GASTON COUNTY, N.C. — Several pastors in the Charlotte area are mourning the death of the reverend killed in Wednesday's shooting.
Rev. Clementa Pinckney served as the church's main pastor.
He studied with several area pastors at the Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary in Columbia.
Pastor Jonathan Schnibben and his classmates were so impressed with Pinckney they asked him to speak at their graduation.
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"(He was) just a phenomenal human being. I mean it when I say he was the best person I ever met. I really mean it when I say that and I'm still trying to make sense of it," Schnibben said.
The two spent hours together both in class and as hospital chaplains in Columbia, where they comforted the sick.
Schnibben is now pastor at St. Paul's Lutheran Church in Dallas and was stunned to learn news of the mass shooting at his friend's church.
"I was just shocked and horrified when I found out what had happened. I told some people last night I'm still trying to pick myself up because I feel like I've been hit by a freight train and I don't know what to make of it," Schnibben said.
At the Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary Friday, a black cloth has been draped across the sign to remember both Pinckney and the Rev. Dr. Daniel L Simmons, Sr., who was also an alumni and shot and killed in Charleston.
Schnibben said he will preach about what happened this Sunday and may start with the church's name Emanuel AME Church
"Emmanuel means God with us. And that's the promise that we cling to as Christians is that God is with us in the midst of things so tragic that are so horrible that we can't make sense of in the midst of all of us god is with us," Schnibben said.
CHARLESTON CHURCH SHOOTING RESOURCES:
Several local pastors mourning death of Rev. Clementa Pinckney
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