Friends, Strangers Mourn Victims of Rampage at Church Services : Tragedy: Pastors at Ventura County churches urge love, prayer and understanding in aftermath of shooting spree by unemployed computer engineer.

Struggling to find meaning in tragedy, pastors at several Ventura County churches touched by last week’s deadly rampage urged worshipers Sunday to respond with love, prayer and understanding.

Friends and strangers alike grieved for the four people, including one police officer, killed during a shooting spree Thursday by unemployed computer engineer Alan Winterbourne.

During a Sunday sermon in Camarillo, the priest at slain Officer James E. O’Brien’s church told parishioners to use the tragedy as a touchstone for reflection on religion and the Christmas season.

“His death maybe can help us to recognize that Advent is more than tinsel and lights,” said Father Liam Kidney, priest at Padre Serra Parish.

Along with O’Brien, Winterbourne’s victims included Anna Velasco, Phillip Villegas and Richard Bateman. The three were killed during a rampage at the Oxnard office of the state Employment Development Department on Thursday morning.

Winterbourne also wounded four others before he was shot and killed by police. On Sunday, Catherine Stinson of Ventura was listed in serious condition at Ventura County Medical Center. Irma Lopez, wife of Oxnard Mayor Manuel Lopez, was in fair condition at St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Oxnard. Two other people injured at the unemployment office have been released from area hospitals.

Most of the mourning Sunday focused on the victims.

But at Trinity Lutheran Church in Ventura, Pastor James Hall reminded his congregation to offer prayers and sympathy for Winterbourne’s family as well. Winterbourne, his mother and his sister often spent Sunday mornings in Trinity Lutheran’s wood-paneled chapel.

“Alan was one of us,” Hall said in his sermon.

In prayer, Pastor Ken Gesch added: “We also remember that, however terrible his last actions, Alan was Your child.”

As sanctuaries across the county filled with stunned and grieving parishioners, three women gathered in the kitchen of the Fillmore church where Velasco had been an active member.

The women, who belong to Our Lady of Guadalupe guild that Velasco had led, spent Sunday morning rolling tamales for an upcoming fiesta. Until the day of her death, Velasco had been helping to plan and prepare for the event.

Now the women had to continue their work without her. While they cooked, they recalled some of their last conversations with their friend, and traded bittersweet memories.

“This was like losing somebody in my family,” 60-year-old Dolores Chavez said tearfully. Chavez said she had grown up with Velasco on Rancho Sespe, a citrus ranch outside Fillmore where Velasco’s father had worked.

Another guild member, Maria Cruz, recalled that just days before the shooting, Velasco had recounted a dream in which Jesus told her that she would soon be joining him and Velasco’s mother, who died a few years ago.

Now it seems that dream was a revelation, Cruz said in Spanish.

At first, the slaying itself seemed like a dream to Ingrid Aldavar, one of Velasco’s cousins. But as days passed, the family realized that they would have to find ways to cope with their loss, starting with a memorial service tonight, and funeral and burial Tuesday.

“We know that we have to face the reality,” Aldavar said as she stood in front of the Velasco home. “Before, we were thinking it was a dream.”

On Sunday, friends and family from all over Southern California came to the Velasco home to share condolences, offer food and look over old photographs.

Meanwhile, the pastor at Winterbourne’s church said he would offer a different kind of support network--counseling for his stunned parishioners.

“This just shows us that anyone could pop off like that,” longtime congregation member Helen Salzer said. “I guess the poor guy just couldn’t take it any more.”

In his sermon, Hall expressed the congregation’s horror: “We are scared that this could happen in our community, and to someone we know. What went wrong?”

Searching for an answer to his question, Hall suggested: “Perhaps Alan got tired of waiting for people to understand, to listen to him.”

Although he emphasized that the congregation could not be blamed for Winterbourne’s instability, he urged churchgoers to reach out to strangers and comfort those who are alienated, desperate or afraid.

“What have we learned from the L. A. riots? What have we learned from the drive-by shootings? What have we learned from the violence of people who are crying out for help?” Hall asked. “Maybe the answer is as simple as the Gospel. . . . Love one another as (Jesus Christ) has loved you.”

At O’Brien’s church, Kidney also tried to console the grieving. Just last week, he said he had preached on the meaning of Advent, urging parishioners to prepare not only for the anniversary of Christ’s birth, but also for their own deaths and the eventual end of the world.

O’Brien was sitting in the pews during that sermon.

“Little did he know that it truly was going to be a preparation for him,” Kidney said.

Ironically, O’Brien stepped up his church activities after hearing Kidney give a eulogy for a California Highway Patrol officer from Camarillo who died in 1990 when a car struck his motorcycle as he was returning from a conference in Santa Ynez. The eulogy so moved O’Brien that he enrolled his children in confirmation classes and joined church committees, Kidney said.

Many parishioners at Padre Serra, which counts 1,700 families as members, have called Kidney to offer their help to the O’Brien family, Kidney said. As donations pour in, church leaders are making an effort to draw meaning from the tragedy.

“We’ll take care of the spiritual part,” Kidney said, “to try to make some sense of a radical crazy act.”

Stephanie Simon is a Times staff writer and Maia Davis is a correspondent.

Services for the Victims

James E. O’Brien--A rosary will be said at 7 tonight at St. Mary Magdalen Church, 25 Las Posas Road, Camarillo. A funeral Mass will follow at 10 a.m. Tuesday. He will be buried at Santa Clara Cemetery in Oxnard.

Anna F. Velasco--A vigil will be held at 7:30 tonight at St. Francis of Assisi Church, 1048 Ventura St., Fillmore. A funeral Mass will be held at St. Francis at 9:30 a.m. Tuesday. Skillin-Carroll Mortuary in Fillmore is in charge of arrangements.

Phillip Villegas--Visitation will be from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. today at James A. Reardon Mortuary in Oxnard. A rosary will be said at 7 tonight at the mortuary. Funeral services will be held at 11 a.m. Tuesday at Santa Clara Church, 323 S. E St., Oxnard.

Richard Bateman--A memorial service will be held at 3 p.m. Tuesday at Ted Mayr Funeral Home in Ventura, 3150 Loma Vista Road.