Presbyterian Church in Myanmar

Last updated January 28, 2024

History

The migration of the Mizo people from Mizoram State in northeast India to Myanmar from 1914 to 1950 contributed to spreading Presbyterianism within the country. Some of these migrants became Presbyterians during the revival in their region in the 1930s organized by Welsh Presbyterian missionaries. The Presbyterian congregations in Myanmar were under the care of Mizo Presbyterian Church in India for several years until the founding of the Presbyterian Church of Myanmar.^[1]

The Presbyterian Church of Myanmar (PCM) was officially established at Losau in 1956 by Mizo immigrants after they moved to the Kalay and Kabaw Valley in upper Chindwin. They were served first by a Baptist, then by a Methodist minister. The Mizo Presbyterians maintained the Reformed faith. The church spread in the surrounding regions. In 1962 the church was constituted at the national level with 5,000 members. The church extended its activities to the southern Chin Hills, Rakhine State, upper Sagaing Division. The denomination is a member of the World Communion of Reformed Churches and by 2013 had about 30,000 members in 256 parishes and 160 house fellowships.^[2] A partner church relationship with the Presbyterian Church (USA) and Presbyterian Church Ireland have also been established.^[3]

Denominations and the Split

In 2023, the denomination has 245 congregations with more than 33,000 members.^[4] Congregations are spread over a large area of Myanmar, often in remote mountainous regions.^[5] Over time some members saw the church, in their eyes, succumb to liberalism, modernism, and ecumenical and charismatic movements. The church started to split into smaller denominations, including the Evangelical Presbyterian Church, Independent Presbyterian Church and Reformed Presbyterian Church.

The Evangelical Presbyterians emerged in 1983 and was founded by Rev. Robert Thawm Luai in Chin State.^[6] From the Evangelical Presbyterian followed the Protestant Reformed Church in Myanmar which holds a conservative approach on Christian texts and tradition.^[7]

Missions and Doctrines

Like many other Churches in Myanmar, the missions of PCM are focusing on evangelism and social work (including providing food to people from socially disadvantage groups and building hospitals and wells in rural areas). They also focus on church education and empowerment of youth and women. The PCM plays a crucial role in responding to natural disasters by donating to those who are affected.

The PCM and the Methodist Church Upper Myanmar still hold to and stand on the same doctrine to which they have adhered from the beginning. The current leaders desperately need to seek a fresh way of leading the church into a new form of structure and leadership model. The church looks to embrace characteristics of a biblical church first and cultivate it to the larger community outside the church.^[8] PCM's theology typically emphasizes the sovereignty of God, the authority of the Scriptures, and the necessity of grace through faith in Christ.

Liturgy

Until the late 20th century, almost all Methodist and Presbyterian churches used the Mizo language (the Baptist churches being an exception to this). All Mizo-Falam-speaking people share a common culture in various aspects. The worship styles takes place in various forms including Sunday gathering in a church as well as house gatherings where a smaller cell group of the people meets and pray together. The PCM’s sees the Church as a place of worship or a gathering place rather an 'institution'.^[9] Bible study is also an important aspect of Presbyterian liturgy.^[10]

Related Research Articles

The Second Great Awakening was a Protestant religious revival during the early 19th century in the United States. It spread religion through revivals and emotional preaching and sparked a number of reform movements. Revivals were a key part of the movement and attracted hundreds of converts to new Protestant denominations. The Methodist Church used circuit riders to reach people in frontier locations.

The United Reformed Church (URC) is a Protestant Christian church in the United Kingdom. As of 2022 it had approximately 40,000 members in 1,284 congregations with 334 stipendiary ministers.

The Confessing Movement is a largely lay-led theologically conservative Christian movement that opposes the influence of theological liberalism and theological progressivism currently within several mainline Protestant denominations and seeks to return them to its view of orthodox doctrine, or form a new denomination and disfellowship (excommunicate) them if the situation becomes untenable. Those who eventually deem dealing with theological liberalism and theological progressivism within their churches and denominations as not being tenable anymore would later join or start Confessional Churches and/or Evangelical Churches that continue with the traditions of their respective denominations and maintaining orthodox doctrine while being ecclesiastically separate from the Mainline Protestant denominations.

A united church, also called a uniting church, is a denomination formed from the merger or other form of church union of two or more different Protestant Christian denominations, a number of which come from separate and distinct denominational orientations or traditions. Multi-denominationalism, or a multi-denominational church or organization, is a congregation or organization that is affiliated with two or more Christian denominations, whether they be part of the same tradition or from separate and distinct traditions.

The Christian Flag is an ecumenical flag designed in the late 19th century to represent much of Christianity and Christendom. Since its adoption by the United States Federal Council of Churches in 1942, it has been used by congregations of many Christian traditions, including Anglican, Baptist, Congregationalist, Lutheran, Mennonite, Methodist, Moravian, Presbyterian, and Reformed, among others.

