basket holiday-bow
Presbyterian News Service

Webinar will commemorate the democracy movement in Myanmar

Feb. 3 online gathering is titled ‘The Church and the Coup: Global Perspectives on Faith and the Democratic Movement in Myanmar’

Default News Photo

January 28, 2025

Mike Ferguson | Presbyterian News Service

Presbyterian News Service

LOUISVILLE — At 8 p.m. Eastern Time on Monday, Feb. 3, the Asia Pacific Office of the Interim Unified Agency of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) will host a webinar to commemorate the four-year anniversary of the democratic movement in Myanmar.

Image

The presenter will be Dr. David Thang Moe, Postdoctoral Associate and Lecturer in Religious Studies in Southeast Asian Studies at Yale University. The presentation will be followed by testimonies from churches and individuals involved in the enfranchisement movement in Myanmar. The Zoom meeting will be available here.

According to Hery Ramambasoa, World Mission’s Area Coordinator in Asia and the Pacific, bloody clashes in Myanmar between the army and several factions have continued over four years. The situation has deteriorated into a humanitarian crisis, with many people left to escaping their homes to seek safety and necessities.

The United Nations estimates there are more than three million internally displaced persons in Myanmar, with children continuing to bear the heaviest burden of the continuing violence and experiencing grave violations of their rights. Thousands more have escaped to nearby Thailand or India.

The army forcefully suppressed pro-democratic movements and overthrew the democratically elected government on Feb. 1, 2021. More than 25,000 people have been arrested, several opposition leaders have been put to death, and at least 50,000 people have been killed, Ramambasoa said. There is extreme food insecurity and serious safety risks as well as a breakdown of public services.

The Presbyterian Church of Myanmar has about 30,000 members, making Christians a minority in a nation of nearly 55 million people. The church relies on strong bonds of solidarity as it continues to look for answers while major crises in other countries, such as Ukraine and Gaza, dominate headlines.

Moe co-chairs the American Academy of Religion’s Religion in Southeast Asia Unit. As part of the advocacy effort for Myanmar, he has met with various U.S. senators and House members and has been asked to lecture at many universities about Burmese politics, religion, resistance and the democracy movement.

The Feb. 3 webinar will include a panel of dedicated members of the ecumenical movement in support of Myanmar. They stand for the churches, organizations and diaspora members engaged in life-sustaining social and humanitarian endeavors.
 

image/svg+xml

You may freely reuse and distribute this article in its entirety for non-commercial purposes in any medium. Please include author attribution, photography credits, and a link to the original article. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDeratives 4.0 International License.