Church resumes Bible study as slain pastor’s body returned

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — The site of a massacre a week ago, the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church is being reclaimed by parishioners who are pledging to remember the loved ones they lost in a shooting while carrying on the work of the beloved pastor who was slain beside them.

Members of the late Rev. Clementa Pinckney’s flock and non-church members alike packed into the church’s basement to attend Wednesday night Bible study — the very activity where one week before, Pinckney and eight parishioners were gunned down in what authorities are investigating as a hate crime.

Interim pastor Norvel Goff said their faith compelled them to return and continue the work Pinckney and others started, and to show evil would not triumph.

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