Protestants in Myanmar make up 5% of that nation's population in 2023. Most Christians are from the minority ethnic groups such as Karen, Lisu, Kachin, Chin, and Lahu. An estimated 0.1% of the Bamar population is Christian.

Protestantism in Brazil began in the 19th century and grew in the 20th century. The 2010 Census reported that 22.2% of the Brazilian population was Protestant, while in 2020 the percentage was estimated to have risen to 31% of the population, over 65 million individuals, making it the second largest Protestant population in the Western world.

Protestants in India are a minority and a sub-section of Christians in India and also to a certain extent the Christians in Pakistan before the Partition of India, that adhere to some or all of the doctrines of Protestantism. Protestants in India are a small minority in a predominantly Hindu majority country, but form majorities in the north-eastern states of Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland and significant minorities in Konkan division, Bengal, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, with various communities in east coast and northern states. Protestants today trace their heritage back to the Protestant reformation of the 16th century. There are an estimated 20 million Protestants and 16 million Pentecostals in India.

The Presbyterian Church of India (PCI) is a mainline Protestant church based in India, with over one and a half million adherents, mostly in Northeast India. It is one of the largest Christian denominations in that region.

Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Protestant Reformation, a movement that began in the 16th century with the goal of reforming the Catholic Church from perceived errors, abuses, and discrepancies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Protestantism in the United States</span>

Protestantism is the largest grouping of Christians in the United States, with its combined denominations collectively comprising about 43% of the country's population in 2019. Other estimates suggest that 48.5% of the U.S. population is Protestant. Simultaneously, this corresponds to around 20% of the world's total Protestant population. The U.S. contains the largest Protestant population of any country in the world. Baptists comprise about one-third of American Protestants. The Southern Baptist Convention is the largest single Protestant denomination in the U.S., comprising one-tenth of American Protestants. Twelve of the original Thirteen Colonies were Protestant, with only Maryland having a sizable Catholic population due to Lord Baltimore's religious tolerance.

The Reformed Presbyterian Church in Myanmar is a conservative Reformed denomination in Myanmar.

The Evangelical Reformed Church of Myanmar is a Reformed, Christian Church in the country of Myanmar. It holds to the Westminster Confession of Faith

A federated congregation or federated church is two or more congregations that are affiliated with different denominations that acts as one local church congregation. Federated congregations are distinguished from dual affiliated congregations, where the congregation as a whole is affiliated with more than one denomination. Federated congregations are also distinguished from union congregations, which are formed by separate congregations that cooperate, but exist as separate entities affiliated with separate denominational bodies.

In 1850 Presbyterians and Congregationalists opened a mission in Mosul, Iraq. The Arabian mission of the Reformed Church in America started in 1889 in Basra; during the 1920s the Evangelical and Reformed Church and the United Presbyterian Church supported this effort. This united mission was merged with the Southern Presbyterian Church in 1957. Its main focus was education; there was little success in church planting. There were four Reformed-Presbyterian congregations in Baghdad, Kirkuk, Basra and Mosul, served by Egyptian pastors. In 1969 all missionaries were expelled from Iraq and their schools were closed. The exact number of churches and adherents is unknown.

The history of Christianity in Mizoram covers the origin and development of all forms of Christianity in Mizoram since the British occupation at the end of the 19th century. Christianity arrived as a consequence of tribal warfare, raids of British plantations, and the ensuing punitive British military expedition called the Lushai Expedition of 1871. The subsequent annexation of the erstwhile Lushai Hills to the British Empire opened the gateway for British Christian missions to evangelise the Mizo people.

References

↑ Smith, Gary Scott; Kemeny, P. C. (2019-08-12), "Introduction", The Oxford Handbook of Presbyterianism, Oxford University Press, pp. xii–6, retrieved 2021-10-22
↑ "Address data base of Reformed churches and institutions". Reformiert-online.net. Retrieved 2013-10-19.
↑ "Myanmar (Burma) - Presbyterians at work around the world - Mission and Ministry - Presbyterian Mission Agency". Presbyterianmission.org. Retrieved 2013-10-19.
↑ Presbyterian Church of Ireland website, Prayer page
↑ "Communications From Around the World". Mission Studies. 19 (1): 200–212. 2002-01-01. doi:10.1163/157338302X00116. ISSN 1573-3831.
↑ "Asia". roxborogh.com. Retrieved 2021-10-22.
↑ "Burma presbyterian kohhran chanchin: history of the presbyterian church of Burma". Indian Culture. Retrieved 2021-10-22.
↑ "Home". www.prca.org. Retrieved 2021-10-22.
↑ "Phai Synod Chanchin - Phai Synod" . Retrieved 2021-10-22.
↑ Polman, Bert F.; Sydnor, James R. (2014-01-31). Presbyterian Church. Oxford Music Online. Oxford University Press.

External links

PCM Phai Synod