Amid latest COVID restrictions, LA churches take the sacraments outside
“Move your hair, Nida,” advises Father Raymond Decipeda as a woman approaches a row of temperature scanners outside a church parking lot.
“Now, place your forehead in front of it,” he says. “There you go!” Digital numbers flash green: 98.6.
The woman adjusts her face mask, rubs sanitizer into her hands, and moves through the gated lot at St. John of God Church in Norwalk. Inside, masked parishioners sit quietly at picnic tables arranged around a towering stage. Candles flicker atop an altar, a hymn plays from a loudspeaker, and the rising sun casts shadows across the blacktop as morning Mass begins.