Indianapolis church prays for ‘Mother Emanuel’

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) – Dozens of people attended worship service at Saint Paul Temple African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church on Sunday.

The service was high spirited, but weighing on many of the minds inside the sanctuary was the deadly shooting that happened at their sister church in Charleston, South Carolina.

On Wednesday, June 17, a shooter killed nine people including the church’s pastor, inside Charleston’s Emanuel AME Church during the church’s bible study.

Jennifer Swift, a member of Saint Paul Temple AME Church said, “It’s personal to me because my brother used to go to that church when he was in the Army.”

Swift said she’s visited the South Carolina church several times and was also in a young adult group with the Charleston church’s pastor who was killed, Rev. Clementa Pinckney.

Even though the two churches are more than 700 miles apart, that’s not stopping the Indianapolis congregation from helping.

Pastor Allen McClendon led Saint Paul Temple in a special prayer during Sunday’s service in which he prayed for Rev. Pinckney, who was also a South Carolina State Senator, and the other shooting victims and their families.

Pastor McClendon said, “When I saw it and heard it, there was an empty feeling in my gut.”

Swift said she plans to attend the upcoming funerals. She said, “Most likely we will be attending the funeral services and sending cards and sending what we can to the church there.”

Pastor McClendon said the city of Indianapolis will host an AME conference for two weeks in July. He said the conference happens every four years and this will be the first time the city hosts the event.