One of the things that Anna and I love about the Anglican Church no matter where you are in the world is the emphasis on liturgical seasons of the church year, and daily spiritual rhythms. It is a great blessing that liturgy helps focus our sights on Christ in new ways! This year, I was prayerful about how our student dorms at Church of Christ our Peace in Phnom Penh could embody something new; something to help the leaders and students be more intentional about their faith in Christ and their fellowship with one another besides their normal rhythms of Bible studies, church attendance, and the other regular aspects of life like work and school.
One of the helpful rhythms in my own life has been adopting the Anglican Service of Morning Prayer from the Book of Common Prayer (BCP) into my daily rhythm. I have found that Morning Prayer allows me to anchor my day in communion with Christ regardless of what I may be feeling or what may or may not lie ahead that day. Unfortunately for our dorms, most of the students have irregular schedules during the day due to work commitments and study commitments, making liturgical rhythms and activities challenging. I prayed about what we could offer to help the students incorporate simple but effective disciplines or rhythms into their busy lives that draw them into daily communion with Christ.
‘…Morning Prayer allows me to anchor my day in in communion with Christ and fills me up for whatever lies ahead…’
Thankfully, the BCP also has a service for Evening Prayer! This service fits our students’ rhythms a little better because most of the students arrive back to their dorms later in the evenings and they are able to close their days with communal worship with their fellow housemates living in the dorms. But why even consider something like this at all? Is Evening Prayer simply a service or thing that we or the students need to add onto their already busy lives so that they can be better Christians? Certainly not!
One of the biggest challenges for some of our students will ultimately be that they end up leaving our student dorms to go back to their province or village. Many of these students will be the first believer in their family or have no stable church community in their hometowns. One of the things we regularly discuss in our dorm leader meetings is how we can help students grow in their faith as young believers while also equipping them to have ownership over their faith after they graduate university. I shared with them a story from my own life: I became a Christian through the Cru movement in 2010 and was heavily involved during my time at university. While I was encouraged by my campus pastor to be an active member of our nearby church, looking back I never took ownership over my faith, but relied on my campus pastor and friends to spur my spiritual growth. When I graduated and my Cru community was dispersed into the world, I found it challenging to continue the rhythms I had while a student without the people and life I had known previously. I thought I was a great Christian, but I realized that I hadn’t taken ownership of any rhythms or tools I had been given to find and engage in a new Christian community in the place that God was trying to give to me.
‘One of the things we regularly discuss in our dorm leader meetings is how we can help students grow in their faith as young believers while also equipping them to have ownership over their faith after they graduate university.’
As I reflected on how impactful Morning Prayer is for my walk with Christ, I wondered if Evening Prayer could give our students a similar experience. The three dorm leaders and I talked about how we can equip our students to be faithful Christians when they leave our dorms, potentially have no believing community, and possibly no access to a stable church. After an initial Evening Prayer service with the dorm leaders, they were very excited to implement it in the dorms. By implementing spiritual rhythms in our student dorms, students who do not believe have an opportunity to experience Christ, and students who already believe have their faith strengthened within their believing community. Most importantly, it gives them a beautiful liturgy in which they are able to embody and experience genuine worship of the Lord, and which they can hopefully take with them when they leave our student dorms upon graduation. Many Cambodians do not simply become Christians upon hearing the Gospel. They often must live and practice what the faith asks of them before they are willing to commit to baptism or commit their lives to Christ. Life in the dorms, therefore, offers this opportunity to safely experience Christian fellowship in a believing community and experience the rhythms of the Church. The uniqueness of Anglicanism offers students an opportunity to experience the love of Christ grounded in Word and Sacrament.
‘Many Cambodians do not simply become Christians upon hearing the Gospel. They often must live and practice what the faith asks of them before they are willing to commit to baptism or commit their lives to Christ.’
After practicing Evening Prayer in the dorms for several weeks, one student dorm leader offered this reflection on the communal impact that daily Evening Prayer brought about for their students:
“One of the things that we noticed was that many of the students made a real effort to join for Evening Prayer every evening even though they had other things to do in work and studies. While all parts of Evening Prayer were good, the most valuable part was afterwards. We saw that many of the students would not go immediately to their rooms, but they would ask each other about their lives, what was going on, what hardships they were facing, and then continue praying for one another. We were happy to see that the students were able to be more relaxed and engaging with one another through daily Evening Prayer, especially considering that it was optional for them to participate.”
A second student dorm leader commented on one way that practicing Evening Prayer was transformative for students’ worship:
“In the beginning, it was a bit strange for us to do Evening Prayer, especially kneeling during confession [during Lent] because we never kneel during confession even at church. But the more we did Evening Prayer, the more we saw that we were not just doing this by ourselves, but we were doing these things before God Almighty. Now, on Sundays I see several students kneeling during confession because of their experience kneeling and confessing every evening in the dorm. I think we will keep confession as a part of our worship and Bible studies. (Very recently this same dorm leader shared that Evening Prayer has been so transformative for their dorm, that they are continuing to do Evening Prayer daily, and individual students are stepping up to lead different sections and scripture reading, how amazing! Even on a recent retreat I had with this particular dorm leader, I asked, “what will the students do while you are away” and he replied that the students are comfortable to lead and follow Evening Prayer even while he is away. It is truly awe inspiring to see how small acts of faithfully following Christ can have deep impacts on those around us).”
Would you please pray for our students and dorm leaders as we make plans and seek to help these students grow in their walk with Christ? Would you also pray for the students who do not yet believe that they would experience the love of Christ through Bible studies, daily rhythms, and the sense of safety of the believing community? And would you pray for one student in particular who said to our dorm leaders earlier this year that they want to commit themselves to Christ, but are not yet ready to fully commit to becoming a Christian? Lastly, pray that our student dorms are safe places for students to grow in faith and love of God and neighbor.
Anthony and Anna Pelloni serve as SAMS Missionaries at the multi-ethnic Church of Christ Our Peace in Phnom Penh, with a focus on reaching young students living in the dorms with the transforming Gospel of Jesus Christ. They feel very grateful to be serving in the Anglican Church in Cambodia and rely on support from faithful Senders through gifts and prayers. If you would like to support their ministry or hear more about their life in Cambodia they would love to connect with you via email here. Or you can read more about their ministry here.