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L.A., Atlanta and New York are sites of China Bible exhibit
April 25, 2006
A UMNS Report
By Linda Bloom*
A Bible exhibition from China will be displayed in three U.S. locations between
April 28 and June 15.
Sponsored by the China Christian Council and the National Committee of Three-Self
Patriotic Movement of Protestant Churches in China, the exhibition highlights
Christian witness in that country. The United Methodist Church has a continuing
relationship with the China Christian Council.
“A Lamp to My Feet, a Light to My Path ? China Bible Ministry
Exhibition” will open to the public April 28 at the Crystal Cathedral
in Los Angeles, where it will continue through May 4.
The other locations are the Second-Ponce de Leon Baptist Church in Atlanta,
May 19-24, and the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York, June 5-12.
The Atlanta exhibition will open with a special address by former President
Jimmy Carter.
The free exhibition, tracing nearly 1,500 years of Christianity in China,
was first held in Hong Kong in 2004. According to Amity News Service, that
six-day exhibit drew some 20,000 visitors, mostly local Christians.
The “imperial edition” of the Bible,
a special New Testament published in 1894 and presented by a group of Christian
women
to the Empress Dowager
Cixi of the Qing Dynasty, was a highlight of the exhibition. A copy owned by
the China Christian Council and Three-Self Patriotic Movement was auctioned
off, with the proceeds donated to the Medical College of the Chinese University
of Hong Kong for SARS research.
According to the China Christian Council, the
purpose of the exhibition “is
to bear witness to how Chinese Christians love God’s Word, how the Good
News in the Bible has been spread in China and how Christ’s body has
been built up under the consistent guidance of the Word.”
Topics for the exhibit’s six galleries are
the early history of the Bible in China, Bible publication after 1980, Bible
distribution
after 1980,
Bible ministries for national minority churches, the Bible and church life,
and Christian art works.
According to the exhibition Web site, the first Chinese version of the entire
Bible was translated jointly by a foreign missionary and his Chinese assistant
in the early 19th century. Subsequent Bible translation and publication were
carried out through efforts of Chinese Christians and other foreign missionaries.
United Methodists relate to Christians in China
through programs associated with both the China Christian Council and the
Amity Foundation,
a social service
organization. Since the 1970s, the denomination’s Board of Global Ministries
has had a China Program, which currently focuses on constituency education,
ecumenical partnerships and cultural exchange.
In January, the council, Three-Self movement and Amity Foundation celebrated
the fact that 40 million Bibles had been completed at the Amity Printing Press
in Nanjing, a joint venture between Amity and the United Bible Societies. A
new site for the press, on the outskirts of the city, is expected to be finished
in mid-2007.
Donations to assist with the printing of Bibles
and Christian literature in China can be made through the Advance, the second-mile
giving
program of the
United Methodist Church. The Advance number is 11422A, Amity Printing Press.
Checks can be designated to “Advance GCFA” and placed in church
collection plates or mailed directly to Advance GCFA, P.O. Box 9068 GPO, New
York, NY 10087-9068. More information can be found at http://gbgm-umc.org/advance/, the Advance Web site.
General information about the China Bible Ministry Exhibition can be found
at www.bibleexhibition.org online.
*Bloom is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in New York.
News media contact: Linda Bloom, New York, (646) 369-3759 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
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