Charleston pastor delivers sermon on revival after guilty verdict on church shooter

Jardine Malado Wednesday, December 21, 2016

A Charleston Strong banner hangs from a church across from the Charleston Federal Courthouse during the federal trial of Dylann Roof who was found guilty of 33 counts including hate crimes in Charleston, South Carolina December 15, 2016. | Reuters/Randall Hill

Rev. Eric Manning, a pastor of Emanuel AME church in Charleston, South Carolina, delivered a sermon on revival and restoration last Sunday following the guilty verdict on church shooter Dylann Roof.

Roof was found guilty last week on all 33 federal charges of hate crimes for shooting nine black parishioners during a Bible study at the church on June 17, 2015.

Manning delivered a sermon on Sunday to encourage his congregation to look forward to better times.

"Weeping has endured for a night, but now joy is coming," Manning told Live5News. "My prayer is that we will be in a place where we have allowed God to pour more of himself back into us and we are then to continue to draw on that strength and to persevere and move forward," he added.

The pastor said that he has been to the courtroom every day of the trial, and he had a deeper sense of appreciation for what the survivors went through.

"When you begin to look at his taped confession then of course that was one of those days when you just kinda said, 'I can't believe it,'" he said.

Manning is still relying on God's word, and he is not giving up hope on Roof.

"[Roof] still has the opportunity for repentance, everyone has the opportunity to repent, everyone has the opportunity to ask God to forgive them," said the pastor. "They have to make that call themselves."

Roof, an avowed white supremacist, was warmly welcomed by the people at the church when he arrived at the Bible study. Witnesses testified that he waited until the parishioners closed their eyes in prayer before he opened fire.

Polly Sheppard, a 72-year-old retired nurse, said that Roof told her that she was being spared so that she could tell others about the tragedy.

The 12 jurors deliberated for under two hours after spending six days listening to testimonies about the massacre.

Roof had previously offered to plead guilty if prosecutors would refrain from seeking the death penalty. He is due to be tried next year on state murder charges.