CHARLESTON, South Carolina (Reuters) - Hundreds
of people packed a sweltering Emanuel African
Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston for an
emotional memorial service on Sunday just days
after a gunman, identified by authorities as a 21-
year-old white man, shot dead nine black church members.
"We are reminded this morning about the freshness
of death that comes like a thief in the night," the
Reverend Norvel Goff told a mostly black
congregation that swelled to about 400 people for
a service remembering those killed on Wednesday
in the latest U.S. mass shooting.
Armed police searched bags at the door of the
church, home to the oldest African-American
congregation in the southern United States, and
officers stood at intervals inside the church along
the side of the nave and in the gallery.
Outside the church, a large, mostly white crowd
gathered to express solidarity with those inside.
Goff's rollicking sermon brought people alternately
to tears and laughter as the church reopened to
worshippers for the first time since the shooting.
They whooped, cheered and raised their hands,
and ended the service with embraces after Goff,
whose voice rose to a shout at times, encouraged them to "hug three people next to you and tell
them, 'It's going to be alright.'"
The suspect, Dylann Roof, was arrested on
Thursday and has been charged with nine counts
of murder.
Authorities say he spent an hour in an
evening Bible study group at the church,
nicknamed "Mother Emanuel" for its key role in U.S.
black history, before opening fire.
Federal investigators were examining a racist
manifesto on a website that appeared to have been
written by Roof.
The site featured white
supremacist writings and photos, apparently of
Roof.
Goff was standing in for Clementa Pinckney, 41,
senior pastor at Emanuel and a Democratic member
of the state Senate who was killed in the massacre.
"When evil is in the world, you and I may not be
able to control evil-doers. ... Some of us are still
trying to seek answers to what happened last
week, Wednesday," Goff said. "I've decided to turn
it to over to Jesus."
Among those at the service, which lasted more than
two hours, were South Carolina Governor Nikki
Haley, U.S. Senator Tim Scott, Charleston Mayor
Joseph Riley and Republican presidential candidate
Rick Santorum.
"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," Goff said.
Hand fans fluttered as those in attendance tried to
beat the heat.
"I thought the service was comforting, refreshing
and encouraging," said Everald Galbraith, 58,
president of the Methodist church in Jamaica, who
attended the service.
"There was not a sense of
great mourning.
They recognized what had
happened but there was confidence in the salvation of those that died."
The massacre has again trained a spotlight on the
divisive issues of race relations and gun crime in the
United States and reignited a debate over gun
control in a country where the right to own
firearms is constitutionally protected.
GUN CONTROL Riley, on the CNN program "State of the Union,"
called for stricter gun control laws.
"It is insane the number of guns and the ease of
getting guns in America," Riley said.
"It's not that
people should not carry guns and all of that, it's just
that there are so many of them and the ease of
them and there is no accountability." President Barack Obama, in an interview recorded
on Friday, expressed frustration over the issue.
He
blamed the powerful National Rifle Association
gun-rights lobby group and public apathy for the
failure to implement new gun control measures.
The church massacre has also renewed the
controversy around the flag of the pro-slavery
Confederate Southern states in the American Civil
War that ended in 1865.
It is a symbol of Southern
pride for some and an emblem of hatred for others. On NBC's "Meet the Press," James Clyburn, a black
Democratic U.S. congressman from South Carolina,
called on state lawmakers to pass legislation to
remove the flag from the state capitol grounds,
where it is mandated by law to fly.
The church shootings were the main topic at other
Sunday services in Charleston, sometimes dubbed
"The Holy City" because of its multitude of historic
churches.
At the predominantly white-membership St.
Michael's Church, founded in the 17th century, the
Reverend Alfred Zadig Jr. said he did not know any
of the victims and asked for forgiveness "for failing
to be a pastor who reaches out beyond my world." "You and I are so good at compartmentalizing
grief," Zadig told his congregation.
"Today I'm
asking you to feel the unthinkable pain ...
This is
not God's will.
God did not ordain this event to
happen to make a point about racism." (Additional reporting by Harriet McLeod in
Charleston and Lucia Mutikani in Washington;
Writing by Will Dunham; Editing by Frances Kerry)
