Members of a historic black church in the US were to yesterday return to their sanctuary and worship less than a week after a white shooter killed nine people there, and similar sermons of recovery and healing were to reverberate throughout the nation.
Yesterday morning was to mark the first worship service at the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church since Dylann Roof, 21, sat among a Bible study group and opened fire after saying that he targeted them because they were black, authorities said. The church pastor, the Reverend Clementa Pinckney, who was also a state senator, was among the dead.
Events to show solidarity were planned throughout the city and beyond, including the synchronized ringing of church bells at 10am. South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley and her family were to attend the service at Emanuel.
Photo: Reuters
Despite grim circumstances the congregation has been faced with, the welcoming spirit Roof exploited before the shooting is still alive, church members said.
Harold Washington, 75, expects the sanctuary to host even more newcomers after one shattered the group’s sense of peace and security.
“We are going to have people come by that we have never seen before and will probably never see again, and that is OK,” he said. “It is a church of the Lord, you do not turn nobody down.”
Church leaders planned to address the heavy psychological burdens parishioners brought with them.
“I think just because of what people have gone through emotions are definitely heightened, not just in Charleston but with anyone going to church because it is such a sacred place, it is such a safe place,” Shae Edros, 29, said after a multiracial group of women sang Amazing Grace outside the church on Saturday.
“To have something like that completely shattered by such evil — I think it will be in the back of everyone’s heads, really,” Erdos said.
Erdos was planning on attending Sunday service in nearby Mount Pleasant.
The suburb is connected to Charleston by the Arthur Ravenel Bridge, where people were expected to join hands in solidarity yesterday evening. The bridge’s namesake is a former state lawmaker and a vocal Confederate flag supporter.
Roof had been photographed with the flag several times before the shooting.
Unity Church of Charleston Reverend Ed Kosak said delivering yesterday morning’s sermon would be emotionally taxing, but that he felt empowered by the strength and grace Emanuel members have shown — a demeanor he said has set the tone for religious leaders everywhere.
“I’ve gone into Sunday sermons before like when Virginia Tech happened, and when the Sikh shootings happened” Kosak said.
The situation in Charleston might be harder to give a sermon on because it hits so close to home. However, Kosak said: “I am more ready than ever to speak to this tragedy in ways I did not think I could before.”
For the family of Cynthia Hurd, yesterday’s service was to be especially poignant. Hurd, a longtime librarian, would have been celebrating her 55th birthday and was planning a trip to Virginia with her siblings.
“Sunday will not be a sad day for me; it will be a celebration for me. It will be a celebration for our family because our faith is being tested,” Hurd’s younger brother Malcolm Graham said on Friday. “She was in the company of God trying to help somebody out. She was where she needed to be.”
Felicia Breeland, an 81-year-old lifelong Emanuel member, said she sang in the choir with Susie Jackson, 87, who was also fatally shot on Wednesday last week.
“It is going to be sad. She sits right on the front row, too,” Breeland said. “She had a very soft soprano voice. It was beautiful.”
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