[This page reflects the English Catholic community liturgy in 2006. For current schedules and locations click here.] 2006 There is one parish here in Phnom Penh, Cambodia's capital. It's a Khmer-language parish where the bishops live (It's also the diocesan center) and they have two Khmer-language liturgies every weekend. Maryknoll has been asked to take responsibility for liturgy for the English-speaking community here and so the three of us Maryknoll priests rotate as presider at the one weekly liturgy. A liturgy for the French-speaking community is held every two weeks. There is a need for an English-language liturgy because of the large number of expatriates who are here as members of the hundreds of NGOs that basically provide much of the structure and services of Cambodia. On an average weekend, we have about 200-250 people at our Saturday evening liturgy. We don't have any Sunday liturgies. The Saturday gathering is at 5:00 PM so people can come and go before it gets dark because it is dangerous to be out at night except in a few parts of town. We don't have a church so we use the Russian Cultural Center! The auditorium there is just large enough to hold us and it's one of the cheaper places we can rent. How the world turns! From the days of the cold war, the Catholics now rent a Russian center for liturgy, and after mass the Russians are out in front selling Coca-Cola from big picnic coolers. The people are the most interesting part of the community, though. What strikes me most is that it is an intentional community. The people very deliberately choose to come and worship together. If ever a person wanted to drop out of the religious scene--no longer going to mass because mother said to--Cambodia, a non-Christian culture, would be the place to do that. There are thousands of foreigners here from all over the world. No one knows what your religious background is, no one asks, and no one will notice if you don't attend some religious service on the weekend. And yet we have a standing-room-only crowd most Saturdays. And the level of interest and motivation that brings people together makes the dynamics different from those that might be encountered in an average North American parish where people could be there because it is the thing to do, they want to keep kids in the Catholic school, or they feel too guilty if they don't go. Our Saturday night gathering is also extremely mixed. There are peoples from dozens of nations, and on a given night we might say good-bye to a family returning to the Netherlands and also welcome the ambassador from Singapore and his wife. And after mass various language groups come together out on the front lawn as people from different countries catch up on news from "back home." Sometimes it is easy to pick out the buzz-headed U.S. Marines, guards from the US embassy, and there are always a good number of children present. The younger children have a religious education class before and during the first part of mass. The teenagers have a religious education program on Sunday mornings when nothing else is happening and boredom is likely to set in for them. Most distinctive about our Saturday evening worshipping community, however, is its ecumentical nature. Our worship service is in intent and design Roman Catholic, but members of various Protestant denominations worship with us. Sometimes their branch of Protestantism does not have a local community, but some of them just prefer the style and spirit that is provided in the Catholic community's prayer together here in Phnom Penh. Everyone participates. The liturgy is officialy Roman Catholic and the homilies and style of service reflect that, but everyone is welcome and no one is turned away. And because it is an intentional community, everyone drops money into the collection basket and is willing to take on ministerial roles. On any given night the first reader might be from the Church of Scotland and one of the eucharistic ministers might be a Lutheran. One night I had just finished distributing communion and was returning to my seat when I literally did a double- take. There were two saffron-robed Buddhist monks seated in the front row, singing the communion hymn along with everyone else! The financial needs of the community are small--just the center rental, a few cases of wine each year, and our religious education texts and worship materials--and the community is basically generous, so the offering money is available for needy projects. There are many of those in Cambodia (!) and a small committee meets to approve the requests we receive for special help to various groups. All in all, it is quite an experience to work with the Catholic community here!