A woman who was a member of the Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church in Springfield Township, Bucks County, died last night after she was shot in the church office earlier in the day.
Pennsylvania State Police did not identify the woman, and were not releasing any information about the shooting last night, other than to call it a "suspicious death."
The Rev. Gregory Shreaves, the minister at Trinity, said last night that the woman had been doing volunteer office work at the church while he was away at a pastors' retreat in Malvern.
Shreaves declined to identify the woman, but said she lived in Hellertown, Northampton County, and was in her 40s. The church sexton found her in the office at about 1 p.m. with a gunshot wound to the head, Shreaves said. She was taken to St. Luke's Hospital in Fountain Hill, where she died last night.
Asked if there was any sign of a robbery, Shreaves said: "Not from what I gather," after talking to state police.
Shreaves said that the nearby Trinity United Church of Christ, on Route 212 not far from Trinity Lutheran, is hosting a gathering today at 10 a.m. to allow area residents a chance to offer each other consolation.
"This is a community tragedy; all of us mourn and grieve and seek answers," he said.
Bishop Claire S. Burkat of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Synod, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, said: "I am shocked and saddened by the senseless tragedy. My thoughts and prayers, like those of people across our region, go out to the family of the victim, and to the people of Trinity Church, who have seen the ugly hand of violence reach into their personal and sacred space."
Trinity Lutheran Church, a large brick building with an imposing spire, also on Route 212 near Township Road in the Pleasant Valley community, was founded in 1751. The rural northern Bucks County community is southeast of Bethlehem, near the Northampton County border. The church has about 150 members, said Sandy Rehrig, a church leader. Shreaves has been the pastor there since 2005.
Rehrig said last night that the woman who died had been a church member for about a year. She belonged to the choir and to a group at Trinity that knits for a Bucks County group called Stitches of Love. The organization makes and donates clothing and blankets to children in the Philadelphia area and in Afghanistan. The group also knits socks and helmet liners for American soldiers.
Rehrig said there had been no signs of any trouble before yesterday. "It's such a shame - everybody really liked her," she added. "We really don't know what happened or why."