Believers adapt to new rules, continue to move services outdoors

Parks, parking lots, patios become places of worship



FINDING ANOTHER WAY—At left, parishioners recite the Lord’s Prayer as they watch Mass on a large television Aug. 8 in the parking lot at St. Julie Billiart Catholic Church in Newbury Park. Many houses of worship have moved their services outside and online to comply with coronavirus health restrictions, which allow for outdoor gatherings but not indoor. Below, members of Living Oaks Church gather on a recent Sunday under a tent outside their sanctuary on Business Center Circle in Newbury Park. MICHAEL COONS/Acorn Newspaper

FINDING ANOTHER WAY—At left, parishioners recite the Lord’s Prayer as they watch Mass on a large television Aug. 8 in the parking lot at St. Julie Billiart Catholic Church in Newbury Park. Many houses of worship have moved their services outside and online to comply with coronavirus health restrictions, which allow for outdoor gatherings but not indoor. Below, members of Living Oaks Church gather on a recent Sunday under a tent outside their sanctuary on Business Center Circle in Newbury Park. MICHAEL COONS/Acorn Newspaper

Birds aren’t the only ones singing outside in Thousand Oaks on Sunday mornings.

Since Ventura County’s health order prohibits indoor worship services but permits outdoor ones, houses of worship across the Conejo Valley have been meeting in parking lots, patios and parks in compliance with COVID-19 prevention measures.

Journey Church in Thousand Oaks is one of a half-dozen religious groups that have reserved park areas from Conejo Rec and Park District, according to data from the agency. Journey has been livestreaming its services online, and once a month members meet at Conejo Creek Park North for a socially distanced sermon.

Rob Patterson, lead pastor at Journey, said the transition from the church’s usual location in a Boys & Girls Club on Avenida de Las Flores to a public park was like coming full circle. When the congregation was founded in Thousand Oaks two years ago, meetings were at Conejo Community Park at Dover and Hendrix avenues.

“We started at a park. There is something about just being outside and worshiping and singing songs about God while looking at trees,” he said. “One time a monarch butterfly started flying around my head while I was preaching. You don’t get that on a video.”

RICHARD GILLARD Acorn Newspapers

RICHARD GILLARD Acorn Newspapers

Patterson said the church isn’t a building; it is people, and “church can happen anytime, anywhere.”

For the Rev. Ken LaMont at Newbury Park First Christian Church, services have been taking place outdoors and online.

Congregants can choose to watch LaMont’s livestream from inside the sanctuary in their homes, or they can meet in the church’s courtyard to watch the service on outdoor flat-screen monitors. Seats are socially distanced; communion servings are individually sealed, and sanitizing stations are spaced around the courtyard.

LaMont said outdoor services are not ideal, but nearby Boney Mountain is a gorgeous backdrop to Sunday morning worship. He said the most important thing is that people get to see each other, even if it’s from 6 feet apart.

ONE SUNNY SUNDAY—The Rev. Joseph Shea celebrates Mass July 26 on the ball court at St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church in Simi Valley. RICHARD GILLARD/Acorn Newspapers

ONE SUNNY SUNDAY—The Rev. Joseph Shea celebrates Mass July 26 on the ball court at St. Rose of Lima Catholic Church in Simi Valley. RICHARD GILLARD/Acorn Newspapers

“We believe people were created for community. We were created for relationship, and this pandemic has been so hard on people because they have been isolated from each other,” he said.

The Newbury Park pastor said the common mantra during the pandemic has been “we’re all in this together.”

“The problem is we haven’t really been together. We’ve been all locked up in our houses, so to actually have a place where, even if it’s at a distance with a mask on, we’re still together is what matters,” he said.

Living Oaks Church has met in a local park as well as the parking lot of its building on Business Center Circle. On Sunday church officials rented a large tent to provide shade during the parking lot service.

Austin Axen, lead pastor at Living Oaks, said he is grateful for the opportunity to get together, though he admitted there are logistical issues to alfresco worship.

“There is no playbook for pastoring in a pandemic,” he said. “We’re making the best of it. I think pastors are doing their best to discern what’s best for the church and the communities they’re in.”

Axen said he traveled to Israel last year, including a visit to the site in Galilee where Jesus taught the Sermon on the Mount as recorded in Matthew’s Gospel. He said the memory of Galilee came to him last month while he was preaching in the parking lot and a cool breeze blew in.

“Church in the parking lot had a similar feel to Jesus preaching outdoors to the masses,” he said. “In one sense it felt really biblical to be preaching outdoors.”