British and Foreign Bible Society
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| Abbreviation | BFBS |
|---|---|
| Formation | 1804 |
| Purpose | Bible distribution, translation, advocacy, literacy, engagement, production |
| Headquarters | Swindon |
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Region served
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England & Wales |
| Website | biblesociety.org.uk |
The British and Foreign Bible Society, often known in England and Wales as simply the Bible Society, is a non-denominational Christian Bible society with charity status whose purpose is to make the Bible available throughout the world.
The Society was formed on 7 March 1804 by a group of people including William Wilberforce and Thomas Charles to encourage the 'wider circulation and use' of the Scriptures.
The British and Foreign Bible Society dates back to 1804 when a group of Christians, associated with the Religious Tract Society, sought to address the problem of a lack of affordable Bibles in Welsh for Welsh-speaking Christians. Many young girls had walked long distances to Rev Thomas Charles to get copies of the Bible. Later the story was told of one of them - a young girl called Mary Jones who walked over 20 miles to get a Bible in Bala, Gwynedd.
BFBS was not the first Bible Society in the world. The first organisation in Britain to be called "The Bible Society" was founded in 1779 and now called the Naval, Military and Air Force Bible Society.
The first BFBS translation project was the Gospel of John into Mohawk for Canada. In the British Isles BFBS reprinted Bibles in Welsh, Scots Gaelic and Manx Gaelic first produced by SPCK. The first Romani translation was the Gospel of Luke into the Caló language of Iberia.
From the early days, the Society sought to be ecumenical and non-sectarian. The Controversy in 1825-6 about the Apocrypha and the Metrical Psalms resulted in the secession of the Glasgow and Edinburgh Bible Societies, which later formed what is now the Scottish Bible Society. This and another similar 1831 controversy about Unitarians holding significant Society offices resulted in a minority separating to form the Trinitarian Bible Society.
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