World Assembly – day 1

For the first time I have chance to attend the World Assembly of the United Bible Societies. The Swedish Bible Society belongs to this worldwide fellowship with around 150 other Bible Societies. The meeting is held in the Netherlands, north of Amsterdam in a village named Egmond aan Zee. Today I took a walk on the beach. Very windy but nice.

The vice chairperson of the Swedish Bible Society, Karin Wiborn and I form the Swedish delegation. Officially. But my colleague, Lotta Ring, is also here. She is our fundraiser and communication officer, and she takes the opportunity to network with people, since almost every Bible Society in the world is present. Sadly, not all are here. For instance, the Israeli, Arab-Israeli, and Palestinian Bible Societies could not make it. Also, from some other conflict zones, people have not managed to travel. This is so unfortunate, and we really miss them. This fact speaks directly to the theme of the Assembly:

God’s word: Reconciliation for the world.

This was really the theme of one of this morning’s programmes. One of the invited guests, Jerry Pillay, who is the General Secretary of the World Council of Churches, spoke about reconciliation. He stressed that there will be no reconciliation without justice. Jerry Pillay is from South Africa. Just like the Secretary General of the United Bible Society, Dirk Gevers. They are both from the Presbyterian Church and they know one another since there theological studies. The conversation they had this morning took us back to the apartheid era in South Africa. Jerry Pillay is Indian and Dirk Gevers is white. This means that they, in the 1980s, lived totally different lives. Today they can describe one another as friends. This gives hope. Change is possible.

Today an anthology was also launched. A collaboration between
the United Bible Society and the World Council of Churches.
The book is edited by Rosalee Velliso Ewell and she handed
over copies to Dirk Gevers and Jerry Pillay.

We also listened to Michel Kenmogne from Cameroon. He is the executive director of SIL, which is another organisation working with Bible translation. He was talking about Bible Justice. The way he showed that language minorities often are marginalised also in many other ways, was convincing.

Another guest was David Cárdenas from Wycliffe Global Alliance. His contribution was about collaboration between organisation that receive funds and organisation that donate funds. It was about the legacy of colonisation and the possibility of showing one another respect and build relationships of trust. He spoke in Spanish, and this meant that all of us who are used to listen to speakers who speak in English had to use the devices with translation. It is much more difficult to follow a speaker that way. But a good experience.

After the session on collaboration, I had a short conversation with my colleagues from Ghana. We support a literacy project in Ghana with funds from Sida, which is the Swish state aid agency. We could speak openly about our relation, and I asked them how they experienced our project visit last month. I trust that we have the same experience that our relationship is built on mutual trust and respect. It is nevertheless good to verbalise that.

The General Secretary of the Bible Society of Ghana, John Kwesi Addo Jr,
their Board Chair Daniel Sylvanus Mensah Torto and an emerging leader,
Catherine Naa Adjeley Odjidja together with me in the conversation.

Between the different sessions we eat and share fellowship with one another. I really get to meet so many interesting people. It is so valuable to be here.