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Amity Foundation

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Further information: Protestantism in China
Further information: List of charities in the People's Republic of China
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 Jījīnhuì) 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 poor 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. Amity Printing Company opened a branch in Ethiopia in 2016. Amity Foundation has an office in Hong Kong[6] and opened a liaison office in the Ecumenical Center of the World Council of Churches[7] in Geneva in 2017.

Ideals

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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.[8] Various partner organizations have praised the work and activity of the charity.[9][10][11] 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.[citation needed][12]

Activities

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  • Disaster relief
  • Support of church-run social work
  • Support of medical education in China's poorest areas
  • HIV/AIDS awareness and prevention training
  • Education in the countryside and for the children of migrant workers, including the Amity Teachers Program[13][14]
  • Special education (e.g. work with deaf or disabled children)
  • Taking care of orphans
  • Environmental protection[15]
  • Integrated development (e.g. providing basic health care, schooling, clean energy, agricultural skills training and microfinance to a village community)

Amity Printing Company

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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.[16][17] It is a joint venture with the United Bible Societies.[18] In its first year (1988), it printed 500,000 Bibles on a press donated by UBS.[19] 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.[20]

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[when?] 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.[citation needed]

Since China's adoption of the New Regulations on Religious Affairs in 2018 that banned online bookstores from selling Bibles, the APC has been facing difficulty in printing Chinese Bibles. This has caused a shortage of Catholic Bibles in Hong Kong.[21]

See also

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Sources

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  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 Archived 2014-05-29 at the Wayback Machine, Beijing Today, January 13, 2010
  3. ^ John Peale (2005). The Love of God in China: Can One Be Both Chinese and Christian?. iUniverse. p. 56. ISBN 978-0-595-33619-7.
  4. ^ "Amity website". Archived from the original on March 11, 2010.
  5. ^ "Welcome To Amity Printing CO.,LTD". Amityprinting.com. Retrieved 2013-07-10.
  6. ^ "Hong Kong Office".
  7. ^ "World Council of Churches".
  8. ^ Gerda Wielander (2013). Christian Values in Communist China. Routledge. p. 73. ISBN 978-1-317-97604-2.
  9. ^ "Christian Aid backs the work of Amity in quake-hit China". Ekklesia. Retrieved 2013-07-10.
  10. ^ "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.
  11. ^ "Amity Foundation Aids China Earthquake Victims". Globalministries.org. Retrieved 2013-07-10.
  12. ^ Thomson Reuters Foundation. "Thomson Reuters Foundation | News, Information and Connections for Action". Alertnet.org. Retrieved 2013-07-10. {{cite web}}: |author= has generic name (help)[dead link]
  13. ^ "Amity Teacher blog". News.haverford.edu. Archived from the original on 2012-10-14. Retrieved 2013-07-10.
  14. ^ "Back to School Program".
  15. ^ Thomson Reuters Foundation. "Thomson Reuters Foundation | News, Information and Connections for Action". Alertnet.org. Archived from the original on 2008-06-26. Retrieved 2013-07-10. {{cite web}}: |author= has generic name (help)
  16. ^ Zhou, Jing. "Where is the world's largest Bible printer?". China.org.cn. Retrieved 2 August 2016.
  17. ^ Steffan, Melissa (November 13, 2012). "World's Biggest Bible Publisher? China". Christianity Today. Retrieved 2 August 2016.
  18. ^ "Understanding Amity". Amityprinting.com. Archived from the original on 12 June 2017. Retrieved 13 June 2017.
  19. ^ "In the beginning was the ideogram". The Economist. March 30, 2013. Retrieved 13 June 2016.
  20. ^ Zylstra, Sarah (October 23, 2014). "Why Your Bible Was Made In China". Christianity Today. Retrieved 13 June 2016.
  21. ^ "Printing troubles spark Catholic Bible shortage in Hong Kong". ucanews.com. August 2, 2022. Retrieved October 17, 2022.
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