The Michigan church where a gunmen rammed his vehicle into a wall and opened fire on Sunday morning was part of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, or the Mormon Church. The church is headquartered in Salt Lake City, Utah, but has branches around the world.
The congregation in Grand Blanc Township, Mich., was “one of the largest” in the area, with “around 150 members,” according to Justin Jensen, a 19-year-old Latter-day Saint missionary in the area, who said he had been to the Grand Blanc Township church many times.
He also said the congregation was growing. “They have a steady and consistent amount of people being baptized,” he said. The members were mostly families, many from Michigan but some from out of state, Mr. Jensen added.
Each Sunday, Latter-day Saint churches around the world follow a similar program. Members gather to worship for two hours. In the first hour, the congregation meets in a chapel. Families usually sit together in long pews and sing from green hymnals. The attack in Grand Blanc occurred during that period of the service.
The service is led by lay members, who volunteer to give talks based on church doctrine, say prayers, play an organ or piano and lead the congregation in singing hymns. Members of the church’s priesthood, often boys as young as 12, bless the sacrament — small pieces of bread and cups of water symbolizing the body and blood of Jesus Christ — and pass them out.
The service in Grand Blanc Township on Sunday may have started with a somber tone,: The church’s president, Russell M. Nelson,died on Saturday, at 101. The Members considered him to be a prophet, and congregations around the world adjusted their services to honor him, including singing hymns like one titled, “We Thank Thee, O God, for a Prophet.”
A Latter-day Saint congregation in Lapeer, Mich., near Grand Blanc Township, ended its service early after learning of the shooting. One of its members, Matthew Seamons, a 19-year-old missionary working in the area, said: “The fact that it’s happening at a church just blew my mind.”
“You don’t shoot up churches, you don’t shoot up kids, and you don’t shoot up mothers.”
Lauren Jackson is an editor for The Morning and the host of Believing at The New York Times.
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