June 21--REPORTING FROM CHARLESTON, S.C. -- Parishioners of the Emanuel AME Church of Charleston came home Sunday to "Mother Emanuel," their citadel of God, to pray for the nine members of their church family who died during Bible study in a room just below the sanctuary.
The service began joyfully. "This is the day that the Lord has made!" an elder reverend, Norvel Goff, told the congregants, who burst into joyful applause as he continued a reading quotation from the Book of Psalms. "Let us rejoice, rejoice and be glad in it!"
Another church leader, the Rev. John H. Gillison, led the service with a defiant prayer.
"Through it all, those of us who know Jesus as we find ourselves engulfed with sadness and darkness, we can look through the windows of our faith and we see hope and we see light and we can hear your voice saying I'm with you! always, even to the end of the world," Gillison said.
Goff choked back tears as he began the altar call by announcing the names of those killed.
"I am reminded this morning about the freshness of death [which] comes like a thief in the night," Goff said. "Many of our hearts are breaking. Many of us are still shedding tears."
"Amen!" the congregants replied.
"But no demon on Earth can close the doors of God's church," he said.
"We know that you're with those families, bless each one, oh Lord," Gillison continued as many in the audience fanned themselves in the heat. "There they were in the house of the Lord, studying your word, praying with one another, but the devil also entered, and the devil was trying to take charge. But thanks be to God, hallelujah, that the devil cannot take control of your people and the devil cannot take control of your church."
During his sermon, Goff thanked law enforcement "for working to create a safer place not just for some of us, but for all of us" and for "the respect they have shown our people."
"Respect gets respect," Goff said. "A lot of folk expected us to do something strange and break out in a riot. Well they just don't know us. We are a people of faith."
"We're going to pursue justice and we're going to be vigilant and we're going to hold our elected officials accountable," he said.
"Love of the Emanuel nine requires us to work for justice."
"There is a time and place for everything and now is the time for us to focus on the nine families," he said.
Goff added, "I was so pleased when the authorities made the phone call and told us we were encouraged go back and worship. The doors of Mother Emanuel are open this Sunday. It sends a message to every demon in hell and on Earth."
People stood upon hearing that, clapping and waving and shouting amen.
"I am here to serve my God and my church," said Thomas Rose, 66, who had been waiting before the service to walk inside past the downstairs room where nine parishioners died. "They were all my family," he said.
Rose said he grew up in the church as had generations of his family before him. He ordinarily would have been there for Bible study Wednesday night, he said, but his wife took him to pray at a sister church instead.
Security was tight as police were stationed around the church and near the pulpit. Backpacks and cameras weren't allowed inside.
Gillettie Bennett, 54, a high school math teacher, was the first in line at 6 a.m. She rose before 5 a.m. in neighboring Mt. Pleasant, expecting a crowd, but found police still walking bomb-sniffing dogs around the memorial that now hugs the building.
"I wanted to be here to be part of history. It just shows the resilience of people in Charleston. This church community has just been through so much," Bennett said.
She hoped the gathering would lead people to have "an honest and open dialogue about race, because we're not going to move forward if we don't."
"With all this church family has been through, how can you not want to be a part of that?" she said. "We have shown our spirit, what it means to be a Charlestonian. I'm proud to say we're different from the rest. We've got to have a forgiving spirit and show the world how to move on."
A stranger approached, crying, and Bennett embraced her.
Clarissa Jackson, 51, of Chesapeake, Va., had come to town Wednesday for her sister's birthday and said she had to be at the church for the service as a Charleston native.
"I never dreamed this would happen," she said.
Bennett reassured her.
"We're holding strong. We're coming back better than ever. That's how we do. That's how we always do," Bennett said.
Several dozen church members were the first to be allowed into the church, walking up the red carpet to be seated at the center of the room.
Charleston Mayor Joe Riley and Gov. Nikki Haley were sitting in the front. Rep. Maxine Waters of Los Angeles was also here.
