Longing for Home: The Impact of COVID-19 on Cambodian Evangelical Life

In Cambodia, the government's response to the COVID-19 crisis intersected with religious practice this year, as April played host both to the Christian Holy Week and the Cambodian New Year holiday, rooted in Cambodian Buddhism and indigenous religions. Typically, the Cambodian New Year celebrat...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autor principal: Wong, Briana (Autor)
Tipo de documento: Electrónico Artículo
Lenguaje:Inglés
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Publicado: Edinburgh Univ. Press [2020]
En: Studies in world christianity
Año: 2020, Volumen: 26, Número: 3, Páginas: 281-297
Clasificaciones IxTheo:BL Budismo
BT Religiones de la Oceanía
CB Existencia cristiana
KBM Asia
Otras palabras clave:B Resurrection
B Khmer New Year
B Transnational
B Covid-19
B Cambodia
B Digital Media
B Evangelicalism
B Prayer
Acceso en línea: Volltext (Verlag)
Volltext (doi)
Descripción
Sumario:In Cambodia, the government's response to the COVID-19 crisis intersected with religious practice this year, as April played host both to the Christian Holy Week and the Cambodian New Year holiday, rooted in Cambodian Buddhism and indigenous religions. Typically, the Cambodian New Year celebration involves the near-complete shutting down of Phnom Penh, allowing for residents of the capital city to spend the New Year with their families in the countryside. Many Christians stay with their parents or other relatives, who remain primarily Theravada Buddhist, in the rural provinces throughout Holy Week, missing Easter Sunday services to participate in New Year's festivities at their ancestral homes. In light of the government's precautionary cancellation of the all-encompassing festivities surrounding the Cambodian New Year this spring, Christians who have previously spent Easter Sunday addressing controversial questions of interreligious interaction notably focused this year, through online broadcasting, on the resurrection of Jesus. In the United States, the near elimination of in-person gatherings has blurred the boundaries between the ministry roles of recognised church leaders and lay Christians, often women, who have long been leading unofficial services and devotionals over the phone and internet. In this article, I argue that the COVID-19 crisis, with its concomitant mass displacement of church communities from the physical to the technological realm, has impacted transnational Cambodian evangelicalism by establishing greater liturgical alignment between churches in Cambodia and in the diaspora, democratising spiritual leadership and increasing opportunities for interpersonal connectedness within the Cambodian evangelical community worldwide.
ISSN:1750-0230
Obras secundarias:Enthalten in: Studies in world christianity
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.3366/swc.2020.0310