Church service brings peace to congregation gunman struck

After the Sunday service at the Tennessee Valley Unitarian Universalist Church, people seemed to be at peace.

In the span of one week the church has experienced the best of times and the worst of times.

"We had a real nice service for the first ten minutes it lasted last Sunday. Then it turned to horror," said TVUUC Ted Jones. "This Sunday the whole thing was wonderful and beautiful."

Outside the TVUUC, Knoxville police provided physical security. While inside the building, church members reclaimed a sacred spiritual space.

"I came today for some closure from last Sunday," said Carla Lewis, who has attended the church for about a decade. "Jamie and I were both here and it was a traumatic experience. We tried to heal all week. And we thought this would be a good way to wrap it up."

Greg Johnson is a member of the congregation. He attended the service with his 18 year old son. "The way that people have stood up and the love that people are showing," he said. "It really humbles me."

Reverend. Aaron Payson is part of a dedicated trauma recovery team from the Unitarian Universalist Association. "This is just the beginning process of a healing that will take a very long time," he said. "No one gets over something like this. This is the kind of thing that people learn to integrate into their lives in a way that doesn't take up the whole panorama of their vision."

Unitarian Univeralists from across the country felt a need to be at the service.

"To be able to continue and to reclaim all of this community we needed to re-honor that space and to reclaim it as the sacred space it needs to be," said Annette Marquis, District Executive for the UUA.

Reverend Bruce Southworth spent his youth in the TVUUC and now leads a church in Manhattan. "As my home congregation, I wanted to be here to feel the comfort and be part of rededicating the sanctuary to love and inclusion," he said.

The sign posted outside on the church's front lawn reads, Love is the Spirit of this Church.

"It's sad that something so horrific brings people together. But it really has brought out the best in all of us," said TVUUC member Jayne Rapanelli.

Ted Jones is president of the TVUUC. "It makes you think about why you have a faith tradition and why you attend church and it's wonderful for everybody to start thinking about for themselves why do I go to church and is it worth it. And our answer is yes, it's very worth it," said Jones.

Jones said the congregation is on a kind of spiritual high right now with all the love they have felt in the week since the shooting.

"We can't keep this up socially and interpersonally and people are going to miss it," he said. "It's wonderful and we're all kind of high and we need to expect that it's not going to be that way the whole time and we're going to miss it."

Jones said the overflow crowd at Sunday's service was unusual, but welcome.

Two shooting victims are still in the hospital. Linda Chavez is in stable condition at UT Medical Center. UT's staff is not releasing any information on Tammy Summers who remains hospitalized.