Darline Lincoln-White of Charleston was among the first to enter, and took a seat to the left of the pulpit. She saw some church members she knows and whom she came to support. Some were sobbing and embracing. Others waved.
"Everybody still has built-up emotions right now. So we're just going to fellowship and let the Lord have his way," she said before the organ started playing "Amazing grace" at about 9 a.m.
Service opened with the choir dressed in white, singing the gospel hymn "Total Praise," familiar to the several hundred in attendance, who stood and joined in singing.
They were urged to shout hallelujah.
"This is the day the Lord has made -- Rejoice! Rejoice!" he said as the crowd stood and clapped.
Presiding Elder John Gillison then reminded them, "We still believe prayer changes things, and changes people."
"We ask, oh God, that you will guide and direct those families that have been victimized," he said, "through the window of faith, we see hope."
"They were in the house of the Lord studying your word, but the devil also entered," he said, adding, "The devil cannot be in control of your church."
"May we be inspired here, Lord, may a kindle of flame be ignited in our hearts of love. May we talk about it at our breakfast table, our dinner table. May we talk about it at work: love," he said.
Then the congregation sang a hymn, repeating the refrain, "You are worthy to be praised."
The first reading was from Corinthians 16:28: "Quench not the spirit...hold fast to what is good."
Solemn-faced congregants fanned themselves but without much crying.
Visitors from around the country joined the historic church's parishioners in prayer.
Lucinda Magwood, 60, a registered nurse from nearby Johns Island, sat next to a stranger: Kathie Corley, 69, a flutist and former member of the church from Charleston. Magwood is black, Corley white. Corley explained that she was welcomed at the church and wasn't surprised the accused shooter, Dylann Roof was too.
"You would think a house of worship is a sanctuary," Magwood said.
"I'm thinking about the pastor, Clementa Pinckney, the state senator" who died, Magwood said. "Today is Father's Day, and his wife and daughters are going to be missing him. We're coming together with love."
The gunman "tried to take our safety away and I think people are here to say no," Corley said, noting the diverse crowd of various ages and races packing the church, many toting paper fans.
At 10 a.m. EDT, church bells rang throughout Charleston, known as the "Holy City" because of its many churches, and across the whole state of South Carolina to commemorate those who died.
Tighe Barri, 57, a props person from Santa Monica visiting the church, greeted Rep. Waters, his congresswoman.
"It's important that we all step up and admit there's a problem with race relations in this country," he said, gazing around the church, from police to the packed pews. He and his partner, Medea Benjamin, were among a small group of white attendees.
"They really have turned their lives over to God. I've been to a lot of churches and temples all over the world, but I've never been to a place like this before," he said.
Benjamin, 63, of San Francisco was visiting Washington and drove down with Barri to attend.
"We've seen so much killing and racism. We've been following the killings of young men in the streets. There's been so much attention to terrorism overseas. White supremacy to me is a form of terrorism, and we need to root it out."
Saturday night, they attended a rally in Columbia, S.C., to bring down a Confederate flag from the statehouse.
"We have a black president, but we haven't dealt with racism," she said.
Tycely Williams, 40, flew down from Washington in hopes of attending the prayers of mourning and forgiveness.
Her great grandfather was the presiding elder at Emanuel AME, she said, and she wanted to be here to "honor my great grandfather on Fathers Day."
She said she grew up in Birmingham, Ala., in the wake of the white supremacists" bombing of the 16th Street Baptist Church there, which killed four little girls.
The bombing lingered in the mind of her mother, Williams said.
"My mother always called me back down the hall when she sent me off to Sunday school, she said. This too is a community that will never recover."
Staff writer Matt Pearce contributed to this report.
UPDATES
8:30 a.m.: This post was updated with Goff talking about how police encouraged the reopening of the church Sunday.
8:14 a.m.: This post was updated with sermon comments by the Rev. Norvel Goff
7:25 a.m.: This post was updated with details from the church service, and additonal comments by worshipers.
6:34 a.m.: Post was updated to note church services had started.
This story was originally posted at 6:16 a.m.
