Episcopal Press and News

Anglicans in Burma Surviving Era of Persecution

Episcopal News Service. February 2, 1993 [93026H]

After four years of trying, the Rev. Canon Monty Morris of Christ Church, Bangkok, was able to visit Anglican bishops and church leaders in Yangon, Myanmar (formerly Rangoon, Burma), in his capacity as rural dean of Thailand and the Mekong and a canon of the cathedral in Yangon. Because of his involvement with the Karen rebels in the north, the visit was restricted to two days, but Morris was able to meet with five of the seven Anglican bishops, clergy of the Yangon Diocese and others who journeyed to the capital to meet with him. He heard reports from the eastern border with Thailand that atrocities by the Burmese army against the Christian and other ethnic minority villagers in the hills continue. While in Yangon, the bishops asked Morris to represent them at the January meeting of primates and the Anglican Consultative Council in Cape Town, South Africa. Archbishop Desmond Tutu of Southern Africa has said that he will join other Nobel Prize winners on a trip to Thailand to express their concerns over human rights violations in Myanmar. They may try to meet with Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been under house arrest in Yangon since 1989.