MONROVIA: The faithful gather for a prayer service like any other in Liberia's sweltering Resurrection Baptist Ministries church, except today the reverend is taking time to explain why Ebola has forced a change in the seating arrangements.
"We have created space between the chairs and we have enlarged the aisles. This is the rule of Ebola," Joseph Johnson tells his flock, as they fan themselves in the cloying heat of a Monrovian summer morning.
"We have to make sure you don't have body contact with each other. When Ebola is contained we will get back to our own rules."
Johnson prides himself in doing God's work, but lately the prayers have taken a back pew to announcements on the deadly virus sweeping Liberia and other parts of West Africa.
The Ebola virus has killed over 1,500 people in four west African countries since the start of the year, spreading through contact with infected bodily fluids.
Liberia has borne the brunt of the epidemic, burying almost 700 people who got too close to an infected friend, lover, relative or, perhaps, patient or passenger.
Monrovia, a devout, predominantly Christian city of at least a million people, has churches of a wide variety of denominations on almost every street corner, as well as the occasional mosque.
Liberians, well accustomed to seeking solace in their faith, and in spiritual leaders like Joseph Johnson, have not stopped coming to services during the Ebola outbreak.
The preacher has a reputation as a firebrand.
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