CLEVELAND — Last weekend, a visiting pastor led the congregation of St. Paul’s Lutheran in prayer for the two men who allegedly stole their church’s historic bell.

For several of the about 30 members who attended the service in the country church about six miles southeast of Cleveland near German Lake, the first they had heard of the crime was a few minutes before the Rev. Richard Jorgensen’s invocation Sunday.

Most reacted with disbelief rather than anger.

“We are a very forgiving congregation,” said Joyce Bohlen.

“They can’t imagine why they did it, that someone would take a keepsake, and that it was taken from a church. No one knows them. They have no connection to us.”

Thieves cut up the century-old brass object that weighed a couple hundred pounds before they attempted to sell three pieces. Investigators recovered those parts from a scrap yard.

Chad Alan Anderson, 27, of St. Peter, and Leo James Pete, 28, of Kasota were detained, then released after questioning, Le Sueur County Sheriff Dave Tietz said in a press release.