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Christmas Eve is a working day in Cambodia--as is Christmas Day, and so our Christmas liturgy for the Catholic English-speaking community was celebrated at 6:30 PM to give people time to get off from work and come to the Russian Cultural Center where we have our masses. Most of the time the choir is up on the stage with the altar, but tonight they were moved to the floor. |
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After the reading of the gospel account of the birth of Christ, a myriad of shepherds, angels, and other ancient figures appeared on the stage in a very simple recounting of the story. The costuming was probably the best I've ever seen for shepherds and angels, probably because so much of Khmer culture favors wraparound garments and large cloths as a normal part of dress. |
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Charlie Dittmeier was the presider for this year's Christmas liturgy because Jim Noonan was in a Vietnamese village along the border for masses there. Wary of following the children's performance, Charlie kept the homily shorter than usual! |
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Normally we have about 200-225 people for our Saturday night liturgies. This year for Christmas we had an overflow crowd probably close to 300. We have trouble with cars being stolen during mass--one of the reasons we normally meet when it is still light--and had to terminate the previous security company we used. Looking for someone to guard us in a pinch, we contacted the manager of the center. Fifteen minutes later he had a soldier there in full uniform with an AK-47! Not exactly the image and ambience we want to create, but we lost no cars that night. |
Go to Christmas Celebrations in Cambodia 2001