December 5, 2007

On September 11, 2007, the 50 millionth Bible rolled off the Press at Amity Printing Company in Nanjing. While the world remembered the tragic events of September 11, 2001, we remembered God's Goodness and Greatness in Bible production in China. 10 years after the end of the Cultural Revolution, the Amity Press was established in Nanjing and the first Bible came off the Press in Nanjing on October 14, 1987. It was an amazing miracle of the Lord. And the miracle continues. Over the past 20 years, more than 50 million copies of Bibles have been printed at the Press. 42 million copies were distributed in Mainland China and 8 million copies were exported to more than 60 different countries in the world.

A celebration will be held in Nanjing on December 8 to celebrate this major milestone in Bible production in China. At the celebration, the United Bible Societies (UBS) and Amity Foundation (AF) will sign an agreement to extend the Joint Venture Agreement between UBS and AF for a further 10 years when the current Agreement expires in June 2008. UBS and AF established the Amity Printing Company as a Joint Venture in 1988.

Visit of Global South Anglican Primates to Amity Press

At the invitation of the State Administration for Religious Affairs Minister Ye Xiaowen, ten Primates of the Global South of the Anglican Communion visited China. I was privileged to be invited by Archbishop John Chew, the Primate of the Province of South East Asia, to accompany the delegation for this historic visit to China. The Primates visited Amity Press and was greatly impressed by the achievement of the Press:

"We are greatly impressed by the love of the Chinese Church for the Word of God, the respect for its authority on life and doctrine, and the miraculous achievement of the Amity Press in Nanjing, China, in the printing of more than 50 million bibles between 1987 and 2007, of which 16 percent are exported to other countries. The on-going efforts by the Church in China to distribute these bibles throughout this vast country and the many testimonies of the lives transformed by God's Word are awe-inspiring." Article 7 of "A Statement on the Global South Primates' Visit to China" Archbishop Peter Akinola, the Primate of All Nigeria, speaking on behalf of the delegation at the lunch hosted by Amity Press, said, "It's truly truly amazing to see Amity Press printing millions of Bibles for China, and for the rest of the world. Making Bible available will bring great blessings to the people in China and all over the world. After seeing Amity Press, we will double our effort to support the Bible Societies."

The Primates were delighted to see the range of Bibles printed by Amity Press for the Bible Societies and the Churches of their respective countries, and in their own mother languages.

Jesus Film DVD

In partnership with the Campus Crusade Asia, UBS helped the Church in China produced the JESUS Film Video CD (in Mandarin and English), packaged with the Luke Gospel booklet. UBS has supported the Church in the distribution of 290,000 sets of this Video CD with a Luke Gospel portion over the past years. Recently, Campus Crusade and UBS were able to support the China Christian Council in producing their first ever JESUS Film DVD, packaged with the Luke Gospel booklet. The DVD comes in 8 languages and dialects: Mandarin, English, Korean, Mongolian, Lisu, Chaozhou (Teochew), Guangdong (Cantonese), Minnan (Hokkien).

The Luke Gospel portion is in the Revised Chinese Union Version (RCUV). It is the first time the RCUV Scripture is published and distributed in Mainland China. The revision of the Chinese Union Version is led and managed by Hong Kong Bible Society, and the RCUV New Testament has been completed and published by the Bible Society.

Anglican Communion News Service, London
This report was compiled from information provided by Kua Wee Seng, Coordinator, China Partnership, United Bible Societies. Singapore.