San Diego church distributes ashes at the border as act of solidarity with immigrants

This week, faith leaders across the country carried church to the people with the practice of offering “ashes to go” in their communities.

As the Lenten season began with Ash Wednesday on March 5, pastoral staff of Covenant United Church of Christ extended love, prayer, and ashes through car windows as people drove through their Illinois community. In Massachusetts, pastors from First Church Sandwich UCC set up near their town’s old town hall to offer ashes to go.

University Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)/United Church of Christ, located in San Diego – just about 20 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border – distributed ashes at the San Ysidro Border Crossing as a unique ritual of solidarity.

With recent executive actions causing fear and uncertainty for many immigrants, University Christian Church sought to send a message of inclusion and stand in stark contrast to these policies, according to Senior Minister the Rev. Caleb Lines.

“Affirming the inherent worth and dignity of every human is a deeply sacred act. With the current administration demonstrating so much intolerance toward immigrants, we hoped to use Ash Wednesday and our time at the border crossing as a witness to an inclusive Christian message,” he said.

‘Jesus was an immigrant’

Church leaders distributed ashes at the border crossing – the busiest border land crossing in the Western Hemisphere – from 6 to 2:00 p.m., the busiest times of transit. The aim was to minister to those who may not have time to go to a church or who may feel rejected by a church due to the rise of Christian Nationalism. 

They described the recent policies and rhetoric of the current administration – including increased militarization of the border – as “dangerous, dehumanizing, and putting already vulnerable communities at greater risk of threats and violence,” noting that the church stands in support of the many immigrants who have been deported, have died while crossing the border, and whose immigration status is in limbo due to current border policies.

“The message of deportation and closed borders goes directly against the Biblical message. Jesus was an immigrant. Mary and Joseph were immigrants,” said the Rev. Marshela Salgado, associate minister of University Christian Church. “If we call ourselves Christians, then we must recognize that the Bible consistently calls us to welcome the stranger, the foreigner, and the alien. That is what our church seeks to do.”

‘A spark inside of all of us’

While Christians traditionally receive the sign of the cross with ashes, University Christian Church distributed them with glitter added.

“The glitter helps us remember that there is a spark inside of all of us, there is something beautiful in each of us, and it symbolizes the love we can find, even in the midst of our frailty and the darkness that often surrounds us,” said the Rev. Diego Salazar-Galvis, Latinx community minister. 

This Ash Wednesday offering marks an ongoing commitment from University Christian Church. They plan to continue their work on both sides of the San Diego-Tijuana border in the coming months.

“A lot of times, we hear that people ought to just get in line and do things ‘the right way’,” Lines said. “But it’s tough to get in line when there is no line for you to get into. Our call from faith is to be of help, of love, and support. That is what University Christian Church is doing and will continue to do on behalf of immigrants, both today and in the future.”

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