Francis Ah Mya was an Anglican Archbishop[1] in India and Burma (now Myanmar) in the mid-20th century.[2]
He was educated at the Bishop's College in Calcutta and ordained in 1933. He was a tutor at the Divinity School, Rangoon from 1933 to 1940 and then the incumbent at St Matthew Moulmein until 1949. He became archdeacon of Toungoo in 1946[3] and was placed in charge of St Peter's Bible School when it was moved to Kappli.[4]
He was appointed to the episcopate as assistant bishop of Rangoon in 1949; he and John Aung Hla were the first native bishops in Calcutta.[5] He was consecrated a bishop on Pentecost day (5 June), by George Hubback, Bishop of Calcutta, at St Paul's Cathedral, Calcutta. In 1966 he became its diocesan[6] and in 1970 established a new Anglican Province with himself as Archbishop,[7] resigning in 1972.[8]
Ah Mya transformed Rangoon into an autonomous province independent of the Province of India, Pakistan, Burma and Cylone;[9] 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.
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.