Rev Don Comack with staff and members.

Joy of baptising a new believer.

Blessing the community.

By the grace of God, in April 1992, King Sihanouk acceded to the request of the Archbishop of Canterbury to allow the Anglican Church to minister throughout the Kingdom of Cambodia. In 1993, the Bishop of Singapore, the Right Rev Dr Moses Tay, appointed the Rev Dr John Benson to be the first Dean of Cambodia. The first Anglican Church, the Church of the Lord Jesus Christ Our Peace (CCOP) with English-speaking and Khmer-speaking congregations was started that year in Phnom Penh with the Rev Donald Cormack as the first Vicar.

The Rev Mok Wai Mung and his late wife Mee Hwa succeeded Rev Cormack in 1996, and begun pioneering new Khmer-speaking outreaches and church plants, mostly in the rural countryside. In 2007 Rev Tit Hieng was appointed by Bp John Chew as Vicar of CCOP and Rev Wong Tak Meng took the helm as Dean, operating out of Singapore.

Rev Mok and his wife moved to Cambodia and worked tirelessly to spread the good news in the rural areas.

Many different enterprises were started to help the villagers.

Teams would come from Singapore to partner in the village outreach work.

In 2013, CCOP welcomed Fr Gregory Whitaker and his family. Fr Gregory is the Priest-in-Charge of the English-speaking, international congregation.

2015 saw the ordination of Rev Jesse Blaine who then pastored the Khmer congregation of CCOP. The Blaines left Cambodia in 2020 and the congregation is now pastored by a Cambodian, Ps Pov Morn.

Rev Gregory and family's first visit to Cambodia.

As the congregation grew under Fr Gregory's care, a new premise had to be found to accommodate the attendees.

Church of the Good Shepherd's pastor Rev Chan welcomed Bishop for a confirmation service.

In 2016, work to rebuild CCOP was started and completed on Aug 2018. The new building was consecrated that year, celebrating 25 years of ministry work in Cambodia. The following year, in Oct 2019, Rev Steven Seah was made the fourth Dean of Cambodia and Vicar of CCOP and Rev Tit Hieng was installed as the Vicar of the Rural Mission District (which at the time included church plants in Kg Speu, Svay Rieng, Takeo and Pursat).

Other ministry work:

The Chinese-speaking Church of the Good Shepherd was started by the Rev Chai Lip Vui in 1999 to reach out to ethnic Chinese Cambodians in Phnom Penh. Rev Chan Peng Wah is the current Priest-in-charge of COGS.

In the year 2000, Deaconess Bessie Lee of St Andrew’s Cathedral pioneered Project Khmer Hope (PKH), a training centre in Kampong Speu Province, to equip young Cambodians with skills in hospitality and provide healthcare to the rural community. PKH has since diversified into Industrial Skills Training, and in 2013, launched another training centre in the remote Aoral district and followed later by a centre in Trang.

Out in the village, baptism was conducted with what was available.

As the congregation grew under Fr Gregory's care, a new premise had to be found to accommodate the attendees.

Many young adults now gather in worship at CCOP Khmer service.

ACC Today:

To date, the Anglican Church of Cambodia (ACC) has grown into a communion of 11 Anglican congregations and 17 preaching points in Phnom Penh and five rural provinces, worshipping Jesus in Khmer, English and Chinese. We thank God for the pastors and staff He has brought together and continue to pray that the Lord of the harvest will send us workers to continue to the work that He has begun.