CHARLESTON, SC — (CNN) It’s hard to imagine what emotions and thoughts are going through the minds of worshippers walking through the doors of Charleston’s Emanuel African Methodist church for Bible study, one week after bullets whizzed through the air inside the building, ultimately leaving six women and three men dead.
Hearts may quicken and reflexes heighten as they gather for Wednesday’s 6 p.m. Bible study class.
“Everyone is welcome,” according to church steward Carlotta Dennis. Wednesday’s lesson, listed on the church website, is “The Power of Love.”
Some believe it took an incredible amount of love and faith for family members and loved ones of those killed to publicly declare their forgiveness of 21-year-old Dylann Roof. He sat through the Bible study class for an hour with his victims before ending their lives one week ago.
Even as people attempt to return to a routine of commonplace tasks and chores, the necessary but unwelcome duty of planning and attending funerals for nine people is also being carried out.
Two of the victims will be buried Thursday: the Rev. Sharonda Singleton and Ethel Lee Lance.
On Wednesday afternoon, the Confederate flag flapped nearby as the Rev. Clementa Pinckney’s body went on public view in the S.C. State House.
A week after the killing of the African-American pastor and state senator by a man who had posed in photos with the flag as a symbol of white supremacy, Pinckney’s legislative colleagues are still grappling with whether to take it down.
Hundreds have demonstrated at the State House in Columbia to have the Confederate flag removed immediately. On Tuesday, lawmakers took a step in that direction.
Only 10 members of the S.C. House of Representatives voted against a motion to open up a debate on whether to remove the flag from a war memorial located yards from the State House’s doors.
A law protecting it and other Civil War symbols requires a two-thirds supermajority vote in each chamber of the legislature to take it down. But critics say it could go much faster if lawmakers would just strike down that law with a simple majority vote.
Meanwhile in Alabama, all four Confederate flags at the Confederate memorial on the state Capitol grounds in Montgomery were removed Wednesday morning on the order of Gov. Robert Bentley, according to press secretary Yasamie August. The governor said he didn’t want the flags to become a distraction to legislative matters. August said the move will be permanent.
In Charleston, with fears that outside protesters could descend there, the City Council acted quickly, unanimously passing a special resolution to establish guidelines for demonstrations.
Demonstrators will have to stay at least 300 feet away from any church, synagogue, funeral home, cemetery or family home, said council member Kathleen Wilson.
She and others on the council have heard that far-right protesters from Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas may be among those visiting town.
Pinckney answered the call to preach nearly 30 years ago, at the age of 13, according to a biography on the church’s website. He was first appointed a pastor when he was 18. He graduated magna cum laude from Allen University in Columbia and was president of the student body at the historically African-American school.
Ebony magazine featured him as one of its “Top College Students in America.”
In 1996, at 23, he was elected to the S.C. House of Representatives, the youngest black person ever to win such a seat.
Four years later, voters elevated him to the state Senate. He recently advocated for legislation to make police wear body cameras, believing it would protect lives.
Pinckney was 41 when he was killed.
His body will be on public view from 1 to 5 p.m. Wednesday in the State House Rotunda. On Thursday, viewings will be held at St. John AME Church in Ridgeland, South Carolina, and at Emanuel AME Church in Charleston, the church where he preached and where he lost his life. His funeral will be at 11 a.m. Friday in Charleston.
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