Bible Society Australia is an Australian non-profit, non-denominational, Christian organisation. It is part of a worldwide network of Bible Societies. Bible Society Australia maintains that the Bible is a significant historic text which has deeply influenced society and culture and is still relevant today. The organisation is involved in

translating Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transl ...

, publishing, and distributing the Christian

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts ...

, from print, to audio, to digital versions. Bible Society Australia is also involved in Bible advocacy, the publication of Bible reading materials, and the provision of

literacy Literacy in its broadest sense describes "particular ways of thinking about and doing reading and writing" with the purpose of understanding or expressing thoughts or ideas in written form in some specific context of use. In other words, hum ...

support, both in Australia and overseas.

History

The Bible Society is the oldest continually operating organisation in Australia. The Bible Society of Australia was inaugurated at the instigation of Governor Lachlan Macquarie in Sydney on 7 March 1817. Moved by a scarcity of Scriptures in the new colony, Lady

Elizabeth Macquarie Elizabeth Macquarie (; 1778–1835) was the second wife of Lachlan Macquarie, who served as Governor of New South Wales from 1810 to 1821. She played a significant role in the establishment of the colony and is recognised in the naming of many A ...

influenced her husband to form an Auxiliary

Bible Society A Bible society is a non-profit organization, usually nondenominational in makeup, devoted to translating, publishing, and distributing the Bible at affordable prices. In recent years they also are increasingly involved in advocating its credibi ...

in New South Wales. Governor Lachlan Macquarie called a meeting of "the Magistrates, Clergymen and other inhabitants of Sydney." In a packed court-house, the leading citizens of Sydney established the New South Wales Auxiliary of the British and Foreign Bible Society, as the Bible Society was then known. One of the first acts of the new Auxiliary was to establish a Scripture depository after the discovery that "more than one-third of the dwellings, and nearly three-fifths of the inhabitants who can read, are without a Bible". In the first two years, nearly 3000 Scriptures were distributed. The first new translation published in Australia was a selection of Scripture passages in the Maori language in 1827. The formal establishment of Bible Society Auxiliaries in each

colony In modern parlance, a colony is a territory subject to a form of foreign rule. Though dominated by the foreign colonizers, colonies remain separate from the administration of the original country of the colonizers, the '' metropolitan state' ...

occurred between 1817 and 1884. Each Auxiliary operated autonomously in the early days. The Auxiliary Bible Society of

Van Diemen's Land Van Diemen's Land was the colonial name of the island of Tasmania used by the British during the European exploration of Australia in the 19th century. A British settlement was established in Van Diemen's Land in 1803 before it became a sep ...

(Tasmania) began in 1819. In Melbourne, 'The Auxiliary Bible Society of Australia Felix' was formed in 1840, eleven years before Victoria officially became a colony. Likewise, an Auxiliary was formed in Queensland at Moreton Bay in 1855, while Queensland was still part of NSW. South Australia opened an Auxiliary in 1845, and later published the first printed Scriptures in an indigenous language, after George Taplin completed his translation of Scripture selections into Narrinyeri (

Ngarrindjeri The Ngarrindjeri people are the traditional Aboriginal Australian people of the lower Murray River, eastern Fleurieu Peninsula, and the Coorong of the southern-central area of the state of South Australia. The term ''Ngarrindjeri'' means "belo ...

) in 1864. An Auxiliary opened in Western Australia in 1884, soon responding to a huge rise in population due to the Gold Rush. The French term, 'colporteur' was used by the Bible Society worldwide to describe its individual Bible distributors. Bible Society 'colporteurs' were once found in every corner of Australia, distributing Bibles on foot, horse and cart, and later, bicycles. In the 1800s, colporteurs visited diggers in the goldfields and axemen's remote timber camps. The last of Australia's colporteurs, Rev Harry Cottrell-Dormer, was appointed in 1956. He was allotted half of Australia, an area of four million square kilometres. "My parish," said Harry, "is the Aborigines, the stockmen, the miners, the prospectors, the oilrig crews, the road gangs, the shearers, the fencers, the fettlers and the dam sinkers – all who inhabit the lonely places." In 1887, the Bible Societies gave a Penny Testament to every schoolchild in Australia to mark the

diamond jubilee A diamond jubilee celebrates the 60th anniversary of a significant event related to a person (e.g. accession to the throne or wedding, among others) or the 60th anniversary of an institution's founding. The term is also used for 75th anniver ...

of the reign of

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previo ...

