President Lennart Meri received Dean Tiit Salumäe, Chairman of the Estonian Bible Society, and Jaan Bärenson, Secretary-General of the Bible Society, who came to hand over the family Bible published by the Estonian Bible Society, in the presidential palace of Kadriorg today.

Handing over the Bible to the Head of State, Dean Salumäe emphasised the ecumenical nature of the newly published family Bible or altar Bible. Through the Estonian Bible society, several confessions have participated in the publication of the Bible, and the text is based on Toomas Paul's translation (New Testament) and on the translation of 1968 (Old Testament).

On the meeting of the Head of State and the Bible Society the role of the church in Estonia, and the need that the church should tackle social problems more actively were discussed. The President recalled an experience in the Warsaw Bible Society bookshop in 1963, where he had been shown the Bible translated by Uku Masing and asked how Uku Masing was. As the President said, this shows that the iron curtain still had some holes in it. The President also recalled a childhood meeting with the theologian and philosopher Uku Masing, then a post-graduate student, in Berlin before World War II.

On the meeting, the participants reached an unanimous conclusion that the church should establish a closer contact with people, and dare to address subjects which it would still have been impossible to discuss fifteen years ago.


Press Service of the Office of the President
Kadriorg, December 16, 1999

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