Dr Bruce made the call in a joint letter to the Foreign Secretary, Rt Hon Liz Truss MP, along with other UK and Irish church leaders in which they said they were profoundly concerned for civilians across the country and called for a ceasefire.
Co-signatories included the General Secretary of the Baptist Union of Great Britain, Moderator of the Church of Scotland, President, Vice President and Lay Leader of the Methodist Church in Britain, President of the Methodist Church in Ireland and the Moderator of the United Reform Church.
In their letter, the church leaders said, "Throughout the past twelve months our church partners in Myanmar have reported to us the abuses and atrocities unleashed by the Min Aung Hlaing administration and Tatmadaw forces against their own people…The United Nations Officer for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimates that 320,000 people have been internally displaced by the conflict over the last year.”
The co-signatories also said that several million pounds of humanitarian assistance was needed and without a halt to the violence, the humanitarian need would continue to grow. They also pointed out that the National Unity Government has drawn support from across ethnic divides and seeks a restoration of democracy. Together they urged the Foreign Secretary to direct the Government’s efforts to ensure that the democratically elected government can be restored and that Aung Sun Suu Kyi, other officials, journalists and political prisoners be released.
The Presbyterian Church of Myanmar (PCM) is one of PCI’s Global Mission Partners and throughout the last 12 months, PCI officials in the Council for Global Mission have been in regular contact with PCM’s leadership to monitor the situation. With around 37,000 members, the Church is a small denomination in a majority Buddhist country of over 50 million people.
Speaking about the initiative, Dr Bruce said, “We have worked closely with the Presbyterian Church of Myanmar in a range of ways, developing a close relationship with the Church as far as the prevailing situation permitted at the time. For a number of years now that focus has been on scholarships for students in a variety of disciplines. While our relationship pre-dates the 2011 ending of the near half century of military dictatorship, that contact has increased since then.
Dr Bruce continued, “In 2016 we were honoured to have with us at our General Assembly, Rev Ling Zaw, when he was General Secretary of the Presbyterian Church in Myanmar. Three years ago, our Mission Support Officer for Partnerships, spent 10 days in the country, developing our relationship with PCM leadership and visiting various projects. He became PCM's Moderator last year.
“As part of the growing body of Christ across the world, we are keen to offer our committed and prayerful support to our Myanmar brothers and sisters in Christ, and hope that the UK Government do all it can to facilitate the return of peace and democracy to the country.”
Dr Bruce concluded, “Through our Council for Global Mission, we were contact with the leadership of PCM recently, who continue to ask for our prayerful support in these exceptionally trying times. They can certainly be assured of them.”
Images (1) Street protests in Myanmar in 2021 (Credit Presbyterian Church of Myanmar) (2) PCM's logo