Amity Foundation

The Amity Foundation Headquarters, Nanjing, China

The Amity Foundation (simplified Chinese: 爱德基金会; traditional Chinese: 愛德基金會; pinyin: Àidé Jījīn Huì) is an independent Chinese voluntary organization.[1] As of 2010 it is the largest charity in China.[2] It was created in 1985 on the initiative of Christians in China with the late Bishop K. H. Ting as its founder.[3] Its main objective has been to help develop poorer areas of the country.[4] Amity's headquarters are in Nanjing. The organization includes the Amity Printing Company (APC, also sometimes called Amity Printing Press),[5] the largest Bible producer in China.

Ideals

Amity Printing Company, Nanjing, China

Some have described Amity as a faith-initiated organization that works with Christians, while others, such as the current General Secretary Qiu Zhonghui, has described it as a faith-based organization.[6] Various partner organizations have praised the work and activity of the charity.[7][8][9] Recently the charitable organisation has been highlighted in both domestic and international media for its action and prompt relief work in China in response to natural disasters.[10]

Activities

Amity Printing Company (APC)

The Amity Printing Company (APC, Chinese: 爱德印刷有限公司) in Nanjing is the largest producer of Bibles in China, and one of the largest in the world.[14][15] It is a joint venture with the United Bible Societies. [16] In its first year (1988), it printed 500,000 Bibles on a press donated by UBS. [17] Since 1988, it has published Bibles in Mandarin and in several ethnic minority languages, as well as in many other languages for export. It is China's only legal printer of Bibles.[18]

The APC has so far published more than 100 million Bibles. Most of the Bibles printed are the Chinese Union Version (Chinese: 和合本, 1919), the Chinese Bible translation used by the Protestant churches, or the less commonly accepted but more modern Today's Chinese Version. Recently the Pastoral Bible used by the Catholic churches has also been printed here. All Chinese Bibles are distributed not by the state-run bookstore chains (such as Xinhua Bookstore), but through the network of officially registered Protestant churches.

See also

Sources

  1. ↑ "Reference in Chinese Charity overview". Chinacsrmap.org. Archived from the original on 2012-03-10. Retrieved 2013-07-10.
  2. ↑ Breaking a circle of ignorance and crime, Beijing Today, January 13, 2010
  3. ↑ Connection to Three Self Movement. Books.google.com. 2005. ISBN 9780595336197. Retrieved 2013-07-10.
  4. ↑ Amity website Archived March 11, 2010, at the Wayback Machine.
  5. ↑ "Welcome To Amity Printing CO.,LTD". Amityprinting.com. Retrieved 2013-07-10.
  6. ↑ Gerda Wielander (2013). Christian Values in Communist China. Routledge. p. 73. ISBN 978-1-317-97604-2.
  7. ↑ "Christian Aid backs the work of Amity in quake-hit China". Ekklesia. Retrieved 2013-07-10.
  8. ↑ "Amity Foundation expands social outreach in China". Archives.umc.org. 2006-11-06. Archived from the original on 2012-07-07. Retrieved 2013-07-10.
  9. ↑ "Amity Foundation Aids China Earthquake Victims". Globalministries.org. Retrieved 2013-07-10.
  10. ↑ Thomson Reuters Foundation. "Thomson Reuters Foundation | News, Information and Connections for Action". Alertnet.org. Retrieved 2013-07-10.
  11. ↑ "Amity Teacher blog". News.haverford.edu. Retrieved 2013-07-10.
  12. ↑ Back to School Program
  13. ↑ Thomson Reuters Foundation. "Thomson Reuters Foundation | News, Information and Connections for Action". Alertnet.org. Retrieved 2013-07-10.
  14. ↑ Zhou, Jing. "Where is the world's largest Bible printer?". China.org.cn. Retrieved 2 August 2016.
  15. ↑ Steffan, Melissa (November 13, 2012). "World's Biggest Bible Publisher? China". Christianity Today. Retrieved 2 August 2016.
  16. ↑ "Understanding Amity". Amityprinting.com. Retrieved 13 June 2017.
  17. ↑ "In the beginning was the ideogram". The Economist. March 30, 2013. Retrieved 13 June 2016.
  18. ↑ Zylstra, Sarah (October 23, 2014). "Why Your Bible Was Made In China". Christianity Today. Retrieved 13 June 2016.
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