The Bible Society

Making history

Hundreds of people gathered at Edinburgh Castle this month for the launch of Bible Society’s People’s Bible initiative.

Between now and November, 35,000 people across England, Scotland, Wales and the Isle of Man are expected to answer a call to ‘Make your mark in history’ and handwrite verses of the Bible, using a digital pen, to mark the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible.

Once written, the verses will be uploaded to the internet where they will be immediately available online.

At the launch, Scotland’s Cabinet Secretary for Culture and External Affairs, Fiona Hyslop said, ‘I think this will help connect people again with the Bible in an accessible way.’

Elaine Duncan, Chief Executive of the Scottish Bible Society said, ‘I’m really excited about the next six months. It’s hard to anticipate what might happen, but I think this has the potential to have a very big impact.’

The launch was held at the birthplace of King James VI of Scotland.

Four hundred miles on a bus

An 81-year-old retired church minister has made a 437-mile journey from Edinburgh to Westminster using only his bus pass.

Revd Brian Ranford hopes to have raised thousands of pounds for Bible translation as a result of his eight-day trip, which ended today. He lived in the remote Tuvalu Islands as a Bible translator in his twenties – so he hopes his efforts will raise as much as possible to fund Bible translation today.

‘You need the Bible in order to have a happy, peaceful world,’ says Mr Ranford. ‘The Bible is a witness to the God that people think that they can do without.’

His bus journey has taken in some of the destinations that The People’s Bible tour is visiting this summer, going from Carlisle, Durham, York and Lincoln onto Cambridge, Oxford, High Wycombe and finally Westminster.

En route, Mr Ranford read the book of Isaiah in digital on his Kindle.