Charleston church holds first service following massacre

A church in Charleston where a racist gunman murdered nine African-American worshippers has held its first service since the shooting. Around 400 people, with police watching over them, packed the Emanuel African American Episcopal Church for the service, which was led by a visiting minister as the congregation’s pastor was among those killed in the attacks. Reverend Norvel Goff told the congregation, in between songs and prayers, that accused gunman Dylann Roof had failed miserably in his quest to break their spirit, love and faith. He said the church members killed by the 21-year-old had been “in the house of the Lord, studying your word, praying with one another”.

Thanks be to God, hallelujah, that the devil cannot take control of your people. And the devil cannot take control of your church.

Reverend Norvel Goff

Later on Sunday, more than 10,000 people spread out across the 2.5-mile Arthur Ravenel Bridge to hold hands in a show of solidarity. “It’s not black lives that matter any more. All lives matter,” said Black Lives Matter leader Jay Johnson to loud cheers as he joined the overwhelmingly white and cheerful crowd. Participants linked hands in a “unity chain” from Charleston to the middle-class suburb of Mount Pleasant and observed nine minutes of silence, one for each of the victims. Authorities are treating the shooting as a hate crime and investigating it as a possible act of domestic terrorism. It comes after the emergence of a racist manifesto apparently written by Roof, and a series of photographs of him posing with guns, the Confederate Flag - and burning the Stars and Stripes. Roof is charged with nine counts of murder and remains in custody.

But the devil also entered - and the devil was trying to take charge.

Reverend Norvel Goff

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