Pacific Palisades Presbyterian Church sits on a rise overlooking the ocean. The church caught fire and burned down on the first night of the Palisades Fire, which began the morning of January 7.
“It was absolutely surreal to see flames coming off the top of those crosses,” said the Rev. Grace Park, who has served as one of the church’s pastors for nearly two decades.
On a recent afternoon, she walked through the rubble of her congregation’s campus.
“If you come up these stairs here,” she said, “this is where the back entrance of the church used to be.”
Palisades Presbyterian now lies in ruins. The congregation has been meeting a few miles away at a Presbyterian church in Culver City since the fire. Church leaders say they hope to rebuild someday, but it’s too early to talk about when that might be.
Many Christians mark the beginning of Lent by marking their foreheads with the sign of a cross in ash. For those whose homes and churches burned in the Los Angeles area fires in January, this year’s Ash Wednesday is especially poignant.
“I am constantly reminding folks in church, reminding myself as well that the church is not a building, but it is her people,” said Park. But she admits that such reassurances can feel like cold comfort.
“The reality is that this is our home,” she said. “We do live here. And we are surrounded by the things in our lives that mean something to us. The photos mean something to us. That special coffee cup that you used every morning, it meant something to you. We need to take the moment to grieve them.”