. During the 1870s and 80s Bibles were also placed by the beds of every hospital in Australia, every prison cell and in every hotel room. There was a growing recognition of the need to unify the work nationally and in 1908 the first conference of State Secretaries met. In 1925, a National Council was formed which met annually. During both World Wars the famous khaki

New Testament The New Testament grc, Ἡ Καινὴ Διαθήκη, transl. ; la, Novum Testamentum. (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus, as well as events in first-century Chri ...

was issued to members of the Australian Army. Likewise the

was issued in two different blues to the Navy and Air Force. The Bibleman show commenced on radio station 2CH in the 1930s. In 1957, building operations started on the site of the Memorial Bible House in Canberra, what was to become the national headquarters of the Society in Australia. The National Headquarters were officially opened on 13 February 1960. The land was donated by the Commonwealth of Australia and the building was opened by the Hon. Robert Menzies, Prime Minister of Australia. The year 1961 marked the 350th anniversary of the Authorised

King James Version The King James Version (KJV), also the King James Bible (KJB) and the Authorized Version, is an Bible translations into English, English translation of the Christian Bible for the Church of England, which was commissioned in 1604 and publis ...

of the Bible and the publication of the

of the

New English Bible The New English Bible (NEB) is an English translation of the Bible. The New Testament was published in 1961 and the Old Testament (with the Apocrypha) was published on 16 March 1970. In 1989, it was significantly revised and republished as the R ...

. Hundreds of thanksgiving services and celebrations were held across Australia and

radio Radio is the technology of signaling and communicating using radio waves. Radio waves are electromagnetic waves of frequency between 30 hertz (Hz) and 300 gigahertz (GHz). They are generated by an electronic device called a transmi ...

and

television Television, sometimes shortened to TV, is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. The term can refer to a television set, or the medium of television transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertisin ...

was used to promote 'Bible Year'. A 1967 Australia Post stamp commemorated 150 years of the British and Foreign Bible Society. A special commissioning service was held in August 1968 for Bible Society's Flying Bibleman, Trevor Booth, who saw the need for an itinerant ministry to serve the remote communities in Western Australia. Flying Bibleman was renamed Flying Bible Ministries in 2013 and continues to distribute Bibles and Scripture resources by plane to an area of over three million square kilometres. In 2010, the Bible Societies of Australia in each state merged into a single organisation, Bible Society Australia with Greg Clarke named CEO. In September 2014, Bible Society Australia celebrated the 150th Anniversary of the first Scriptures published in an Aboriginal language, the

language of South Australia. Bible Society CEO Greg Clarke read from the 1864 minutes of the British And Foreign Bible Society South Australian Auxiliary that resolved to print the Bible in Aboriginal languages. In 2015, the organisation commemorated the centenary of Gallipoli with ''Their Sacrifice'', a multi-media travelling exhibition and website that highlighted the comforting presence of the Bible in times of conflict, from the Boer War to Afghanistan. The campaign was launched by Governor

David Hurley General David John Hurley, (born 26 August 1953) is an Australian former senior officer in the Australian Army who has served as the 27th governor-general of Australia since 1 July 2019. He was previously the 38th governor of New South Wales, ...

at Government House in Sydney. In 2016, Bible Society Australia acquired Acorn Press, an Australian Christian publisher. It has published a number of notable titles since the acquisition including among others, ''Mr Eternity: The Story of Arthur Stace, Metanoia'' and ''Christ Centred Mindfulness: Connected to Self & God.'' In 2017, Bible Society Australia celebrated its Bicentenary with a number of events and activities. This included a national celebration service on Sunday 5 March, held at the Hillsong Church main auditorium in Sydney and live streamed across the nation, and the launch of 'Our Mob, God's Story: Australian and Torres Strait Islanders Artists Share Their Faith', an art book that celebrates the impact of the Bible on Indigenous Australians. The book was awarded Christian Book of the Year, 2017. The Bible Society Campaign, Keeping it Light, attracted controversy when it featured Liberal MPs

Andrew Hastie Andrew William Hastie (born 30 September 1982) is an Australian politician and former military officer currently serving as the Shadow Minister, shadow minister for defence. He previously served as the Minister for Defence (Australia), Assistan ...

and Tim Wilson appearing in a Bible Society video to debate

same-sex marriage Same-sex marriage, also known as gay marriage, is the marriage of two people of the same sex or gender. marriage between same-sex couples is legally performed and recognized in 33 countries, with the most recent being Mexico, constituting ...

