Bible engagement & advocacy

2014 was a remarkable year for Bible translation for not only the Bible Society but the international Bible Society communities. Bible Societies assisted in completing Scriptures in no fewer than 51 languages with the potential to impact over 1.371 billion people - 1.225 billion Chinese speakers and 146 million speakers of other languages.

In 2014, Bible Societies were involved in:

• 30 First language translations - spoken by nearly 10 million people.
• 21 New translation and Revisions - spoken by 1.361 billion speakers.

100 Bibles in 1000 days was a campaign to further our mission to reach as many as possible of the 7.2 billion people in our world who speak 6,901 languages with a translation of the Bible. By the end of 2014, 70 translations had been completed, with 30 of these published and 40 in pre-production or printing stage.

580,000 pieces of Scripture were distributed by the Bible Society in Australia.

The Centre for Public Christianity

Large sections of the Australian public are disinterested, ill-informed and in some cases hostile to Christianity. CPX aims to promote the public understanding of the Christian faith through thoughtful and generous engagement with the mainstream media and in other public spaces explaining the significance of Christianity in contemporary society. Our vision is a Public Square that knows the truth, beauty and goodness of the Christian faith.

CPX had 32 articles published in mainstream media including the ABC, Sydney Morning Herald, Herald Sun and The Guardian. Director of CPX Simon Smart wrote on hope at Easter in this article. CPX staff were interviewed on various radio programs and produced 43 fifteen minute programs for 103.2FM. CPX hosted speakers appeared on the ABC’s Q&A program (Miroslav Volf and John Stackhouse).

Staff of the Centre for Public Christianity gave a total of 80 talks at 54 separate events. Co-founder John Dickson together with Simon Smart led an educational tour of Israel, delivering lectures on the historical reliability of the Jesus story and the impact of that story today.

Two major research papers were completed on The Practice of Compassion in Hammondcare and Promoting the Gospel in Hammondcare.