ACROSS THE LINES - Archive (2006-2020)

This Sunday at 11 am I will meet with my friend and colleague, Rev. Saul Montiel, in the parking lot of an auto insurance company in San Ysidro, the southernmost city of San Diego County. There we will break a loaf of bread in half and split a bottle of grape juice into two containers. I will then take half the bread and half the juice to Tijuana and Saul will take the other half of each to Friendship Park , San Diego's historic bi-national meeting place on the U.S.-Mexico border. At 1:30 pm we will consecrate the elements and serve communion to people in both nations. We have taken to calling our gathering " El Faro: The Border Church / La Iglesia Fronteriza " because "el faro" means "the lighthouse" and Friendship Park sits in the shadow of Tijuana's lighthouse, a famous landmark overlooking the Pacific Ocean.   The reason communion must now be served on both sides of the border fence (instead of through the border fence, as used to be t