Tomas (not his real name) is a church minister in Manipur, Northeast India. He had teary eyes when he recalled what happened on May 3, 2023.
“I have never seen such violence in my lifetime,” he said. “They systematically ransacked our places. That first night, they burnt down a church nearby. The sky turned red by flames.”
A few months later, it was reported that 250 churches of different denominations had been burnt. For several weeks, the manhunt continued.
Over 100 people died. The trauma is unimaginable, especially among women and children.
Christians are minorities in Asia and the Pacific. The area is known to be home to the most Buddhists in the world, with a projection of 476 million followers in 2050. Nonetheless, the Christian population may rise by about 33% and reach 381 million in 2050. The highest growth in church membership occurred between 1970–2020. In countries like China, the phenomenon of house churches continues to grow, which is in direct contrast with the global North, where church membership is declining.
The PC(USA)’s Asia Pacific Office, part of World Mission ministry, and Burmese churches in diaspora have organized a recorded prayer service for Myanmar to air on the World Mission Facebook page on Saturday at 7:30 pm Eastern (U.S. & Canada), which is Sunday, March 31, at 6 a.m. in Myanmar. The Rev. Pek Muan Cuang, General Secretary of the Presbyterian Church in Myanmar (PCM), will deliver a message and lead prayers and meditation during this Easter Service.
“Screams and hubbubs! The children were excited and happy to leave the huts and go play outside. The air was thick and full of dust and flakes falling from the sky. They thought it was snowing, something which never happened on their tropical island. They were surprised and curious. They run after the flakes, catching them with their hands, rubbing them in their hair and on their bodies,” an eyewitness recalled.
In a country where violence has been the norm since a 2021 coup d’état, recent airstrikes against villages in Myanmar escalated this spring, displacing hundreds more people from their homes and separating families and their livestock.
In a country where violence has been the norm since a 2021 coup d’état, recent airstrikes against villages in Myanmar escalated over the weekend, displacing hundreds more people from their homes and separating families and their livestock.
The second installment of a video/webinar series highlighting the Christian mission in Myanmar (formerly Burma) resumes at 6 p.m. Eastern Time on Wednesday. An ecumenical prayer service commemorating the violent regime change in 2021 will broadcast live on the World Mission Facebook page.
A video/webinar series highlighting the Christian mission in Myanmar (formerly Burma) has been rescheduled in part due to violence in the southeast Asian country.
A new video/webinar series highlighting the Christian mission in Myanmar (formerly Burma) will kick off later this month and run through February 2023. The effort, sponsored by the Presbyterian Mission Agency’s World Mission and its partners in the region, will provide context around the Southeast Asia country’s diverse culture and its fragile economic and political situation following violent regime change in 2021.
As some schools in the U.S. go back to the virtual classroom and parents ponder whether to vaccinate their children, the lack of access to resources magnifies the challenges in Asia and other places around the world.
