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CNN Newsroom
The Funeral of Reverend Clementa Pinckney. Aired 2:30-3p ET
Aired June 26, 2015 - 14:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(CONGREGATION SINGING)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let me invite all of our pastors across this faith community to pray with us and with this family. God of our weary ears, God of our silent tears, thou who has brought us thus far on faith, thou who has by the night led us
[14:30:00] into the light, keep us forever in thy path we pray. Lest our feet stray from the places, our God where we met thee. To the great, grand and supreme architect of the universe, to the one and only true God, the Eternal Father and his son Jesus Christ and in the Holy Ghost, we pray. We gathered this day symbolic of being knee- bound and body bend before the throne of grace. It is this day that we bow our hearts beneath our knees and our knees in some lonesome valley. We have gathered for this home going celebration, like an empty pitcher to a full mountain.
Oh, Lord, open up a window of heaven, pour out thy blessings upon this awaiting congregation. Neither far over the glory and hear our sincere prayers. Lord, have mercy upon our souls with the forgiveness of our sins, blessed our gathering on this day. Ride by this morning, mount up on your milky white horse and in your ride to save us from our sins and to create within us a clean heart.
Oh Lord, bless our president, the president of the United States of America, president Barack and first lady. Pin his ears to the wisdom post, continue to make his words as sledgehammers of truth. Put his eyes to the telescope of eternity and let him look upon the paper walls of time, turpentine his imagination, put perpetual in his arm, fill him full of dynamite of power, anoint him all over with the all of salvation and let his tongue be less fire.
Bless our bishop and supervisor Norris and all of the bishops of Zion and the visiting bishops. Bless our Congress, our Senate, our governor, our mayor, our elected officials and all clergy across the ecumenical community and their spouses. And this bereaved family and the entire Emanuel nine families.
And now, oh Lord, when we have drunk or last cup of sorrow, when we have been called everything but a child of God and when we are done traveling up the rough side of the mountain, Jesus, stand by us. We started down the steep and slippery steps of death and when your world begins to rot beneath our feet, lower us to the dusty grave in peace to await for that morning, meet us, Jesus, that our souls would rest in peace. Hallelujah. Amen. Amen. Amen.
(SINGING)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our Old Testament scripture comes from the 40th chapter of Isaiah, beginning at verse 18.
To whom then will you liken God, or what likeness compare with him? An idol? A workman casts it, and a goldsmith overlays it with gold, and casts for it silver chains. As a gift one chooses mulberry wood -- wood that will not rot -- then seeks out a skilled artisan to set up an image that will not topple.
Have you not known? Have you not heard? Has it not been told you from the beginning? Have you not understood from the foundations of the earth?
It is he who sits above the circle of the earth, and its inhabitants are like grasshoppers; who stretches out the heavens like a curtain, and spreads them like a tent to live in; who brings princes to naught, and makes the rulers of the earth as nothing. Scarcely are they planted, scarcely sown, scarcely has their stem taken root in the earth, when he blows upon them, and they wither, and the tempest carries them off like stubble.
To whom then will you compare me, or who is my equal says the Holy One. Lift up your eyes on high and see: Who created these? He who brings out their host and numbers them, calling them all by name; because he is great in strength, mighty in power, not one is missing.
Why do you say, O Jacob, and speak, O Israel, "My way is hidden from the Lord, and my right is disregarded by my God"? Have you not known? Have you not heard?
The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He does not faint or grow weary; his understanding is unsearchable. He gives power to the faint, and strengthens the powerless. Even youths will faint and be weary, and the young will fall exhausted; but those who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.
The word of God.
AUDIENCE: Amen.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The reading of the epistle will be lifted up from Paul's first letter to the church in Corinth, the 15 chapter, begin reading in verse 50.
Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption. Behold I tell you a mystery. We shall not all sleep but we shall all be changed.
In a moment in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet, for the trumpet will sound and the dead will be raised incorruptible. We shall be changed for this corrupt must put up this corruption and this mortal must put on mortality and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the same that is ridden death has swallowed up in victory.
Oh death, where is your string? Oh grave, where is your victory? The sting of death is sin and the strength of the sin of the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ? Therefore my beloved brethren, be moveable and always working in the lord knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.
The word of God for the people of God.
UNIDENTIIFED MALE: Our gospel reading comes from the fourth gospel, the gospel according to John, the 3rd chapter, beginning with the 16th verse.
For the God so loved the world that he gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him will not perish but will have eternal life. For God did send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. And whoever believes in him is not be condemned, but whoever believes stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God as the one and only son.
This is the verdict. Light has come into the world but men like darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil and everyone who does evil hates the light and will not come into the light for fear that its deeds will be exposed. But whoever live by the truth comes into the light so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through Jesus the Christ. Amen.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Amen. And the people of God should say amen.
AUDIENCE: Amen.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At this time, it's our opportunity to present to this bereaved family and this entire gathering, the presiding prelate of the seventh Episcopal district of the African Methodist Episcopal church, the chief pastor, the episcopate, Reverend Richard Franklin Norris. Except for the family, we will ask, and the president, all others please rise and receive him.
(APPLAUSE)
REV. RICHARD FRANKLIN NORRIS, CHIEF PASTOR: Thank you. To all of the established protocol of this day, stretching across every segment of this nation and of our government, I rise on behalf of the seventh Episcopal African-American church to express my thanks and appreciation to each of you for your support, encouragement of the family during this time of sorrow and loss.
