Francis Ah Mya was an

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

Archbishop In Christian denominations, an archbishop is a bishop of higher rank or office. In most cases, such as the Catholic Church, there are many archbishops who either have jurisdiction over an ecclesiastical province in addition to their own archdi ...

in India and Burma (now Myanmar) in the mid-20th century. He was educated at the Bishop's College in

Calcutta Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, the official name until 2001) is the Capital city, capital of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal, on the eastern ba ...

and

ordained Ordination is the process by which individuals are consecrated, that is, set apart and elevated from the laity class to the clergy, who are thus then authorized (usually by the denominational hierarchy composed of other clergy) to perform va ...

in 1933. He was a

tutor TUTOR, also known as PLATO Author Language, is a programming language developed for use on the PLATO system at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign beginning in roughly 1965. TUTOR was initially designed by Paul Tenczar for use in co ...

at the Divinity School,

Rangoon Yangon ( my, ရန်ကုန်; ; ), formerly spelled as Rangoon, is the capital of the Yangon Region and the largest city of Myanmar (also known as Burma). Yangon served as the capital of Myanmar until 2006, when the military government ...

from 1933 to 1940 and then the

incumbent The incumbent is the current holder of an official, office or position, usually in relation to an election. In an election for president, the incumbent is the person holding or acting in the office of president before the election, whether seek ...

at St Matthew Moulmein until 1949. He became archdeacon of Toungoo in 1946 and was placed in charge of St Peter's Bible School when it was moved to Kappli. Church of the Province of Myanmar (Anglican) website, ''History''
/ref> He was appointed to the

episcopate A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...

assistant bishop An assistant bishop in the Anglican Communion is a bishop appointed to assist a diocesan bishop. Church of England In the established Church of England, assistant bishops are usually retired (diocesan or suffragan) bishops – in which case they ...

in 1949; he and John Aung Hla were the first native bishops in Calcutta. He was consecrated a bishop on

Pentecost Pentecost (also called Whit Sunday, Whitsunday or Whitsun) is a Christianity, Christian holiday which takes place on the 50th day (the seventh Sunday) after Easter Sunday. It commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles in the Ne ...

day (5 June), by

George Hubback George Clay Hubback was an Anglican priest in the mid twentieth century. Born on 7 April 1882 he was educated at Rossall School and Liverpool University and began his career as a Civil Engineer before being ordained for the priesthood in 1910. ...

, Bishop of Calcutta, at

St Paul's Cathedral, Calcutta St. Paul's Cathedral is a Church of North India (CNI) cathedral of Anglican background in Kolkata, West Bengal, India, noted for its Gothic architecture and dedicated to Paul the Apostle. It is the seat of the Diocese of Calcutta. The corne ...

. In 1966 he became its

diocesan In church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided provinces were administratively associate ...

and in 1970 established a new Anglican Province with himself as Archbishop, resigning in 1972. Ah Mya transformed Rangoon into an autonomous province independent of the Province of India, Pakistan, Burma and Cylone; Google Books website, ''The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to the Anglican Communion'', edited by Ian S. Markham, J. Barney Hawkins, IV, Justyn Terry and Leslie Nuñez Steffensen
/ref> he also worked on lay associations within the church as well as self-supporting projects and an evening Bible school. In 1981, he reopened the Mindon mission.

WWII

During the Second World War he was held as a prisoner of war by the Japanese. It was said that he became the leader of other POWs. He managed to persuade the Commandant to release other prisoners and himself under a plan given to him by God. — This story is told in the book "Going My Way" by Godfrey Winn.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ah Mya, Francis 20th-century Anglican bishops in Asia Anglican bishops of Rangoon 20th-century Anglican archbishops