United Bible Societies

After the Second World War a movement that had grown to little more than a dozen Bible Societies decided to stop working alone. The fellowship they founded in 1946 now works in over 240 countries and territories, and its members stand behind roughly 70% of all Bible translations that exist today, by their own account.

It is a fellowship, not a company. Each national Bible Society is independent and interconfessional — serving Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant and newer churches alike — and together they share translation scholarship, funding and the Digital Bible Library that supplies Bible apps such as YouVersion.

The Polish member is one of the oldest institutions in this catalogue. Towarzystwo Biblijne w Polsce was founded in Warsaw in 1816, after a proposal from Rev. Robert Pinkerton of the British and Foreign Bible Society, and was reorganised in 1992 with a National Committee made up of official representatives of twelve Polish churches.

• Founded
  1946, by a movement that had grown to little more than a dozen Bible Societies
• Structure
  A fellowship of independent national Bible Societies, interconfessional by design
• Members
  152 national Bible Societies, as reported by the Polish Bible Society, working in over 240 countries and territories
• Leadership
  Dirk Gevers, Secretary General; Elaine Duncan, Chair of the Fellowship Council
• Reach
  Roughly 70% of all Bible translations that exist today. Their Digital Bible Library supplies partners such as YouVersion, reaching audiences of more than 5.6 billion people
• Also does
  Literacy training for around 100,000 people a year, trauma healing, and hospital and prison work, alongside translation, printing and distribution
• Polish
  Yes — Towarzystwo Biblijne w Polsce, ul. Marszałkowska 15a, 00-626 Warszawa. Founded in Warsaw in 1816 and reorganised in 1992 as an ecumenical society whose National Committee holds representatives of twelve Polish churches. KRS 0001066002, a registered Polish public benefit organisation
• Polish contact
  tb@tb.org.pl · +48 22 875 96 62 · tb.org.pl, with a bookshop in Warsaw and an online shop
• Cost
  The societies live on donations and on Scripture sales. Polish taxpayers can direct 1.5% of their income tax to the Polish society
• What we checked
  The founding year, the leadership and the reach come from United Bible Societies’ own pages. The count of 152 societies and the Polish history and registration come from the Polish Bible Society’s own site

United Bible Societies does not sponsor or endorse Embassy of the Kingdom, and we are not affiliated with them. We list them because we checked them and would put them in a friend’s hands. If you lead a ministry and would like to be considered, or believe something here should be corrected, write to us — we read every message ourselves.