A Bible 2020 campaign to encourage people to read the Bible out loud has gone global and is now set to kick off at sunrise on 1 January 2020 on a Gisborne beach on the east coast of Aotearoa New Zealand.

The Bible 2020 campaign aims to encourage everyone, everywhere to engage with the Bible in their own context and their own language through a new Bible 2020 app that will to enable people to share video of themselves reading out different Bible passages, in different languages, on each day of 2020.

Bible 2020 is the brainchild of the Scottish Bible Society that created it as a way to help Christians in Scotland regain a sense of confidence in the Bible by reading it out loud. They aimed to make the campaign as accessible as possible by using digital technology to transmit the spoken texts. But the Bible 2020 team didn’t anticipate the huge response from Christians in 70 countries around the world who have now signed on to take part.

“The Bible traditionally was passed down orally, but this tradition has been lost in the church." said Director of National Ministries for the Scottish Bible Society Fiona McDonald. "

[Bible 2020 will be] like a wave of Bible reading spreading across the whole world…it starts with New Zealand at sunrise and goes right round the world and comes back again.” she said.

The Bible 2020 launch team are excited that their campaign will have a strong start in one of the first cities in the world to see the sun.

This Bible Society network will promote the Bible 2020 campaign across the globe from Argentina to India to Southern Africa, and through partners such as YouVersion that will draw in millions more people.

“Already many New Zealanders have joined and are ready to start the global wave of Bible reading,” said CEO of Bible Society New Zealand Neels Janse van Rensburg.

Participants will be able to film themselves reading the daily passage and upload it to a video wall, alongside others from round the world reading the same passage in their own languages.

“The app will have access to over 1,000 languages thanks to the United Bible Societies’ Digital Bible Library. That means Māori speakers will be able to read in te Reo,” Neels says.

The Bible 2020 app will be available from late November in app stores.

Go to www.bible2020.nz to find out how to join the global movement.