Legendary Worship Leader: Amish Girls' Death Not God's Will

Contemporary Christian singer-songwriter Michael W. Smith joined a community prayer service at a nondenominational evangelical Christian church in the Lancaster suburbs, following the fatal shootings of five Amish girls at a school in Pennsylvania.

Prayers and services have been held around the world in memory of the victims, some attracting thousands from around the communities in Pennsylvania.

Smith dedicated a song "to these five precious girls who I plan on seeing on the other side".

About 1,500 people filled The Worship Centre, offering prayers and moments of silence.

"Is this God's will that this happened? Absolutely not," Smith said. "But He will use it for good."

Dwight Lefever, a friend of the family of gunman Charles Carl Roberts IV, said they were "a family broken, a family devastated".

"Last night and tonight, there's a lot of homes - a lot of houses - of mourning," Lefever said.

About 45 people attended a third service at Hershey Mennonite Church in nearby Kinzers, organised by a pastor who has five daughters under age 11. "It really hit me, and it felt like it would be a good time for fellowship," said the pastor, Toshi Imchen.

Delivering the litany, entitled "Prayer for a hurting community", church member Janet Gehman offered a prayer for the dead and injured.

"Hold in your arms now the children who need healing in body and spirit: the little girls lying in hospital beds and the little boys who have lost sisters and friends," she said.

Melanie Nolt, 31, of East Earl, a mother of three, said she could not comprehend the loss.

"These poor parents send their kids off to school like any other morning, never dreaming that something like this would happen," she said.

Congregants dabbed their eyes as they sang "Lord Listen to Your Children Praying", its lyrics seeming to fit the moment and the situation:

"Lord listen to your children praying. Lord send your Spirit in this place. Lord listen to your children praying. Send us love, send us power, send us grace!"

The President of the National Clergy Council in the U.S., the Rev Rob Schenck, met all day Tuesday with families of both the victims and the perpetrator of the Amish school shootings in rural Lancaster County, Pennsylvania.

Rev Schenck met the relatives as the head of the Washington DC-based interdenominational organisation which represents more than 5,000 clergy and 20,000 lay associate members.

"This tragic event is one of the saddest and most agonising situations I have ever faced," said Schenck, adding, "All the people caught up in this tragedy are victims and we must not forget that. I conveyed the sympathy and support of churches and people of Christian faith across the country for all the families so devastated by this enormous horror - and they received that message with comfort and deep gratitude."