Emotional Services Held At Charleston Church Days After Shootings

By Scott Neuman / NPR

Published June 21, 2015 at 2:09 AM PDT

This story was published more than 8 years ago.

A remembrance march in memory of the Emanuel AME Church shooting victims passes a sidewalk memorial in front of the church on Saturday. The church today will hold its first Sunday service since Wednesday's shooting.

The Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, S.C., today will hold its first Sunday service following a horrific shooting that killed nine members of a Bible study group there.

Dylann Roof, 21 — who has apparently expressed strong racist and white supremacist views — is charged in the Wednesday night killings, in which nine members of a Bible study group at the historic black church were shot dead. Emanuel AME's pastor, the Rev. Clementa Pickney, was among those killed.

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley was expected to attend the service.

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NPR's Debbie Elliott, reporting from the church, says: "It's a very emotional day for the city of Charleston. People are gathering, bringing flowers, weeping, praying, and preparing for this very difficult morning."

Debbie adds: "This is all happening at the same time that police officers and their dogs are doing searches of the parking lot and preparing the church to be a safe place for people to come and remember this morning."

The Rev. Randolph Miller, pastor of Nichols Chapel AME Church in Charleston, tells CNN: "We must continue to preach [forgiveness] and drive it home. It won't happen overnight, but we must not stop preaching forgiveness."

"Hopefully one day it will sink in and bring a change," he said.