In
Finland, the Bible and our own written Finnish language go hand in hand: "oma kieli, oma mieli" -- own language, own mind. Although Finnish is not Indo-European Germanic but an odd Uralic Finno-Ugric, Finland has always had close historical ties to fellow Baltic Germany, which was the go-to place for Finnish clergy and Academics. During the Protestant Reformation, the most notable Finnish reformers studied in Wittenberg and were influenced by Luther and Melanchton. Mikael Agricola, the Bishop of Turku and de facto Lutheran Bishop for all Finland, in particular took to heart the Lutheran notion of that the word of God should be made available to the people in their own language and set about to write down standard written Finnish, which did not exist before, in order to translate the New Testament (1548) in Finnish. He also wrote a Missal, prayer books and hymns in Finnish for Finns and thus became the father of Finnish language, literature and liturgy.
Since Finnish is a small language spoken by some 5 million people worldwide, all Finnish Christian churches and movements use the same Finnish Bible translation. Finland is historically both (Roman) Catholic (after all, Luther did not set out to create a new Church but to reform the one, holy, catholic and apostolic one), Eastern Orthodox (Re: geography) and Lutheran (since Reformation 500 years ago). Finland was christianized both from the Catholic west -- Sweden and Germany -- and from the Orthodox Kievan Rus/Russia. Many (most even) basic Finnish church terms actually do have (Greek/Latin via) Old Slavic roots rather than Germanic: cross, priest, Bible, heathen. Since Finnish is an oddball language, Finnish God is
Jumala,
a wholly unique Finno-Ugric word in the world for God. Another quite "Finnish" peculiarity is that Finnish language doesn't have separate third person pronouns for he and she: every person is just "hän". Thus, in the Finnish Bible Jumala, too, is "genderless," if you will.
I'm actually quite proud that our Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox and Lutheran Finns can -- and do -- come together to read from the one and same Holy Bible of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.
Culturally, Finland is a mix of east and west, too. For example, Finnish Easter ("pääsiäinen" in Finnish, compare to "Pascha") traditions have a distinct Eastern/Orthodox flair with
catkin willows,
pasha and decorated Easter Eggs. Many people don't realize this when they think of the Lutheran Nordic countries (Republican Finland is
a Nordic country with fellow Nordic republic Iceland, as oppose to the better known
Scandinavian kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden), but the Orthodox Church of Finland,
not the majority Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Finland, is the only "state church" of Finland, due to historical circumstances of Russian revolution when Russia went communist and Finland went independent. The Evangelical-Lutheran Church of Finland separated from the state back in 1869, again, partly because back then, Finland was an autonomous
Grand Duchy and the head of the state was the Grand Duke, i.e. the Orthodox Russian Emperor, an odd situation.