St. Augustine's - Tunbridge Wells

Our Cambodian twin – the Parish of Kompong Thom

St Augustine's parish in Tunbridge Wells is 'twinned' with the parish of Kompong Thom in Cambodia. Since May 1996, St Augustine's has been involved in CAFOD projects in Cambodia. Over £55,000 was raised in five and a half years to support various projects in that country. Parishioners have come together to learn more about Cambodia and its culture. Special events have included talks by an expert on landmine disposal and on Cambodian Buddhism by a Cambodian Buddhist monk, as well as talks from parishioners and others who have lived there. A former British Ambassador also came and spoke about his work there.. On several evenings, Cambodian meals were served and Cambodian music played. The parish has been seeking to develop personal links with Cambodia, and we wrote to the Apostolic Nuncio of Cambodia for help. The nuncio suggested that we contact the parish of Kompong Thom, a community of four small villages. The parish priest there was delighted at the idea of twinning his parish with St Augustine's. The only remaining step was to ask the parishioners of St Augustine's if they wanted a twin! In their first ever parish referendum, they gave an overwhelming 'yes' to the idea (318 in favour, 6 against).

The Christian Churches in Cambodia are rebuilding from scratch after years of pain and persecution. During the three years of the Pol Pot regime, infamous for 'The Killing Fields' in which between one and two million of the population were killed by the Khmer Rouge, all churches were destroyed and many Christians (Catholic and Protestant) were martyred. What 'twinning' will finally involve has yet to be seen, but the two parishes look forward to getting to know each other and to be enriched by each other in many ways. We have helped to raise money to build a new chapel hall (or temple) in Kompong Thom, which was opened and consecrated in November 1998. Our parish was publicly thanked at the opening service.

In June 2000, two young adults from our parish, Katie Glynn and Harriet Southern visited the Catholic community in Kompong Thom, and were made warmly welcome. We are hoping to arrange exchanges of young people between our parishes in the years ahead.

In October 2001, the parish priest Fr Michael visited Kompong Thom for a week. This has cemented the friendship between the two parish communities, and the twinning will now develop in many ways. The following summer, two young adults from St Augustine's, Haike Hutchings and Melinda Forrester, spent three weeks in Kompong Thom. Since then we have had visits from a priest and two nuns, from Cambodia.