220 years on, there is a new frontier for Bible Society's work.
(Photo: Bible Society)This is the spiritual landscape: not many people go to church, and many of the ones who do either go out of habit or because it's socially the done thing. There are lots of clergy, too, but many of them are only in it for money and status. Large numbers of people are completely ignorant of the Bible and know little if anything about Christianity. There are lots of atheists, but even more people who never give religion a thought. The Church is valued, if at all, as part of the traditional structure of society, good for marrying and burying people but not much more.
Are we in twenty-first century Britain? Not at all: we're in the Britain of 1804. Spiritually the situation is bleak. There are some bright spots – Methodists and some Nonconformist denominations are quite lively, there is a growing evangelical movement in the Church of England, and stirrings of Catholic revival. But the new urban centres springing up thanks to the Industrial Revolution are largely churchless, and new generations are growing up with no knowledge of Christian faith at all (just a few years later a worried government would vote a million pounds for church building, a huge sum at the time).
It's in this context that the British and Foreign Bible Society began, on 7 March 1804 – 220 years ago. A young girl, Mary Jones, had walked 26 miles through the rugged terrain of North Wales to buy a Bible in Welsh from Revd Thomas Charles of Bala. The story of her deep desire for a Bible of her own had led another minister, Revd Joseph Hughes, to argue for low-cost Bibles to be printed for Welsh-speakers. And in a daring flight of imagination, he asked: 'If for Wales, why not for the kingdom? And if for the kingdom, why not for the world?' Now, two years after his speech, at the London Tavern in Bishopsgate Street, around 300 people – Quakers, Anglicans, Baptists, Lutherans and many more – would begin to make the dream a reality. The British and Foreign Bible Society was established, and the equivalent of nearly £30,000 was pledged on the day to fund the enterprise.
Bible Society – the name by which it's now known – sparked a movement that's spread around the world; there are now around 150 Bible Societies operating in around 240 countries and territories, co-operating through the United Bible Societies organisation. What marked it out from the beginning was its single-minded focus on the Bible. It didn't get involved in theological controversy, and it deliberately included Christians from a wide range of different confessions. Bible Society wanted the Bible – the foundational text for every Church – to be printed, distributed and read.
At the same time, it demonstrated the transformative power of the Bible. Its supporters – who included William Wilberforce – were active campaigners against slavery. Others were prison reformers. One of the pioneers of social work was Bible Society's Ellen Ranyard, who founded a movement of 'Bible Women' who visited the London poor. Wherever it was read, the Bible made a difference.
But what about today? Each local Society faces its own challenges, and Bible Society helps to resource them in their work – we help with printing and distributing the Bible, literacy programmes, translation, theological education and training pastors and church workers. In England and Wales, there are plenty of similarities between the situation for the Church and wider society in 1804 and in 2024 – and many differences.
Nowadays there's no shortage of Bibles, and most people reading this article have one on their phones. And while it might seem counter-intuitive to say it, in some ways the Church is stronger than it was back then! There might be proportionately fewer people in church on Sundays, but today, if you go to church you really mean it – and no one goes into ministry for the money.
It's even more true today, though, that very large numbers of people have no interest in the Bible or in Christianity – right now, 86 per cent of people in England and Wales never or hardly ever read the Bible. Bible Society is committed to changing that. We want to recall the Church to a sense of the power of Scripture to change lives, and encourage believers to put Bible mission at the heart of what they do. And we want to see the Bible becoming part of the national conversation about how to live a good life, just as it was when we began.
So we're investing in resources to build up the Church, like The Bible Course and The Romans Course. We're pioneering digital mission through working with new online 'tribes'. We're connecting with spiritually curious people and showing them the rich resources of Scripture. We're continuing to reach out to people who are marginalised because they've experienced trauma or are in prison. We're including people who are excluded from the 'Bible reading norm', through creating dyslexia-friendly Scriptures. The frontier for us today isn't Bible availability, it's Bible engagement – bringing people to a place where the Scriptures become a channel for them to encounter the living God.
Behind what we do is a solid body of unique research – and some of its findings are really encouraging. Back in 2018 we surveyed nearly 20,000 people through polling organisation YouGov, asking them questions about their life and faith and churchgoing habits. We found that while there were some people who were hostile to religion, far more were either indifferent or actually curious: a quarter of adults in England and Wales want to know more about the Bible. That represents a massive opportunity. We've repeated the survey at intervals since, and we've found that – contrary to popular assumptions – the Church in England and Wales is no longer declining. Parts of it are, certainly, but parts of it are growing. That's tremendously encouraging!
We believe we're seeing new possibilities for mission and growth opening up, not just overseas but here at home as well. These are exciting times, and we're excited to be living in these days.
Rev Mark Woods is Head of Communications for Bible Society.