. In July 2017, Bible Society Australia hosted 230 delegates from 90 Bible Societies for the annual United Bible Societies Roundtable Exchange conference. After an unprecedented positive season of development, Greg Clarke resigned in June 2019. In the interim Melissa Lipsett became Acting CEO of the Bible Society. In October 2019, Bible Society Chairperson Anne Robinson announced then current ordained

Australian Christian Churches The Australian Christian Churches (ACC), formerly Assemblies of God in Australia, is a network of Pentecostal churches in Australia affiliated with the World Assemblies of God Fellowship, which is the largest Pentecostal denomination in the w ...

minister, Hillsong Church board member (resigned March 2021) and former Chief Marketing Officer Grant Thomson has become CEO. As well as her role at the Bible Society Anne (with her own legal business) works closely with Hillsong's board in forming and developing a number of their governing processes. Grant's leadership style in contrast to his predecessor is more reserved, less publicly engaged and more focused on forming strategic relationships such as with key political figures and Australian Pentecostal movement leaders.

Projects

Translation

Bible Society Australia supports the translation of the Bible into the world's languages, as well as typesetting and publication, including the production of audio versions of the Bible. This includes translations in the indigenous languages of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders and a project to translate the

into

Auslan Auslan () is the majority sign language of the Australian Deaf community. The term ''Auslan'' is a portmanteau of "Australian Sign Language", coined by Trevor Johnston in the 1980s, although the language itself is much older. Auslan is relat ...

(Australian sign language) for the more than 10,000 people who use that language. Overseas projects include Bible translations of the New Testament for ethnic minority groups in Vietnam, and in the Pacific Islands.

Engagement

Bible Society Australia is involved in a number of projects that foster greater engagement with the Christian Bible. For example, in September 2009, the Bible Society launched the largest promotional campaign ever undertaken by Christians in Australia, the Jesus—All About Life campaign, involving 1500 churches from 15 Christian denominations. In October 2012, the Bible Society's "25 words campaign" encouraged Australian Christians to commit to reading just one verse (or 25 words) from the Bible a day, for 31 days. The Bible Society also creates resources to help all ages engage with the Bible. The Wild Bible is a project that offers 34 free Bible animations for children.

Advocacy

In response to rising

secularism Secularism is the principle of seeking to conduct human affairs based on secular, naturalistic considerations. Secularism is most commonly defined as the separation of religion from civil affairs and the state, and may be broadened to a sim ...

in Australia the Bible Society engages with media outlets and the public to demonstrate the continuing relevance of the Bible in Australian society. In 2012 Bible Society Australia formed a partnership with Centre for Public Christianity , a not-for-profit media company that promotes the public understanding of the Christian faith. Since 2014 the Bible Society has run Masterclass youth events across Australia. CEO Greg Clarke's book, The Great Bible Swindle, was the 2015 winner of Australian Christian Book of the Year, arguing for the continued literary relevance of the Bible.

Publications

The Aussie Bible, first released in 2003, was a bestseller. In late 2016, Bible Society Australia bought Acorn Press and in July 2015, the organisation acquired leading Christian retailer Koorong. Roy Williams' book, 'In God They Trust', was launched in 2013 at NSW Parliament House by then NSW Liberal Treasurer

Mike Baird Michael Bruce Baird (born 1 April 1968) is an Australian investment banker and former politician who was the 44th Premier of New South Wales, the Minister for Infrastructure, the Minister for Western Sydney, and the Leader of the New South W ...

and Labor Senator

Ursula Stephens Ursula Mary Stephens (; born 7 July 1954) is a former Australian politician. She served as a Australian Senate, Senator for New South Wales from 2002 to 2014, representing the Australian Labor Party (ALP). She was a parliamentary secretary in t ...

. The book examines the religious beliefs of Australia's Prime Ministers since

Federation A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government ( federalism). In a federation, the self-govern ...

. In 2016, Bible Society Australia published, 'The Bible Down Under' by historian

Meredith Lake Meredith Lake (born 1980) is an Australian author, historian of religion and broadcaster. Early life and education Lake grew up in Sydney in a devout Anglican household. She has a PhD from the University of Sydney, exploring religious narra ...

