NEXT year, 2004, has been declared The Year of the Bible, and according to the president of the Bermuda Bible Society (BBS), Ms Shirley White, the Society will spearhead the local observances by staging what is known throughout the world as The Proclamation.

That involves the public reading of the Bible on back-to-back days from Genesis to Revelation.

Mrs. White, a retired secondary school deputy principal, said the year had been designated because it has been 200 years since a young Welsh girl, Mary Jones, trudged 25 miles over rugged terrain to obtain her own Bible for which she has saved her money.

That courageous act gave rise to the organisation which is responsible for our existence as a Bible Society today, Mrs. White told the BBS' annual meeting.

"We have spent quite some time this year planning our celebration of that milestone," she added, appealing to Society members and supporters to be involved in the activity. "We are excited about this because many have been inspired and many lives transformed as a result of The Proclamation across Canada, to which the BBS is affiliated."

Elder Austin Thomas has been appointed to chair the local planning committee for The Proclamation.

Submitting her report as BBS president at its annual meeting, Mrs. White noted that the Society continued its practice of many in offering New Testaments and Psalms to each recruit of the Bermuda Regiment.

For some 150 years young men accepted the Scriptures. And recently the Society embarked on a programme of presenting at New Testament to each new mother in the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital, where some 80 babies are born a month.

And the Bible was placed in waiting rooms of the hospitals ICU Unit, Emergency Department and Cardiac Unit.

Pictured above: Bermuda Bible Society executives are seen above at their annual meeting in Paget Church Hall, along with their guest speaker, the Rev. Sandra Tilley of the Canadian Bible Society. From the left, Miss Barbara Frith, the outgoing secretary, Mrs. Mingo Cook, president Shirley White, Rev. Tilley, Elder Austin Thomas, Major Jane Sirran and Mrs. Dorothy Evans, treasurer.

Below: Mrs. White thanks some of the representatives of the Paget Church Girls Brigade for their help in making the social side of the AGM of the BBS a success.