Clyburn, Scott to mark Charleston church shooting anniversary

CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) - A three-day event beginning Friday will commemorate the seventh anniversary of the massacre at a downtown Charleston church that left nine dead.

The shooting at Mother Emanual AME Church during a Wednesday night Bible study on June 17, 2015, killed the lead pastor of the historically-Black Charleston church, State Sen. and the Rev. Clementa Pinckney, and eight of his parishioners.

U.S. Rep. Jim Clyburn, who represents South Carolina’s Sixth Congressional District, will participate in a Bible study event Friday night called, “What Kind of Soil Are We? What Kind is God Calling Us to Become?” during a coordinated weekend to mark the anniversary.

The weekend in Charleston is also meant to kick off a yearlong Bible study across the nation and across denominations, according to a release from Clyburn’s office.

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“Seven years after the domestic terrorist attack at Mother Emanuel A.M.E. Church and as the nation mourns the innocent lives lost in recent attacks in Buffalo, New York and Uvalde, Texas, we find ourselves in the same quagmire,” Clyburn said. “This national Bible study is much needed and forces the nation to turn the mirror on itself. What kind of soil are we if we cannot or will not protect the lives of students in school and parishioners in their places of worship? We must not allow the threads that hold the fabric of this great country together to become unraveled by appalling silence.”

U.S. Sen. Tim Scott (R-South Carolina) will also attend, along with faith leaders from several different church denominations.

The weekend will conclude on Sunday, which is also Father’s Day and Juneteenth, which marks the date on which the nation’s last enslaved persons finally received word after the Civil War ended that they were free.

In addition to Pinckney, the victims in the attack included Ethel Lance, the Rev. DePayne Middleton, the Rev. Daniel Simmons, Cynthia Graham Hurd, Myra Thompson, Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, Susie Jackson, and Tywanza Sanders.