Literacy

Bible Society Australia has supported literacy projects across the globe, from Africa (

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the Atlantic Ocean, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the ...

South Sudan South Sudan (; din, Paguot Thudän), officially the Republic of South Sudan ( din, Paankɔc Cuëny Thudän), is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered by Ethiopia, Sudan, Central African Republic, Democratic Republic of the ...

) to the

Middle East The Middle East ( ar, الشرق الأوسط, ISO 233: ) is a geopolitical region commonly encompassing Arabia (including the Arabian Peninsula and Bahrain), Asia Minor (Asian part of Turkey except Hatay Province), East Thrace (Europ ...

, to

South East Asia Southeast Asia, also spelled South East Asia and South-East Asia, and also known as Southeastern Asia, South-eastern Asia or SEA, is the geographical south-eastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of mainland ...

. Recent literacy projects in

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a transcontinental country spanning the northeast corner of Africa and southwest corner of Asia via a land bridge formed by the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Medit ...

Pakistan Pakistan ( ur, ), officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan ( ur, , label=none), is a country in South Asia. It is the world's fifth-most populous country, with a population of almost 243 million people, and has the world's second-lar ...

and

aim to benefit lower

socioeconomic Socioeconomics (also known as social economics) is the social science that studies how economic activity affects and is shaped by social processes. In general it analyzes how modern societies progress, stagnate, or regress because of their l ...

groups, such as women and children.

Distribution

In 2016, Bible Society distributed 70,000 Scripture resources to Christian ministries, including free Bibles to mission groups, chaplains in hospital, prison and the defence force, as well as school Scripture teachers. Overseas, Bible Society Australia supported the distribution of Scriptures and Bible reading materials to children in war torn Syria, hospitalised children in Nicaragrua, and prisoners in South Africa.

Digital

In 2016, a new ''

Eternity Eternity, in common parlance, means infinite time that never ends or the quality, condition, or fact of being everlasting or eternal. Classical philosophy, however, defines eternity as what is timeless or exists outside time, whereas sempit ...

'' digital news service was designed and launched. ''Eternity'' is Australia's largest Christian newspaper and is named in honour of 'Mr Eternity',

Arthur Stace Arthur Malcolm Stace (9 February 1885 – 30 July 1967), known as Mr Eternity, was an Australian soldier. He was an alcoholic from his teenage years until the early 1930s, when he converted to Christianity and began to spread his message by ...

. In 2017, Bible Society Australia ran a campaign telling the story of

Easter Easter,Traditional names for the feast in English are "Easter Day", as in the '' Book of Common Prayer''; "Easter Sunday", used by James Ussher''The Whole Works of the Most Rev. James Ussher, Volume 4'') and Samuel Pepys''The Diary of Samuel ...

through a series of text messages. Given an uptake in the use of social media, particularly Bible apps, Bible Society Australia partnered with YouVersion to offer users a series of customised Bible reading plans, as part of its 200-year birthday celebrations.

Infrastructure

Bible Society Australia supports smaller Bible Societies across the world with infrastructure development such as training and the provision of resources. For example, Bible Society Australia supports the Arab Israeli Bible Society with ongoing funding of its projects.

Indigenous (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders)

The Bible Society has long been engaged in Indigenous translation, and aims to maximise the ownership and contribution of Indigenous translators. Bibles are also produced in audio format. The organisation has always been the major publisher of Scriptures in Indigenous languages. Bible Society has published Scripture in almost all of these languages, ranging from portions and single Gospels through to full New Testament. The whole Bible has been published in Kriol. The Yumplatok New Testament was published by Bible Society Australia in 2014 after a translation process that took 27 years and Bible Society Australia is currently involved in The Pitjantjatjara Bible Translation Project. In March, 2017 CEO Greg Clarke told the ABC there was a need to be honest about the mistakes of missionaries in the past who were involved in suppressing Indigenous languages and that Bible Society Australia is working to produce translations of the Bible in the very languages that were once suppressed.

References

External links

Bible Society Australia
{{Authority control Bible societies Christian organisations based in Australia Religious organizations established in 1817 Christian organizations established in the 19th century 1817 establishments in Australia Christian fundamentalism