Mother Emanuel holds special bible study honoring victims of 2015 mass shooting

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCBD) – Eight years ago, nine members of Mother Emanuel were killed during bible study, and Wednesday night, a special bible study was held to honor those nine members.

The bible study was the first in a series of commemorative events that will be held over the next nine days.

Members and visitors of Emanuel AME Church are honoring the nine lives lost eight years ago during Wednesday’s Emanuel Nine Commemorative Bible Study.”

“On behalf of our pastor,” one Mother Emanuel member said, “Reverend Eric S.C. Manning, and members of Mother Emanuel, I welcome you here with us.”

Bible study was led by guest pastors Jarett Washington and Nelson B. Rivers III, who covered “The Parable of the Sower.”

“The Bible says that Jesus begins in this text of Mark 4 to begin to teach in parables,” Washington said.

This is the same text that was being covered during bible study on June 17, 2015, when the church’s nine members were killed by a white supremacist.

“A farmer casting seed on the ground,” Washington said, “and the seed was then falling on what the Bible says is different kinds of soil.”

The pastors wanted worshippers to take away three key lessons from Wednesday’s session.

“There are three things required of us,” Nelson III said, “as professed believers or on the road to becoming a believer. You have to hear the word, receive the word and act on the word. Jesus is telling us, ‘Hearing is not enough, but you can’t receive it if you never hear it; and when you receive it, if you don’t understand it, you’ll never act on it.”

The pastors who led the bible study say it’s still difficult to talk about the events that transpired at Mother Emanuel eight years ago.

One pastor says he was with one of the victims, South Carolina Senator Reverend Clementa Pinckney, just days before the shooting occurred.