Combined Christmas Service

22 December 2013

Each year the larger English-speaking international Christian churches have a combined Easter service and Christmas service. This year's service was held at the International Christian Assembly church of the Assembly of God in the Teuk Thla section of Phnom Penh. The participating churches were:

  • Catholic English Community
  • Church of Christ Our Peace (Anglican)
  • International Christian Assembly (Assembly of God)
  • International Christian Fellowship (Interdenominational)
  • Second Mile Fellowship (Interdenominational)
Advent dance
 Many other Christian traditions do not celebrate a whole season of Advent as the Catholic community does but today's service started with an Advent dance recalling humanity's waiting for the Messiah.

Then followed joyful Christmas hymns and songs.
Combined choir
 A choir made up of singers from the various churches presented several songs in the middle of the service. This year, for the first time, the choir members dressed alike which added a lot to their presence and song.

Their set introduced a series of scripture readings.
Musicians
 The combined churches are blessed with a plethora of talented musicians and they were certainly on display today, led by Tim Amstutz.

In the second half of the celebration, they led up to the sermon preached by Gregory Whitaker, the new pastor of the Anglican community here. Charlie Dittmeier was the service leader.

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