ECPA's Rush To Press

Bible Society Australia teams up with brewery for
200th anniversary commemorative beer

“A good drop for the Good Book”

Australia’s oldest family brewery is toasting Australia’s longest living organisation with an extraordinary Bicentenary tribute!

Turning 200 this year, Bible Society Australia has teamed up with Coopers Brewery for the launch of a commemorative Coopers Premium Light beer.

The special commemorative light beer is now available to the public from retail liquor outlets which normally sell Coopers’ products.

Accepting the specially branded gift, Bible Society Australia CEO Greg Clarke says “We are grateful for the support of Coopers and delighted that they are helping us to ‘live light’ in our bicentenary”.

“Coopers Foundation have been strong supporters of Bible Society work, in particular Bibles for the defence forces. I hope Australians enjoy a chance to celebrate the fact that we are here for good!”

Coopers’ Managing Director Dr Tim Cooper says “I am delighted that we are able to assist in this noteworthy celebration of 200 years of community engagement”.

“As brewers we consider that beer is the alcoholic beverage of moderation, and clearly light beer is an effective way to combine flavour and promote moderation.  Coincidentally, the slogan for the Bible Society is ‘Live Light’, so the choice of Coopers Light for the celebratory can made elegant good sense”.

Bible Society Australia distributes the Scriptures, translates the Bible, supports those in need of the Bible’s message, and encourages active engagement with the world’s best-selling book. After 200 years in Australia, it’s key message is “the Bible is truly here for good”.

Fast facts:

  • The Bible is the world’s best-selling and most widely distributed book.
  • Research by Bible Society found approximately 5 billion copies were printed between 1815 and 2016.
  • In China… more than 15 million copies of the Bible were printed in 2016 alone. That figure is tipped to double this year.
  • Worldwide, the YouVersion Bible app has been downloaded more than 250 million times since its inception in 2008, with users reading and listening to more than 13 billion chapters of the Bible and creating one-billion–plus highlights and bookmarks.
  • Bible Society Australia shipped more than 215,000 full Bibles in 2016 as well as many New Testaments and scripture portions.
  • The Bible Society currently provides scriptures for Australians in more than 100 different languages.
  • Bible Societies worldwide distribute more than 32 million Bibles each year.
  • However, the demand for Bibles is huge… less than 10 per cent of the world’s 6,880 languages have a full Bible translation.
  • A staggering 497 million people have no Scripture translated in their language at all.

For further information and to arrange interviews with Bible Society CEO Greg Clarke, please contact:

John Pearson
National Media and Communications Manager
Bible Society Australia
Ph. 0438 771 269