Every year the larger international English-speaking Christian communities have joint Easter and Christmas services. In December, 2007 the Christmas service had to be canceled because of problems getting permission to use the Crystal Dome, a public but government-controlled facility, one of the few that is large enough to hold the Christian service.

At the present time, the government is very reluctant to let the Christians use large facilities even though they profess freedom of religion in Cambodia which has a state religion of Buddhism. First, the government is paranoid, afraid of any gathering of anyone except ruling party loyalists. Secondly, some Christian groups have upset the Buddhist hierarchy with aggressive evangelization and the government's reaction has been to limit and discourage Christian activities in order to maintain favor with the Buddhist clergy whose support the government needs in the lead-up to national elections in July.

We applied long beforehand to use the Crystal Dome but the permission was not forthcoming and experienced insiders advised that final approval might not be given until the day before. Actually permission to use the Dome was granted four days before Easter.