Bible Society In Australia
Encyclopedia
Lachlan Macquarie
Major-General Lachlan Macquarie CB , was a British military officer and colonial administrator. He served as the last autocratic Governor of New South Wales, Australia from 1810 to 1821 and had a leading role in the social, economic and architectural development of the colony...
in Sydney
Sydney
Sydney is the most populous city in Australia and the state capital of New South Wales. Sydney is located on Australia's south-east coast of the Tasman Sea. As of June 2010, the greater metropolitan area had an approximate population of 4.6 million people...
on 7 March 1817. The first Australasia
Australasia
Australasia is a region of Oceania comprising Australia, New Zealand, the island of New Guinea, and neighbouring islands in the Pacific Ocean. The term was coined by Charles de Brosses in Histoire des navigations aux terres australes...
n translation was a selection of Scripture selections in the Maori
Maori language
Māori or te reo Māori , commonly te reo , is the language of the indigenous population of New Zealand, the Māori. It has the status of an official language in New Zealand...
language printed in 1827. The Bible Society is the oldest continuingly operating organisation in Australia.
Mission
The stated mission of the Bible Society of Australia is "to provide the Word of God to all people, in their own language, in a format they can use and at a price they can afford."Projects
They have projects in around 90 different languages.- There is a kids site at Bible Kids.
- They have a youth site at Godspeak.
- They have a project to take the Bible to Outback Australia with The Flying Bible Man.
- They work with other organisations including Open DoorsOpen DoorsOpen Doors is a non-denominational mission supporting persecuted Christians in more than 50 countries where Christianity is socially or legally discouraged or oppressed...
. - They have a project to translate the BibleBibleThe Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
into AuslanAuslanAuslan is the sign language of the Australian deaf community. The term Auslan is an acronym of "Australian sign language", coined by Trevor Johnston in the early 1980s, although the language itself is much older...
(Australian sign language) for the more than 10,000 people who use that language.
Effect on Australian society
As reported in the Christian Science Monitor, the Bible Society has some effect on 'secular Australia' with an article 'Strine slang Bible a hit in secular Australia'. They were featured on a 1967 Australia PostAustralia Post
Australia Post is the trading name of the Australian Government-owned Australian Postal Corporation .-History:...
stamp.