Bible Society official visits with local clergy

Friday, September 30, 2011
Philip Wilson, pastor of First Church of God, Dr. Dale Cummins, pastor of Cherry Grove Baptist Church and First Presbyterian Church Pastor Mansour Khajehpour listen to David Thorne (right), Asia Pacific area secretary of UBS. Not pictured but in attendance was Kevin Lyon.(Ruth Campbell/Tribune)

From a background in printing at the community newspaper level, David Thorne has gotten involved in distributing Bibles in places where the gospel isn't always welcome.

As Asia Pacific area secretary of the United Bible Societies, Thorne works with other independent Bible societies in Iran, Fiji, Polynesia, Mongolia, New Zealand and many other locales.

The society also offers expertise for Bible translation. "My job is to keep knitting communication between those 22 Bible societies. They (the societies) are autonomous," Thorne said.

The United Bible Society is set up like the United Nations. A general secretary speaks for the whole organization, which meets every six years as a fellowship and employs a small international staff, of which Thorne is a member. UBS headquarters -- now in Reading, England, changes according to whoever is named general secretary.

Thorne, who is from Brisbane, Australia, was in Fort Scott this week to visit with First Presbyterian Church Pastor Mansour Khajehpour and his wife, Nahid Khajehpour, who translates the word. The pastor also set up a coffee at the church so local church leaders, pastors and the community could meet with Thorne.

When the Shah of Iran fell in 1980, the Bible society there closed. Nahid's father worked for the Bible Society and Nahid was translating. Through that, Mansour got involved and familiarized himself with desktop publishing. Thorne and Nahid planned to attend the convention of Persian Christian Ministries in Washington, D.C..

This coincides with the opening of the China Church Bible exhibition, hosted by the American Bible Society and other major U.S. churches at Mount Vernon Place United Methodist Church in Baltimore, Md.

Churches in countries such as Iran and China have ways of obtaining Bibles, and there are mission organizations and Christian leaders who help. The Bible society tends to approach churches and organizations in-country to get the word out. "We do not engage in an approach that takes the law into our own hands. We work with churches in those countries. They can handle it through their own connections," Thorne said.

One of Thorne's tasks in China was setting up a printing organization to produce Bibles.

Since its founding in 1988 through 2009, the Amity Printing Co., a joint venture between the Amity Foundation and the United Bible Societies, has printed 68 million Bibles. The books are currently produced in eight dialects. "We also have seven translation projects active. Those translations are initiated by Christian church groupings in those locations," Thorne said. He added the Bible society provides assistance and fact checking. Software called Paratext is used to help structure the translations and offer consistency.

The plant produces about 1 million Bibles a month. This month, it set a record of 1.6 million, Thorne said.

Amity is also a major Bible exporter, sending copies of the good book to more than 70 countries, according to a brochure about the company. "There's actually a problem with smuggling Bibles out, because we publish them so cheaply," Thorne said.