An advent wreath, which is traditionally lit in the four weeks before Christmas.
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Shawn Gallup/Getty Images
LOS ANGELES – As the season of Advent begins, many Christians turn to quiet contemplation and preparation for Christmas. But in many congregations in Southern California, with large immigrant communities, that solemn anticipation is overshadowed by a nagging sense of dread.
For worshipers like Mike, an Iranian asylum-seeker who attends a West Los Angeles church, the weeks before Christmas feel less like a spiritual refuge and more like a time of apprehension. He requested that only the English version of his Persian name be used because he feared that speaking publicly could affect his immigration case. After adopting Christianity he fled from Iran.
He said, “I kept this secret, my faith, a secret for about 12 years.”
Mike arrived in Los Angeles 18 months ago and says he has tried to create a life based on community and respect in his new home. But a series of immigration enforcement actions in the area – including the arrest of two men in June outside a nearby church with a large Iranian membership – have shaken them.
“Even the church is not safe because it is a public place,” he said. “They can get in there and catch you.”
The Department of Homeland Security says enforcement actions into churches require secondary approval and are expected to be rare. Still, the concern is real inside Mike’s congregation, where church leaders asked that the church’s name not be published.
A large number of Iranian parishioners worship there, and the pastor often invites them to pray in Persian during services. Lately, fewer people accept his offer.
“This is part of the heartbreak of these days,” the pastor said. “They feel like they have to be apprehensive about it – they don’t even want to talk in their own language here.”
She said the fear is especially painful during Advent, a season she describes as a time of preparation “to be thankful for this God we have who wants to be with us.”
Despite the fear, the room at the inn
At Baldwin Park United Methodist Church, east of Los Angeles, Pastor Tonya Rios unfurled a red tent set up in the middle of the sanctuary. For years, the church provided a place to sleep for newly arrived immigrants looking for work and housing.
The tent is a reminder of that welcome – and the fear that still lingers in the minds of many congregants. Rios estimates that about 80% of his church’s members are immigrants and says many do not have legal status.
“A lot of them say, ‘Don’t open the door. Just close the door,'” she said.
Rios urges a different posture, especially during arrivals. She uses the tent to help her congregation imagine that they are the ones providing shelter, not preventing others from coming out.
“It’s very hard,” she said. “But Jesus is about to be born in our hearts. So we need to be ready.”
For longtime church member Roy Lopez, the feeling of insecurity goes beyond immigration status. Lopez is an American citizen but says she is often targeted because she is Latina. Many of her relatives are undocumented and she is constantly worried about them.
“What if they catch us on our way to church?” He said. “On a daily basis, we are afraid to go to school, work, go to church, and even go to the grocery store.”
Lopez says that during Advent, these fears remind him of the Christmas story – Mary and Joseph were looking for a place to stay, being moved away again and again until someone finally took them in.
“Despite so many doors being closed, someone opened one,” he said.
That theme of welcome runs through the hymn chosen for each Sunday of Advent at Baldwin Park United Methodist Church, “All the Earth is Hopeful.” Its lyrics speak of a world yearning for salvation, where people “strain to see how God’s truth and justice set everyone free.”
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