The Amity Foundation () is an independent Chinese voluntary organization. it is the largest charity in China. It was created in 1985 on the initiative of Christians in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

with the late Bishop

K. H. Ting K. H. Ting, Ting Kuang-hsun or Ding Guangxun (; 20 September 1915 – 22 November 2012), was Chairperson emeritus of the Three-Self Patriotic Movement (TSPM) and President emeritus of the China Christian Council, the government-approved Protesta ...

as its founder. Its main objective has been to help develop poorer areas of the country. Amity's headquarters are in Nanjing. The organization includes the Amity Printing Company (APC, also sometimes called Amity Printing Press), the largest Bible producer in China. Amity Printing Company opened a branch in Ethiopia in 2016. Amity Foundation has an office in Hong Kong and opened a liaison office in the Ecumenical Center of the World Council of Churches in Geneva in 2017.

Ideals

Some have described Amity as a faith-initiated organization that works with Christians, while others, such as the current General Secretary Qiu Zhonghui, has described it as a

faith-based organization A faith-based organization is an organization whose values are based on faith and/or beliefs, which has a mission based on social values of the particular faith, and which most often draws its activists (leaders, staff, volunteers) from a particula ...

. Various partner organizations have praised the work and activity of the charity. Recently the charitable organisation has been highlighted in both domestic and international media for its action and prompt relief work in China in response to natural disasters.

Activities

*Disaster relief *Support of church-run social work *Support of medical education in China's poorest areas *HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention training *Education in the countryside and for the children of migrant workers, including the

Amity Teachers Program The Amity Foundation () is an independent Chinese voluntary organization. it is the largest charity in China. It was created in 1985 on the initiative of Christians in China with the late Bishop K. H. Ting as its founder. Its main objective ha ...

*Special education (e.g. work with deaf or disabled children) *Taking care of orphans *Environmental protection *Integrated development (e.g. providing basic health care, schooling, clean energy, agricultural skills training and microfinance to a village community)

Amity Printing Company (APC)

The Amity Printing Company (APC, ) in Nanjing is the largest producer of Bibles in China, and one of the largest in the world. It is a joint venture with the United Bible Societies. In its first year (1988), it printed 500,000 Bibles on a press donated by UBS. Since 1988, it has published Bibles in

Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...

and in several ethnic minority languages, as well as in many other languages for export. It is China's only legal printer of Bibles. The APC has so far published more than 100 million Bibles. Most of the Bibles printed are the

Chinese Union Version The ''Chinese Union Version'' (CUV) () is the predominant translation of the Bible into Chinese used by Chinese Protestants, first published in 1919. The text is now available online. The CUV is currently available in both traditional and simpl ...

(, 1919), the Chinese Bible translation used by the Protestant churches, or the less commonly accepted but more modern Today's Chinese Version. Recently the Pastoral Bible used by the Catholic churches has also been printed here. All Chinese Bibles are distributed not by the state-run bookstore chains (such as Xinhua Bookstore), but through the network of officially registered Protestant churches. Since China's adoption of the New Regulations on Religious Affairs in 2018 that banned online bookstores from selling Bibles, the APC has been facing difficulty in printing Chinese Bibles. This has caused a shortage of

Catholic Bibles The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

in Hong Kong.

Sources

External links

* {{China Christian Council and Three-Self Patriotic Movement Foundations based in China Christianity in China Medical and health organizations based in China Bible societies

Ideals

Activities

Amity Printing Company (APC)

See also

Sources

External links