Millennium celebrations and
Olympic Games push Scripture distribution to 633 million

READING, England — The Bible Societies of the world distributed some 633 million pieces of Scripture in 2000, an increase of a tenth of one per cent over the revised total for the previous year, according to the UBS Scripture Distribution Report 2000, published this week.

The apparently small growth of the overall distribution covers a second revision made to the figures for the year to October 1999. The figure reported earlier, 627.9 million, has now been revised upwards to 632.5 million. Worldwide celebrations of the millennium and the international interest in the Olympic Games held in Sydney were among the occasions which Bible Societies across the world turned to good account.

The categories of Scripture which registered the most notable increase in distribution in 2000 were New Reader Selections (selections from the Bible illustrated with pictures and aimed at people who are still developing their reading abilities), which have gone up by 16.7 per cent to 49.8 million, and New Testaments, which have risen by 14.8 per cent to 23.5 million. Complete Bibles show an increase of 5.8 per cent worldwide to a new total of 24.9 million.

Global distribution of Portions, New Reader Portions and Selections have all fallen. The largest drop was registered by New Reader Portions with a decrease of 26 per cent from last year.

When reporting distribution statistics, the UBS, a Fellowship of national Bible Societies, is always careful to point out that figures do not tell the whole story. An increasing number of people around the world are encountering the Bible in formats other than the traditional print.

For example, a growing number of churches are playing audio cassettes of Bible readings to churchgoers in study groups and some Bible Societies have persuaded radio stations to broadcast them. Using a number of different voices and enhanced by music, these recordings often have dramatic effects on the lives of listeners. They are especially popular in countries where literacy rates are low.

Many Societies also put daily Bible readings on their websites and some, such as the Bible Society in Lebanon, make the entire Bible available for visitors to download. Despite the certainty that large numbers of people access the Scriptures in these formats, it has so far not proved possible to put a figure on them or account for them in Societies' annual returns.

As in past years, the Americas region is where the lion’s share of distribution has taken place - 464 million Scriptures, including more than 12 million Bibles and nearly 14 million New Testaments. In terms of increase, however, it is the Europe-Middle East region which leads the world. Its figure of 15.1 million is a rise of 43 per cent, compared with a meagre 1.9 per cent increase in the Americas.

Possible reasons for the boost in this region include the special events and associated distributions made by the Bible Society in Italy, where the millennium year drew millions of pilgrims to Rome. (Stories about the Bible Society in Italy appeared in Latest News 112 and 113, and in World Report 350, 353 and 354.)

Millennium celebrations also put Israel in the spotlight. Special events organised by the Bible Society there included the opening of a permanent Bible exhibition in Jerusalem, funded by the UBS Scripture expansion program Opportunity 21. The Society also co-operated with the Palestinian Bible Society in launching a Portion containing Scriptures on the subject of peace. (Stories about the Bible Society in Israel appeared in World Report 346, 350, 354 and 358. Stories about the Palestinian Bible Society and the Bible Society in Israel together appear in World Report 356 and a story about the Palestinian Bible Society in World Report 352).

A young woman examines the Scriptures on display in the Pavilion of Hope in Hannover

Elsewhere in the region, the German Bible Society made a big splash with their presence in the Pavilion of Hope, built with the outline of a whale, at the world’s fair in Hannover (see World Report 353).

In Anglophone Africa, Nigeria and Ghana have remained the big players, although Nigeria is one of many countries in the region whose Bible distribution has fallen over the past year. Kenya, on the other hand, has succeeded in bucking the trend: Bible distribution there has more than doubled, while the number of New Testaments distributed has risen more than tenfold.

The generally gloomy picture in Africa extends across its Francophone countries. Southern Africa’s Bible distribution shows a slight increase, however, with South Africa still leading the field in terms of Bibles and New Testaments. Zimbabwe, a country now experiencing political troubles, has surpassed Malawi to become the second largest distributor of Bibles.

In the Americas the boost to the distribution of Bibles and Testaments in Cuba, which followed the visit by the Pope in 1998, has come to an end: Bibles are down by nearly a quarter and New Testaments by nearly three-quarters.

In the non-Spanish speaking Caribbean, tiny Suriname managed to increase its Bible distribution from 13,000 to 22,000 - small numbers in absolute terms, but a rise of 68 per cent. In achieving this, the Suriname Bible Society has kept the momentum of 1999 which was the first time in six years that it had met its distribution targets.

The Chinese people were the recipients of some 1.9 million Bibles from the presses of the Amity Printing Company, the joint venture between the officially-sanctioned Amity Foundation and the UBS. Last December celebrations marked the printing of 25 million Bibles by the Company since the presses started rolling in 1987 (see World Report 357) and there is every sign that the hunger for the Word of God in China is unabated. At the celebrations, Ms Guo Wei, of China’s State Administration for Religious Affairs, the government body which monitors religious activities, noted that over the last 20 years the Bible has become the second best seller in China, “second only to Deng Xiaoping’s collections.’

In South Korea, a country whose thriving mega-churches are eyed somewhat enviously by evangelicals in the West, Bible distribution has continued the trend of recent years with a fall of 18 per cent. It should be noted, however, that South Korea’s highly technological society is another example of a country where people are increasingly accessing the Scriptures in non-print formats. As an example, the multi-media Bible center for young people which the Korean Bible Society opened in Seoul in December 1999 proved very popular (see World Report 355).

An indian evangelist carrying Bibles

India’s distribution continues to dominate in the Indo-Pacific Region - though given that it surpasses all other countries in the region in every category of demographic statistics its pre-eminence is not surprising (see Special Report 26). Nevertheless 2000 saw the Bible Society of India reach the notable milestone of distributing more than one million Bibles for the first time, an increase of some 44 per cent over 1998-99. New Testaments showed a more modest growth of five per cent.

Among the supporting Bible Societies in the region, the efforts of the Bible Society in Australia in producing sports-related Bibles, New Testaments and Gospels (which are counted as Portions) for distribution before and during the millennium Olympic Games in Sydney in September undoubtedly contributed to the sharp rise in the distribution of New Testaments (up 35 per cent to 183,000) and Portions (up 40 per cent to 261,000). (For stories in connection with the Olympics see World Report 353, 355, 356).

Elsewhere in the same region, the Philippine Bible Society (PBS) is unusual, if not unique, in recording a rise in every category in which it undertook distribution. Bibles show a rise of 33 per cent, New Reader Portions 18 per cent, Portions 14 per cent, New Testaments 12 per cent and Selections a comparatively modest 4.8 per cent.

Distribution continued to benefit from the PBS’s centennial celebrations in 1999, which included the opening of a new bookstore, a new Bible warehouse and the printing of a low-cost Centennial Bible in five major languages (see World Report 352). A survey of the activities reported by the PBS reveals it to have been swift to minister at the scene of a natural disaster in Manila (see World Report 354), and enthusiastic to meet a request for Bibles from the scene of political unrest in the remote southern city of General Santos (see World Report 351).