Service Thursday in Toccoa to Show Support for Charleston

A number of Stephens County churches are coming together this week in a show of support for Charleston, South Carolina and Emanuel A.M.E. Church.

A inter-denominational community church service will take place in Toccoa on Thursday at 7 p.m. at the First United Methodist Church on Tugalo Street.

St. Matthias Episcopal Church Rector the Very Rev. Mary Demmler said that the service will include many churches and is open to all in the community.

“Eight churches in the community are gathering and hopefully, we will have people from many more churches come to gather to memorialize and mourn the deaths of the nine who were killed in Charleston,” said the Very Rev. Demmler.

Last Wednesday, nine worshippers were killed at the Emanuel A.M.E. Church in Charleston, South Carolina.

The Very Rev. Demmler said it was the next day when she started feeling that something should be done locally to show support.

She said she sent out an e-mail to a couple of different pastors to see if they were interested in putting something together.

“I immediately got a response back so that said we all feel that need and all could stand to get together and have some time of prayer and reflection,” said the Very Rev. Demmler. “From there, I just started to invite some other people and more folks got on board and realized we were going to outgrow our space at St. Matthias. We do not have as big of a space. John Brown was kind enough to open up the Methodist Church to us. Hopefully, this will help us all process what happened in Charleston and help bring us together.”

She went on to say that this hits home particularly hard because the violence took place in a church.

“The level of violence in the country is disturbing, but when somebody defies the sanctity of that church space, it really hits us hard, so we wanted to come together and have a time of prayer so that is what we are doing,” said the Very Rev. Demmler. “Different churches will be leading different parts of the service so it really is a community-wide event.”

She said that the service will last about an hour and will include prayer and music.

Also, an offering will be taken up to send to the Emanuel A.M.E. Church.

Meanwhile, any church that is not yet involved and would like to be involved in Thursday’s service can contact the Very Rev. Demmler at 706-886-4413 or by e-mail at [email protected].