Bibles

For communities whose natural way to communicate is through telling stories, that means producing the Bible in audio. Bible Society supports Bible listening groups by supplying solar-powered, wind-up listening machines called Proclaimers.

For blind communities we produce Braille Bibles. These are produced on heavy paper so they can be printed on both sides. When it’s complete, the whole Bible fills 50 enormous volumes, and is usually kept in libraries where the whole community can read it.

In terms of printing Bibles, Bible Societies globally run two huge printing centres – one in Brazil and one in China. 

The printing centre in Brazil, the largest in the world, opened in 1995. In its first 13 years it produced 80 million Scriptures, including 20 million that were exported to more than 100 countries.

Meanwhile, the Amity Printing Press in China can print 12 million Bibles a year. Opened less than a decade after the Cultural Revolution ended in China, Bible Societies help in the management and operation of the government-approved press.

In its first 20 years, 50 million Bibles rolled off the presses. Of those, 42 million were for China’s growing church and the rest were exported. An expanded printing press, with £2.3m worth of new equipment, was opened in 2008.