Jackson Free Press

The Mississippi Religious Leadership Conference—a statewide, interfaith organization of clergy and laypersons both individual and corporate—in response to the tragedy in Charleston, S.C., will hold a candlelight vigil on Saturday, June 20, at 6:30 p.m. in front of St. Andrew's Cathedral (305 E. Capitol St.) in downtown Jackson. For information call 601-750-1855.

Before tragedy struck in the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal in Charleston, S.C., with the killings of nine worshippers Wednesday, June 17, AME officials were preparing to convene in New Orleans on June 29 for the Council of Bishops and general board meeting.

The shootings, which officials are investigating as a hate crime, have cast a pall over the event, which likely would have been attended by Clementa Pickney, Emanuel's pastor and a South Carolina state senator, who is among the dead.

The Rev. Michele Goodloe, a presiding elder in the 8th Episcopal District of Mississippi and Louisiana, said the shootings have left the close-knit AME community distraught.

Goodloe, who lives in Jackson, said church officials from around the country traveled to Charleston to lend support to Charleston. Bishop Julius McAllister, the chief officer of the 8th District, left for South Carolina before 6 a.m., Goodloe said.

Goodloe said the church's response to the Charleston shooting, for which authorities have arrested a white man named Dylann Roof, 21, would be the same whether it happened inside the church or outside it.

"When something like this happens so close to home, then we have to look to God," Goodloe said.

The Rev. Samuel H. Boyd Sr. of Pearl Street AME Church said he was in Bible study when he heard about the shootings.

"When I got the news, I had mixed emotions. Words cannot explain the feelings that came over me. I thank God, because it could have been my church or any church," Boyd told the Jackson Free Press.

Jackson-area AME churches held prayer vigils Thursday evening and invited the public to attend.

"This was not an attack against the AME church; it was an attack against the body of Christ. We cannot incarcerate demons, we cannot see it coming, but we can take measures to see it coming," Boyd added.

"It should help us as a church community and as a city to come together to be observant and watch and pray as the Word says. I just pray for the young man that did the crime because his life is ruined," he said.

Mayor Tony Yarber, the pastor of Relevant Empowerment Church, expressed support for Charleston on Twitter, writing: "Our prayers go out to the #Charleston community. Our churches provide safe haven. A terroristic act upon the house of God is abominable."