Prayers have been said across Plymouth for the victims of last week’s mass shooting as the city continued to be engulfed by feelings of shock, grief and anger.

At St Thomas church in Keyham, a modest redbrick building close to the scene of the shooting, parishioners were asked to pray for the gunman, Jake Davison, and the five people he killed.

It was the feast of the assumption – when Christians believe Mary’s body was taken to heaven – and the parish priest Father David Way said there would be celebrations in churches across Europe. But he said: “We don’t feel like that here in Keyham; here we are grieving, we are hurt. It is a time of sadness, shock and horror.”

Way asked the congregation to pray for the five who were killed: Davison’s mother, Maxine, three-year-old Sophie Martyn and her father, Lee Martyn, 43, Stephen Washington, 59, and 66-year-old Kate Shepherd.

He added: “We pray also for peace for Jake.” And Way also asked for people to pray for those who held the power to fight against extremism, especially on social media – a reference to the gunman’s obsession with “incel” culture.

Standing beside two candles lit at a community vigil on Friday night, Way read out a prayer written by the bishop of Exeter, the Right Rev Robert Atwell, for everyone affected by the shootings: “God of compassion and love, ?let your peace rest gently on the people of Keyham,?particularly on those who have lost family, friends or neighbours.?

“Watch over them in their grief. ?Keep this community safe as it seeks time to heal, and neighbours rebuild their lives in friendship, trust and hope.”

Speaking outside the church, Way summed up the mood of the community as “fluid”. He said: “On the evening people locked themselves away and didn’t know what was going on. Next day when it became clearer what had happened there was bewilderment and shock. And then as more details have come out there has been horror.

“One of the byproducts of bereavement and grieving is anger. In the last 24 hours the feelings of anger have started to surface.”

Way said Davison had clearly been “engulfed” by hatred but he said he would continue to pray for him. He said: “At the forefront of our prayers is the five innocent people who died. But I have to pray for peace a very troubled soul, Jake. We pray for those who have committed terrible crimes.”

He said he was concerned at feelings of anger towards the police after it emerged that the Devon and Cornwall force had returned Davison’s shotgun licence to him weeks before the attack.

“The police experienced things nobody wants to experience in their lives. The police were running into that situation to protect people as best they could. Let’s not aim anger at the police. Let’s aim our anger at extremists on social media.”

Way said the area, a home for many workers at the nearby naval dockyard, would rise again. “It’s a bumpy road but love is here, it always has been, always will be.”

Luke Pollard, the Labour MP for Plymouth Sutton and Devonport, agreed that there was anger. He told BBC Breakfast: “I think people’s emotions have changed from shock and disbelief into now feeling that profound loss of the five people who were killed.? But also a sense of anger. Wanting to know the questions as to how was this allowed to happen, why did this happen, and were there opportunities to stop this happening that were not taken??

“We need to get to the answers of those and that will take some time, and police need to be able to have the space to do it. But we need to make sure the community gets those proper answers because they deserve them.”

The period of official mourning will continue. Flags across Plymouth are being flown at half mast and there is to be a minute’s silence on Monday. A service will be held in the minister church of St Andrews on Wednesday.