We come not as those who have no hope but we come reassured that nothing separates us from the love of God. And, therefore, we press on to do those things which are acceptable in the sight of God.
Now, even a presiding bishop has sense enough to know not to block the way when the president is waiting to speak. I ask you to give me just about 40 seconds to say to you how grateful we are to each of you for what you have done and for what you continue to do. Seeing that we are encompassed by a greater cloud of witnesses, I say to us, let us run on, run on and see what the end will be.
For I am persuaded that God will bring everything into fruition and God will bless our going out and our coming in. I stand to say that the nine who lost their lives at bible study, I'm calling upon is the board of trustees of Allen University to raise a memorial on the campus of that institution in memory of the nine who lost their lives I am persuaded that coming generations who will study on the campus of Allen will be reminded of the importance of what happened during this period of time.
I close by saying to you that we are convinced that South Carolina rose to its greatest height during the last week.
(APPLAUSE)
There is no period -- there is no period in the history of this great state that will excel the love and togetherness that exemplified itself as a result of the act that was perpetrated a few days ago. But I say that I can tell the world about this. I can tell the nation that I am blessed, tell them that the comforter has come and brought joy to our soul.
I am told it is my responsibility to say that the president of the United States of America, the honorable Barack Obama will come at this time.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Giving all praise and honor to God.
(APPLAUSE)
The Bible calls us to hope, to persevere and have faith in things not seen. They were still living by faith when they died, the scripture tells us.
(APPLAUSE)
They did not receive the things promised. They only saw them and welcomed them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth.
We are here today to remember a man of God who lived by faith, a man who believed in things not seen, a man who believed there were better days ahead off in the distance, a man of service, who persevered knowing full-well he would not receive all those things he was promised, because he believed his efforts would deliver a better life for those who followed, to Jennifer, his beloved wife, Eliana and Malana, his beautiful, wonderful daughters, to the Mother Emanuel family and the people of Charleston, the people of South Carolina.
I cannot claim to have had the good fortune to know Reverend Pinckney well, but I did have the pleasure of knowing him and meeting him here in South Carolina back when we were both a little bit younger, back when I didn't have visible gray hair. (LAUGHTER)
The first thing I noticed was his graciousness, his smile, his reassuring baritone, his deceptive sense of humor, all qualities that helped him wear so effortlessly a heavy burden of expectation.
Friends of his remarked this week that when Clementa Pinckney entered a room, it was like the future arrived, that even from a young age, folks knew he was special, anointed. He was the progeny of a long line of the faithful, a family of preachers who spread God's words, a family of protesters who so changed to expand voting rights and desegregate the South.
Clem heard their instruction, and he did not forsake their teaching. He was in the pulpit by 13, pastor by 18, public servant by 23. He did not exhibit any of the cockiness of youth nor youth's insecurities. Instead, he set an example worthy of his position, wise beyond his years in his speech, in his conduct, in his love, faith and purity.
As a senator, he represented a sprawling swathe of low country, a place that has long been one of the most neglected in America, a place still racked by poverty and inadequate schools, a place where children can still go hungry and the sick can go without treatment -- a place that needed somebody like Clem.
(APPLAUSE)
His position in the minority party meant the odds of winning more resources for his constituents were often long. His calls for greater equity were too-often unheeded. The votes he cast were sometimes lonely.
But he never gave up. He stayed true to his convictions. He would not grow discouraged. After a full day at the Capitol, he'd climb into his car and head to the church to draw sustenance from his family, from his ministry, from the community that loved and needed him. There, he would fortify his faith and imagine what might be.
Reverend Pinckney embodied a politics that was neither mean nor small. He conducted himself quietly and kindly and diligently. He encouraged progress not by pushing his ideas alone but by seeking out your ideas, partnering with you to make things happen. He was full of empathy and fellow feeling, able to walk in somebody else's shoes and see through their eyes.
No wonder one of his Senate colleagues remembered Senator Pinckney as "the most gentle of the 46 of us, the best of the 46 of us."
Clem was often asked why he chose to be a pastor and a public servant. But the person who asked probably didn't know the history of AME Church.
(APPLAUSE)
As our brothers and sisters in the AME Church, we don't make those distinctions. "Our calling," Clem once said, "is not just within the walls of the congregation but the life and community in which our congregation resides."
(APPLAUSE)
He embodied the idea that our Christian faith demands deeds and not just words, that the sweet hour of prayer actually lasts the whole week long, that to put our faith in action is more than just individual salvation, it's about our collective salvation, that to feed the hungry, clothe the naked and house the homeless is not just a call for isolated charity but the imperative of a just society.
What a good man. Sometimes I think that's the best thing to hope for when you're eulogized, after all the words and recitations and resumes are read, to just say somebody was a good man.
(APPLAUSE)
You don't have to be of high distinction to be a good man.
Preacher by 13, pastor by 18, public servant by 23. What a life Clementa Pinckney lived. What an example he set. What a model for his faith.
And then to lose him at 41, slain in his sanctuary with eight wonderful members of his flock, each at different stages in life but bound together by a common commitment to God -- Cynthia Hurd, Susie Jackson, Ethel Lance, DePayne Middleton-Doctor, Tywanza Sanders, Daniel L. Simmons, Sharonda Coleman-Singleton, Myra Thompson.
Good people. Decent people. God-fearing people.
(APPLAUSE)
People so full of life and so full of kindness, people who ran the race, who persevered, people of great faith.
