Bearing the Burden Together: Community Gathers to Honor Slain Charleston Church Members

Members of the old, historic, Beulah African Methodist Episcopal Church in Farmville were joined by neighboring church leaders, members of their respective congregations, local residents and a number of town officials on Tuesday evening in a prayer service to honor the memory of the victims of the recent Charleston, South Carolina shooting. The racially motivated shooting occurred last Wednesday evening at the Mother of Emmanuel AME Church in Charleston, when according to his own confession, 21-year-old Dylan Roof, a white man, walked into the church during a regular Bible study, sat down and participated in the study for nearly an hour. He then stood up without warning and opened fire on the group, ultimately killing nine black parishioners, including senior pastor and S.C. state senator Reverend Clementa Pinckney.

The Tuesday evening prayer service in Farmville was led by Beulah AME pastor Matthew Shannon. It provided those in attendance an opportunity to share their thoughts and feelings in the wake of an incident that has not only shocked the entire nation, but has forced it to openly admit, re-examine and ultimately choke on an ugly truth: racism still flourishes in America. In the words of Pastor Shannon, the Wednesday shooting has “…shaken and awakened us to those evils, [that still exist today].” It also provided those in attendance with something else. The Interfaith Community Prayer Service at Beulah AME provided residents of the Farmville and Prince Edward communities the chance to come together, to stand, sing, bow and pray united by faith and ideal against the hate that motivated Dylan Roof. Leaders of local churches and government, each in his turn, stood at the aged altar of a church that has served as the sanctum sanctorum of the Prince Edward African American Christian community since 1868. Indeed, the doors of Beulah AME were open in the late 1950’s and early 1960’s, the troubled times that are the history of Prince Edward County during the days of the fight for equal education. Quoting the words of the litany recited during the service, “The doors of the church are still open.” Each speaker offered their own unique words of comfort, hope and forgiveness. However, one could not help but notice that a common thread of solidarity was woven through the entire fabric of a message that was given by so many. A single, unified and unwavering declaration rose to the surface of Tuesday evening’s service. It said that while right now we may grieve for the loss of the victims in Charleston, and while we may struggle to understand the hateful atrocity that has been committed, one man against his brothers, we are not weak. We will not give in to fear. We will not give into hate.