In a symbolic service yesterday, the flames of nine candles, each symbolising a life taken in this month's shooting at a church in Charleston, South Carolina, in the US, were snuffed out as the victims' names were called during a ceremony hosted by the church's South African branch. Reverend Paul Kawimbe, bishop of the SA region of the African Methodist Episcopal church in Atteridgeville, Pretoria, said the nine were in the lord's house praying for mercy when evil, in the form of alleged gunman Dylann Roof, stared them in the face."In a world full of hate, they wanted solace in the house of the lord. As they asked the lord to come by, it was not the lord that came by."Kawimbe described the shooting as demonic."Neither life or death shall separate us from our lord. Neither good or evil shall separate us from the lord," he said.Kawimbe said he knew one of the victims, Daniel Simmons, 74, whom he described as jovial.The two first met in 1996 in the US and again in 2004 when both ran for bishop."It pains my heart that people kill, even in church. It is a demonic attack on our family. The world should learn from this," he said.SA Council of Churches' Gauteng provincial secretary Gift Moerane said the shooting showed racism was alive."What happened tells us it [racism] is not over. It tells us about the danger of guns in society."Those who died tell the world that we live in a racist world, they tell the world that we need to root out racist tendencies," he said.A delegation from the church will travel to Charleston on Thursday to worship with parishioners there...