Ukraine: New Child's Bible published in Ukraine - Icons as a "source of catechesis"

Young boy with Ukrainian Child's Bible at "Song of the Heart competition" in Lviv. @ACN
Young boy with Ukrainian Child's Bible at "Song of the Heart competition" in Lviv. @ACN

One of the most widely printed Bible-based texts has now been published in a special edition in Ukraine. It is a version of the renowned ACN Child's Bible "God speaks to His Children", this time illustrated with icons. This latest edition of a book which has now been printed in over 47 million copies worldwide was formally launched on 10 December in the Ukrainian city of Lviv.

The Child's Bible is an initiative of the international Catholic pastoral charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN). The founder of the charity, Father Werenfried van Straaten, offered the first copies of the book to the General Assembly of the Latin American bishops in Puebla, Mexico in 1979, the year designated by the United Nations as the International Year of the Child. The charity ACN has also been intensively involved, ever since its foundation in 1947, in helping the Christians of Central and Eastern Europe. As part of this outreach, the Child's Bible has already been translated into a number of Eastern European languages and printed and distributed in these countries.

It is within the context of this work that the new initiative has sprung. For the first time the Child's Bible has been published with illustrations that reflect the spirit of Eastern iconography. To this day, in Ukraine as in all the countries in which the Byzantine tradition has held sway for centuries, icons have retained their popularity. The word 'icon' has the sense both of 'image' and at the same time a 'window on eternity'. In past centuries, when the great mass of the population could not read or write, these images, painted according to precise rules, where a means of portraying and communicating the Christian Faith. And indeed, they retain this function to this day.

Luiza Ciupa, a sister of the order of the „Handmaids of the Immaculate Conception", understands the power of these painted images, which still captivate millions, far beyond the boundaries of their countries of is origin. It was she who asked ACN to undertake this special edition, since in her Ukrainian homeland "icons are the source of catechesis", as she herself puts it. Born in Brazil, Sister Luiza returned to her country of origin after the collapse of the communist dictatorship in the East. Her mission is nothing less than the renewal of Ukraine through a renaissance of the Christian Faith.

„There is great interest in the religion of their forefathers, especially among young adults" Sister Luiza explained. Under the old communist regime this generation was denied an education in the Faith, while those who grew up in the immediate aftermath of the changes were able to benefit from only a rudimentary religious education. But now that the repression is over, the Church is able to explore new approaches to teaching the Faith. As Sister Luiza, who has been teaching religion for 20 years, puts it, "We want to be able to give the children a Bible to read, so that they can profit from the Word of God. And at the same time, their families are thereby introduced to it also". She adds that in the last five or six years the teaching of the Faith to adults, based on the Holy Scriptures, has increased notably.

The 112 pages of the Child's Bible "God speaks to His Children" contains key passages from the Holy Scriptures, in a language accessible to children. The original texts were composed by the German scripture scholar, Eleonore Beck, while the colourful icons contained in the new Ukrainian edition were painted by three artists from Lviv. This initiative also opens up the possibility, in principle, for other countries to consider alternative illustrations in the future.

The aim of the Child's Bible is to stimulate faith. Prior to this initiative, no fewer than 650,000 copies of the book had already been printed in Ukrainian. The new edition is being published in an initial print run of 100,000 copies, and it is hoped that it will also prove useful for teaching religion in other Eastern Churches too. "Aid to the Church in Need" (ACN) helped to finance the print and the distribution.

 

To know about this and many other similar projects in favour of the pastoral needs of the suffering Church, please contact our national offices.