In earlier years, the Epiphany gathering was a rather small group of 35-50 people and everyone just stood around in the yard of the bishop’s house and ate pizza and spaghetti. Now it has evolved into a gathering of several hundred at the diocesan pastoral center.
About 300 people gathered in center along with a quite large set of crech figures. Then there was the mandatory traditional dance followed by children playing and singing a Christmas carol.
Then Bishop Olivier offered his reflections on Cambodian society and the place of the church in the kingdom. That was followed by a gift to each participant of two kinds of rice and some cookies produced by Bishop Olivier’s social enterprise, and then the priests of the Phnom Penh area parishes gave a gift to the bishop.