsu and Nanjing.
Before arriving in Nanjing, the UBS delegation visited Beijing, where they were the guests of SARA Director-General Ye Xiao Wen.
Discussions centred on the religious situation in China, Bible publishing and distribution in the country, and how UBS can further help Chinese Christians meet their need for Scriptures. Among other events, SARA treated the group to a visit to China’s Great Wall and the Forbidden City.
Mr Macdonald presented the SARA officials and CCC leaders with copies of the Today’s Chinese Version Bible and sWORD, a CD-ROM with the Scriptures in 18 languages, including Chinese, Greek and Hebrew. The sWORD CD was developed by UBS Asia-Pacific Translation Services and has just been published by the Bible Society of Singapore.
The delegation was given a preview of how the CCC will use O-21 funding to equip its Bible Distribution Centres with vehicles. These will be used to deliver Bibles to churches in areas not easily served, such as the rural areas where most Chinese Christians reside. The UBS visitors even had the privilege of delivering Bibles from such a vehicle to a church in the countryside outside Nanjing.
Thus far, O-21 gifts for these vehicles have come from the Hong Kong Bible Society, the American Bible Society, the Bible Society in Australia, and the Maclellan Foundation. The CCC is expecting to purchase and deploy the vehicles over the next several weeks.
Another highlight of the trip was a visit to a Miao church just outside the city of Kunming. After a bumpy drive over a winding dirt road, the delegates arrived at a hilltop village. Hiking up the last hundred yards, they were greeted by a colourfully-dressed church choir singing a song of welcome. After visiting the village school and exploring its dusty paths, the delegates went to the highest point in the community – the village church. There, they brought greetings from the global UBS Fellowship, and were in turn moved by the beautiful singing of the church choir and by the warm hospitality of the people.
“The visit reminded us of the great need for Scripture amongst the minority people groups in China,” commented Mr Kua. “Many of them are poor and live in the mountainous part of the country. There are officially 55 different minority people groups in China, numbering 100 million people. Of these 55 groups, officially only four have the whole Bible and four, including the Miao, have only the New Testament.”
But by working with the Chinese church, Amity Press and the UBS will continue working to help fill this spiritual void.
Contributing to the report were the Amity News Service, Kua Wee Seng, and Larry Jerden. (WR 357/08 - 1/2.01) [PHOTOS] e-124