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April 11, 2004
Every year at Christmas and Easter, the four major international Christian groups in Phnom Penh have a joint or combined religious service. For the past four years, the services have been held at the Hotel Le Royal, not the best venue given that most of the Christians here are working with poor and the hotel ballroom is not exactly compatible with poverty. But it is one of the few air-conditioned spaces large enough to accommodate 500 people.
This year six of the top-end hotels in Cambodia are the target of strikes by hotel workers in a dispute over the distribution of the service charge levied on all bills at the establishments. The Hotel Le Royal is one of those being picketed.
In the past week there was considerable discussion of the justice issue of holding a Christian service in a hotel that was being struck. In the end it was decided to continue with the plans to use the Le Royal. The numbers attending were down this year, partly due to many people leaving town because of the Khmer New Year holiday immediately following Easter but probably partly also because of disagreement with crossing a picket line.
The discussions about the propriety of crossing the picket line were interesting. Some of the people most notably absent from the ceremony were three Maryknollers whose names were on the program as readers and pray-ers and who had to be replaced at the last minute by others attending. Overall, it seemed--especially in the e-mails and mailing list discussions--that some Catholic people took a stronger stand against the venue than did some of the other churches. That is not a criticism but just a comment. Several said that the stance of some of the church people seemed to be that as long as we were praising God, that was the most important consideration, and we should continue with the original plans. Some of the Maryknollers had difficulty with that understanding.
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