CHARLESTON, SC — Hundreds of worshippers on Sunday filled a South Carolina church that still bears the scars from a killer’s handgun — taking part in the first service there since nine of its members were massacred inside last week.
Opening the doors of Charleston’s Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church so soon after last Wednesday night’s bloodshed sends a message to “every demon in hell and on Earth,” that evil won’t triumph, said acting pastor Norvel Goff.
“The blood of the ‘Mother Emanuel Nine’ requires us to work until not only justice in this case but for those who are still living in the margin of life, those who are less fortunate than ourselves, that we stay on the battlefield until there is no more fight to be fought,” said Goff, standing in for slain pastor Clementa Pinckney, 41.
Members and visitors, some of whom drove hundreds of miles for the service, filled the 400-seat sanctuary, where they sang hymns, chared hugs and shed tears.
Those in attendance included Marlene Coakley-Jenkins, 64, whose sister, Myra Thompson, 59, was killed in the rampage.
A church member waits to attend the Sunday morning service.Getty Images
Parishioners wait in line outside the church before services begin.AP“We wanted the church to open today,” Coakley-Jenkins said. “We grew up here. This is our church and nobody can keep us out of this church.”
Another sister, Claudette Coakley-Watkins, 57, said Thompson came from a big family and a loving community.
“It’s going to take us a lot to get through this grieving process. It was very important for the church to be open today,” she said.
Armed police officers stood guard inside the church.
Outside, a memorial shrine continued to grow, with enough bouquets to fill a flower show.
Eva Bryant, 55, walked by the display with her 10-year-old granddaughter, Demiyah.
“I brought my granddaughter because I want her to see all races coming together and know that just because one bad thing happens, you don’t shut yourself from the world,’’ she said.
Meanwhile, demonstrators defaced a Charleston monument honoring the Confederacy. Others protested the display of the Confederate flag at the Statehouse in Columbia.
Sunday evening, thousands of black and white people holding hands marched over a Charleston bridge in a show of unity.
