DUSHANBE, June 5, 2014, Asia-Plus -- Officials from the Russian Orthodox Church say they plan to start mass printing the Bible in the Uzbek language for the benefit of labor migrants, Radio Liberty reported on June 5.

Officials at the Missionary Commission at the Diocesan Council in Moscow said on June 5 that an existing translation of the Bible in Uzbek is being revised with assistance from the Stockholm-based Institute for Bible Translation.

The Missionary Commission''s chairman, Father Dimitry, said in January that the Russian government should support a project on the printing of Bibles in the Central Asian languages, saying the idea might be one way to help the hundreds of thousands of Muslim labor migrants from Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan become better integrated into Russian society.

The Missionary Commission has been working with Russia''s Federal Migration Service for two years now. It says it has been involved in preparations of classes and lectures on Russia''s culture, legislation, and history.