Category: Church

The Catholic Church in Cambodia.

All systems,go….almost

Yesterday we had the first mass in the “new” chapel using the air conditioners (mounted above the windows) and they worked well. We still need to move some more chairs (to be stored, because what you see above is all we can socially distance) and a big cabinet and we hope to do that this week. Then we need to install some sort of projection system and our setup will be basically complete. It looks–and feels–likes it’s going to be a good venue for us!

Stage 1 (continued)

Just the steps and the platform remain of the large old stage that was next to the C Building at St. Joseph Church where we previously had mass. All the metal framework is gone. Next to go is the large tree on the right. It’s terrible to see such a large old tree removed!

The chapel door

Today I bicycled the three miles over to St. Joseph Church to return a key to Fr. Chatsirey. While there I checked on the small chapel (above) we will be using for our English Community for the next few years.

Moving In

Saturday morning we moved the chairs and vestments and other things to the St. Joseph chapel, the new home for the English Catholic Community. In the evening we began moving our members to the chapel! It’s one of those occasions worth a mention in our parish’s history!

The congregation for the 4:00 PM mass on Saturday. The priest is Fr. Glenn Diaz who concelebrated with Fr. Charlie.
The congregation for the 5:30 PM mass on Saturday.
The congregation for the 10:00 AM mass on Sunday.

New chapel, new priest

You never know whom you are going to meet up in the choir loft. When moving chairs and other equipment to the loft, Sr. Regina ran into a new face, Fr. Glenn Diaz.
Fr. Glenn Diaz is a priest of the Mill Hill Missionary group. He is from the Philippines but is part of his mission group’s new initiative to work in the Battambang Vicariate. Fr. Glenn is now staying at St. Joseph Church while he is learning Khmer.

Evangelization? Inter-religious Dialogue?

Whatever you call it, it’s building up the reign of God on earth.

Fr. Bob Wynne started a program in Anlong Knang, a resettlement area outside of Phnom Penh, for the elderly men and women who live there with no families and no support systems. His program gives hot meals to the elderly twice a week plus staples for other days, and there is a core of young volunteers who visit the elderly on weekends to clean the house, wash their clothes, help with problems, take them to the local clinic if they are ill–and most of all just show them love and respect. The interesting thing is that all of the youth volunteers are Buddhist!

My Mistake

I usually try to post some more substantial content on Sundays but yesterday was really chaotic. I prepared the photos in the post below this one but then forgot to put them here on the website. Sorry!

A Sad Funeral…continued

Cambodia doesn’t have funeral homes because 94% of the people are Buddhist and are cremated within twenty-four hours after the body stays at the family home overnight. Because Mr. Uchenna was to be buried, we had a funeral at the mortuary in the hospital. Mr. Bede Uwalaka was a lector for the scripture readings.
The cemetery was in the next province and it took us almost two hours to drive there. After the coffin was placed in the shallow grave, the family and friends began to fill the grave with dirt and then the job was finished by this cemetery worker.
After the grave was filled, a worker immediately smoothed out a thin concrete cover the grave.
Mr. Austin Koleyoke (right, with white shirt), the president of the Nigerian association in Cambodia, then spoke to those who had come to the cemetery and thanked them for their presence and their tribute to their deceased brother.

A Sad Funeral

Recently one of our Nigerian parishioners was killed in an auto accident and today we had his funeral outside at the mortuary before driving to a burial site in a neighboring province. He leaves behind his Khmer wife and a five-month old son and a stepson.