Amish community offers forgiveness for gunman

MARY-LIZ Miller and her sister, Lina, did everything as a team - playing, praying, and learning together in the little country schoolhouse amid the cornfields of Pennsylvania.

Today, they and two friends will also make their final journey together as the four bodies, dressed in their best white pinafore dresses, are carried by horse-drawn carriage to an Amish cemetery and buried in a simple ceremony conducted in German dialect. A fifth will be laid to rest tomorrow.

But the funeral services will not focus on the children in the coffins, or on the bloody schoolhouse shooting that led to their deaths. In keeping with Amish tradition, they will focus solely on God - and on forgiveness for the killer.

"There's a very deep ethic within the Amish community, that they are raised on from small children, that you forgive your enemies," said the Rev Bob Schenck, president of the National Clergy Council, who has visited families of the victims, as well as relatives of the gunman, Charles Roberts.

In one home he visited, the parents of another victim, 13-year-old Marian Fisher, had been praying over the body of their daughter, which was laid in a coffin in their bedroom, while also shuttling back and forth to hospital to keep vigil for her younger sister, Barbie, 11, who was in critical condition.

"As we were standing next to the body of this 13-year-old girl, the grandfather was tutoring the young boys, saying that 'we must not think evil of this man'. It was one of the most touching things I have seen in 25 years of Christian ministry," said Mr Schenck.

Marian's parents said in a statement: "We don't know or understand why this happened, but we do believe God allowed this to happen. The rest of us, our lives will go on. We will try to work together to support and help the families directly involved."

Meanwhile, new details emerged yesterday of the horror that unfolded inside the West Nickel Mines Amish School near Bart, Pennsylvania, after Roberts, 32, appeared at the front door, acting oddly.

"He stood very close to me to talk and didn't look in my face to talk," said Emma Mae Zook, the school's 20-year-old teacher.

Then he backed his truck up to the front door and began unloading weapons, tools and planks of wood. Miss Zook and her mother, who was visiting the class, bolted for the door to raise the alarm, while her sister-in-law Sarah, and Sarah's pregnant sister, also Emma Mae, 21, remained with the children.

Roberts ordered a nine-year-old boy to run after the two women, threatening that if the child failed to bring them back he would start shooting. Then he told the adults: "You ladies can leave."

Minutes later, Roberts also ordered all the male pupils to leave. As they filed out, they heard the pounding of a hammer as he boarded up the doors and windows to trap the remaining ten girls inside before executing them as police arrived.

Roberts' parents, Charles and Teresa, said in a statement. "This horrific event at the hands of our son is beyond comprehension. We request that you keep the Amish community and our family on God's throne."

Last night, five girls remained in hospital, at least two of them in critical condition.