Mourners pay respects to slain Illinois pastor

March 14, 2009 at 12:00a.m.

MARYVILLE, Ill. (AP) — The widow of a pastor killed in mid-sermon urged mourners to reject hate and to take comfort in their faith at his funeral Friday, in the church where he was gunned down five days earlier.

“On Sunday, my husband didn’t die. He simply got a promotion,” Cindy Winters said. She raised a hand to the sky, and the standing-room-only crowd rose to its feet at First Baptist Church in this St. Louis suburb.

Winters’ closed casket was just feet from where his life ended Sunday, when authorities say Terry Sedlacek, 27, entered the church with a .45-caliber Glock handgun and enough bullets to kill 30 people.

The first shot clipped the Bible Winters was clutching, sending pieces of it spraying like confetti. After Sedlacek’s gun jammed, police say, he pulled out a knife and wrestled with two congregants who subdued him. All three were wounded.