YANGON -- In a dusty ochre-and-green compound in a corner of Mawlamyine, the capital of Mon State in eastern Myanmar, a century-old Gothic-style church is celebrating the end of the first stage of a major restoration program, and the beginning of the next. By a happy chance, the restoration has also initiated a program with far-reaching implications for the health of both the nation and the country's architectural heritage.
The Judson First Baptist Church, already regarded as a landmark for its significance to the Baptist movement worldwide, has become an unlikely symbol of Myanmar's modernization, combining heritage conservation with environmental awareness. Such a development would have seemed unlikely two centuries ago, when the timing of the church's founder, Adoniram Judson, seemed to be disastrous.
