The reserved greeting at Killeen’s First United Methodist Church contrasted sharply with the effusive cries of parishioners several blocks away at the Christian House of Prayer.

But across this Army town in search of recovery, the message was the same. Pastors, chaplains and priests echoed themes of remembrance, forgiveness and healing in the first Sunday services since Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan’s rampage at Fort Hood.

“When something happens to a part of the family, it affects us all,” said Skip Blancett, senior pastor at First United Methodist, a small church in downtown Killeen. “Today is our way of saying as a family, ‘United we stand.’ ”

American flags waved on two overhead screens. A parishioner lit candles as a bell chimed: one for the 13 killed Thursday, one for the 29 wounded, one for the families involved and one for all others affected by the incident.

“We struggle to understand a tragedy of this volume when it strikes with no comprehensible reason,” associate pastor Carol Roberts said as he prayed with about 50 people. “We ask for justice for the shooter and condolences for his family.”