# About · SpiritualTranslations > SpiritualTranslations is a ministry-owned translation service for spiritual and religious texts, built on one conviction: when AI makes translation abundant, trust becomes the scarce thing worth building on. Source: https://spiritualtranslations.com/about --- About # Built so you never have to take our word for it. SpiritualTranslations is a small team with one belief: now that AI makes translation cheap, the hard part is no longer translating — it's being trusted to say a translation is right. That trust is what we build. Where this began ## The same answer at every booth Parliament of the World's Religions, Chicago, 2023. Our founder walked the exhibition hall booth to booth, past publishers, societies, seminaries, interfaith organizations, asking the same question: why aren't your books in more languages? The answer never varied: cost. A professional translation of a single book runs into the thousands of dollars. For most communities, that means it never happens. So the books that help people live their traditions — the commentaries, study guides, devotionals — stay locked in one language, generation after generation. Not because there aren't translators, but because the math never worked. AI changed the math. It didn't answer the real question: who says the translation is right? That's the question SpiritualTranslations was built to answer. ## Owned by a ministry, not investors SpiritualTranslations is wholly owned by a ministry. There are no outside investors and no pressure to grow at any cost. The money we make funds the mission: more translation, for more traditions, at prices low enough to open the door. This matters more than it sounds. A company built to maximize profit will, sooner or later, cut a corner that hurts its customers. We have no owners pushing for that. Everything we earn goes back to the mission. The people ## Small on purpose A small core team, plus expert linguists we bring in for each tradition. Every reviewer is named in the report they worked on, by initials and credentials. GR Gabriel Rymberg Founder & Quality Assurer Translator and software architect. Led the Hebrew translation of The Urantia Book. Signs every Assurance Report as the named Quality Assurer. Based in Israel. FG Fraser Gorrie Lead Developer MSc Zoology, University of Toronto, and 44 years of independent software development. Designed and built the SPT translation system, and previously translated DiscoverJesus.com end-to-end. Based in Hamilton, Canada. JV Judi Valentine Market Development Published novelist and PhD in clinical nutrition. Leads market discovery and customer voice through commercial launch. JG Joel Garbon Advisor Connector across the faith-publishing community. Advises on partner relationships. BB Byron Belitsos Strategic Advisor M.A. in systematic theology, Union Theological Seminary. Founder and publisher of Origin Press, winner of Nautilus and Eric Hoffer Awards. His own books have been translated into several languages. The long view ## Where this is going Where we're headed over the next five years, stated in the open like everything else. Cheap AI translation isn't a threat to us — it's what we're built on. When anyone can produce a translation, someone still has to stand behind whether it's right. Today ### The agency We translate and vet spiritual books. Every job builds three things: expert-approved terminology, a public track record, and a written record of why the hard calls were made. Next ### The certifier We check and vouch for translations no matter who produced them, the way a kosher agency vouches for food it didn't cook. As AI floods the world with unchecked translations, that service only gets more needed. Later ### The steward We maintain each tradition's reference library and terminology standard, and serve it to readers, publishers, and their AIs alike, year after year. Judgment, accountability, and a trusted reference don't get cheaper when intelligence does — they get rarer. That's what we provide: today as a translation, one day as an institution. The standard ## Our commitments The bar we hold this site — and every report we sign — to: - 1.We claim only what evidence supports, and we state the limits of the evidence. - 2.We never imply a human read every word when one didn't. The report says exactly who checked what. - 3.We name no client or partner without their consent, even when naming them would help us. - 4.Our terminology stays faith-neutral. We serve traditions, we don't rank them. - 5.When we err, we correct in the open: files re-issued, record annotated, client told. ## Be early to something careful. We're small on purpose — a few projects at a time, taken on with care, while we prove the method in the open. Talk to us now and you'll help shape what this becomes. Bring your hard questions. Or bring a book you already paid to translate, and see how we compare. [Start a conversation](https://spiritualtranslations.com/contact) [Read the method first](https://spiritualtranslations.com/method)