A police officer checks the purse of a parishioner as she arrives for the morning service at Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston June 21, 2015.

REUTERS/CARLO ALLEGRI

The Sunday service was winding down, but before it ended, Bishop Ira Combs led the congregation of 300 at the Greater Bible Way Temple in prayer. The shootings that killed nine people in a Charleston church could not happen here, he reassured his flock.

"If they had security, the assailant would not have been able to reload," Combs declared. "All of us here are not going to turn the other cheek while you shoot us."

As he preached, Combs was flanked by a man on each side of the pulpit, each armed with handguns beneath their suit coats. Other members of the church's security team were scattered among the crowd. Congregants did not know who was armed and who was not - an undercover approach that is part of the security plan.

"We aren't looking to engage people in violence, but we are going to practice law enforcement," Combs told Reuters before the service. "And we are going to interdict if someone comes in with a weapon."

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/07/01/us-usa-shooting-south-carolina-churches-idUSKCN0PB3IY20150701