In his nearly 30 years as a minister, the Rev. Fred Devall has taken comfort in an overriding tenet of his faith — “The Episcopal Church welcomes you!” he said, opening his arms.
So it felt odd, said Devall, the pastor of St. Martin’s Episcopal Church in Metairie, to watch this spring as a security consultant walk the church’s ushers through the basics of keeping the church and worshippers safe: Look for unfamiliar faces. Look for someone carrying a backpack. Look for anything that might go wrong.
“Those things don’t exactly go together, right?” Devall said of a welcoming church with sometimes suspicious eyes keeping watch. “But this is where we are.”…