After a gunman killed 26 at a Baptist church in Sutherland Springs, Tex., parishioners gathered to worship with their pastor, whose daughter was among the dead.
SUTHERLAND SPRINGS, Tex. — Under heavy clouds and spitting rain, hundreds of people gathered at a baseball field here on Sunday to worship with the survivors of the massacre at the First Baptist Church, where 26 people were killed.
Its pastor, Frank Pomeroy, fought back tears as he delivered his sermon, which emphasized the power of light to triumph over darkness.
It was the church’s first Sunday service since a masked gunman, Devin P. Kelley, opened fire on parishioners in a methodical shooting that may have lasted as long as seven minutes.
The week since the shooting has been filled with funerals, tearful gatherings and shared grief in this unincorporated community of a few hundred people southeast of San Antonio.
The small church on 4th Street remained closed Sunday morning, so parishioners and hundreds of guests gathered under a white tent.
They sang “Amazing Grace” and found strength in Mr. Pomeroy’s message: Darkness will not win.
He said: “This past weekend, our country was attacked, our state was attacked, our church was attacked. Glory to God, our people were attacked.”
Referring to Veterans Day on Saturday, he added: “We celebrate and remember the veterans who fought and died so that we can have freedom in this country. We have the freedom to choose, and rather than choose darkness as this one young man did that day, I say we choose light.”
As the service was ending, mourners lined up to hug him while the First Baptist Church choir from Seguin, Tex., sang, “I Surrender, Lord.”
After the service, John Barnhill, 46, a United Parcel Service worker who has been delivering packages to residents of Sutherland Springs for seven years, said he was glad to see so many people gathered despite the tragedy that forced the church doors to remain closed.
“In Texas, we know the devil can’t beat us,” he said. “You may kick us out. But if we have to do it in the middle of a baseball field, it don’t matter. We’re going to have church.”
The Texas Department of Public Safety said the victims included 10 women, eight children, seven men and the fetus of one of the victims, Crystal M. Holcombe. Eight of the dead belonged to a single family. One victim, Annabelle R. Pomeroy, 14, was the pastor’s daughter.
John Cornyn, a United States senator from Texas, spoke at the service and later praised parishioners for their resilience. “It’s clear they are people of deep faith, and that that’s what sustains them and gives them hope, even during dark times like this,” he said.
Until last week, the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs was housed in a white building with a red door. Musicians often performed on Sundays and Mr. Pomeroy, known for his handlebar mustache and the motorcycle he would sometimes park inside, would lead the service.
The church’s out-of-date marquee was still inviting people to an October Fall Fest on the morning that Mr. Kelley stormed in wearing a black mask and tactical gear.
After he opened fire on those inside, Mr. Kelley was shot and wounded by an armed bystander. He fled in a vehicle and was found dead after his car crashed.
In 2012,Mr. Kelley was in the Air Force when he was convicted of assaulting his first wife and her young son. He served time in a military prison. Under federal law, that should have prevented him from buying firearms, but the Air Force failed to forward information about him to the national databases used for gun purchase background checks.
“One thing we know for sure is this individual should not have been able to legally purchase a firearm,” Mr. Cornyn said on Sunday.
Asked whether the weapons used by Mr. Kelley — which included a semiautomatic rifle — should be owned by civilians, Mr. Cornyn referred to the bystander who had shot at Mr. Kelley with a semiautomatic rifle of his own: “Well, thank goodness Stephen Willeford had an AR-15, and he prevented other people from being killed that day.”
The church said in a news release that the site of the shooting is being transformed into a memorial to honor those who died and Mark Collins, the associate pastor, told parishioners that next week’s church services would return to the First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs.
Those under the tent applauded and said, “Amen.”
