Taiwan Church News

3373 Edition

October 17 - 23, 2016

Church Ministry

Countering Hegemonic Globalization, Ministry Of Bible Translation Speaks Out For Minorities And Marginalized

Reported by Chiu Kuo-rong

In the evening on October 17, Wycliffe Taiwan launched a pilot project for Amis Audio Bible at Taipei WesleyMethodist Church. In the assembly, except the project outline was introduced by Mr Fong Chia-cie, acting secretary of Taiwan Wycliffe, brother Cheng of Taiwan Bible Society described how the ministry of Bible translation for Taiwan's aborigine was done and its future visions, and Ms Chang Wei-ling, Evangelist of Nern-ya Church at Amis Presbytery, indicated the identity confusion among aboriginal youth as a major challenge if the project of Amis Audio Bible wanted to reach its goal in current aboriginal milieu.

Brother Cheng of Taiwan Bible Society mentioned that, except the peoples of Amis and Taroko had the Biblecompletely translated in their own aboriginal languages, Bible translation was under way for many other aboriginal peoples. Noteworthy was that six aboriginal languages in Taiwan were still short of any Bible translation project: Puyuma, Saisiyat, Kavalan, Sakizaya, Hla'alua, Kanakanavu, said brother Cheng.

Fong Chia-sie expressed, instead of engaging in the ministry of Bible translation for the sake of translation only, Wycliffe's vision onBible translation is to serve diverse peoples, especially the minorities. But, the most urgent challenge, faced by Ministry of Bible translation today, seems to be the unstoppable trend of globalization depriving the global diversity and suppressing the minority into an impoverished corner, said Fong.

In the past, without the impact of globalization, the minority languages on this planet could be well preserved tosome extent, but now the situation is changed, remarked Fong, adding that the church as a major player within this world should not step aside to ignore this critical problem: how to help the minority aborigines on this island and the marginalized peoples in the world to learn the Words of God through a Bible translation into their own languages?

Tanslated by Peter Wolfe