Mourners in the Texas town of Sutherland Springs have farewelled a recently retired couple who were victims of last weekend’s mass church shooting.

Two silver hearses carrying the bodies of Therese and Richard Rodriguez were followed by a long procession of vehicles that avoided passing the small church where more than two dozen people died.

Mourners instead drove around the tiny church before reaching a cemetery on the edge of town, where dozens more vehicles waited along a rural road for the private burial.

Sheriff’s SUVs shielded mourners at the cemetery’s three entrances.

The services for the recently retired couple followed a ceremony earlier on Saturday where about 100 people gathered to commemorate Veterans Day and to honour the shooting victims, nearly half of whom had ties to the Air Force.

“Maybe this will start the healing process that will get Sutherland Springs and Wilson County to put this horrific tragedy behind us and look to the future,” county Judge Richard Jackson, his voice breaking, told the crowd, which included first responders and law enforcement officers.

Judge Jackson, the county’s top administrator, thanked the first responders and others who rushed to First Baptist Church in the aftermath of Sunday’s shooting.

What they saw there will affect them the rest of their lives, he said during the ceremony outside the town’s community centre, where a wreath was placed near flags to remember those killed.

The deeply evangelical town has been comforted by faith.

Joe Holcombe and his wife, Clarvce, lost eight members of their family in the Texas church shooting last Sunday, including their son, grandchildren, a pregnant granddaughter-in-law and a great-granddaughter who was still a toddler. But they are serene.

“It’s just not a problem to us,” said Mr Holcombe, 86, adding that he and 84-year-old Claryce believe their dead family members are now in heaven.

The Holcombes were upbeat and full of good humour during a telephone interview, and they are not an exception.

What is so striking about relatives and friends of the 26 victims is that they all believe good will come from this act of evil and that their loved ones are now safe with God.

Psychologists say such deep faith can help families deal with ghastly events but warn religious beliefs can stunt the natural grieving period and result in post-traumatic stress later.

“I can see potentially it could be some form of denial, a delayed traumatic reaction, and if you don’t have some kind of negative feelings, it can catch up with you,” said clinical psychologist and trauma expert Bethany Brand.

Local veterinarian George Hill, a relative of the Holcombes, said an evangelical belief in Christ was the only way to deal with such a tragedy.

“We haven’t lost hope,” he said. “They are not gone.

They are just gone ahead. And we know we’ll see them again.”

The dead include Bryan Holcombe, Joe and Claryce Holcombe’s son, and his wife Karla.

Their son Danny Holcombe was killed as well, along with his 18-month-old daughter, Noah. Crystal Holcombe, who was 18 weeks pregnant, was Bryan and Karla Holcombe’s daughter-in-law.

Also shot and killed were Emily, Megan and Greg Hill, three children from Crystal’s first marriage, which had ended with her husband’s death.

Under Texas law, Crystal’s unborn child is also being counted as a victim, making a death toll of nine for the family.

The gunman, who killed 25 people and wounded about 20 others, died of what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound after being shot and chased by two men who heard gunfire from the church.

Investigators have said the shooting appeared to stem from a domestic dispute involving the attacker, Devin Patrick Kelley, and his mother-in-law, who sometimes attended services at the church but wasn’t there the day of the shooting.