New Sunday Liturgy 2008

Catholic
Liturgy

New Weekend Liturgy
5 October 2008

The English-speaking Catholic community has celebrated one liturgy together on Saturday evenings since about 1989. In those early days, when all foreigners were required to live in one hotel, a group of five to eight people gathered in the hotel room of Fr. Tom Dunleavy for mass together. Through the years the group grew and moved to increasingly larger venues until now on Saturday evenings more than 400 people gather in the auditorium of World Vision.

Now the Catholic community has begun a second weekend liturgy in English. Partly it was because of fears of overcrowding at World Vision; partly because some people just prefer mass on Sundays; and partly because a mass on the other side of town is attractive to some who live in that area. Today was the first gathering of the Sunday morning English mass group and it seems this experiment is off to a good start.

The beginning of mass The new liturgy is held in the small chapel at St. Joseph's Parish in Phnom Penh. Until this year, it was the only parish in the capital but now a second parish church has been built. This small building formerly was the chapel for the seminary which was located on these grounds before the Khmer Rouge era.
Fr. Bob Wynne presiding Fr. Bob Wynne and Fr. Charlie Dittmeier will be the two regular priests working with the Sunday morning group. The other Maryknoll priests have offered to help out as needed. This new mass is on an experimental basis for two months after which it will be evaluated before a decision is made whether to continue it or not.
At the end of mass Many people do not know where St. Joseph Parish is located so in the preceding weeks, the new liturgy was announced repeatedly and maps were distributed to help people locate the parish grounds on a national highway heading north in Cambodia.
The pioneering crowd for the Sunday mass
About 65 people gathered for this first liturgy and a photo was taken at the end of the mass of these pioneers. Even four tourists from Singapore, who flew in just this morning, managed to find the small chapel.

Go to Catholic Church in Cambodia main page
Go to Charlie Dittmeier's home page

	The new liturgy is held in the small chapel at St. Joseph's Parish in Phnom Penh. Until this year, it was the only parish in the capital but now a second parish church has been built. This small building formerly was the chapel for the seminary which was located on these grounds before the Khmer Rouge era.
	Fr. Bob Wynne and Fr. Charlie Dittmeier will be the two regular priests working with the Sunday morning group. The other Maryknoll priests have offered to help out as needed. This new mass is on an experimental basis for two months after which it will be evaluated before a decision is made whether to continue it or not.
	Many people do not know where St. Joseph Parish is located so in the preceding weeks, the new liturgy was announced repeatedly and maps were distributed to help people locate the parish grounds on a national highway heading north in Cambodia.
About 65 people gathered for this first liturgy and a photo was taken at the end of the mass of these pioneers. Even four tourists from Singapore, who flew in just this morning, managed to find the small chapel.