NEWTOWN, Conn. — The chiming of bells reverberated throughout Newtown on Friday, commemorating one week since the crackle of gunfire in an elementary school killed 20 children and six adults in a massacre that has deeply shaken the community - and the nation.

Gov. Dannel Malloy gathered with other officials in rain and wind on the steps of the Edmond Town Hall as the bell rang 26 times in memory of each life lost at Sandy Hook Elementary School. The gunman also killed his mother before the massacre and himself afterward.

Officials didn’t make any formal remarks, and similar commemorations took place throughout the country. The White House said President Barack Obama privately observed the moment of silence.

Newtown school Superintendent Janet Robinson said Friday that consolidating the first-grade classes at Sandy Hook Elementary School is part of the process of preparing for the pupils’ return Jan. 3 to a refurbished middle school in Monroe. She said most of the classes will remain intact, except the first grade, in which 20 pupils were killed. She said one of the three classes has a single remaining student.

In Washington, religious leaders from a broad range of faiths gathered at Washington National Cathedral to call for their congregations to lobby Congress to enact gun control and mental-health reforms to address pervasive gun violence. In a garden beside the National Cathedral, they paused to listen as a funeral bell tolled.

In New York City, bells at the historic Trinity Church near the World Trade Center site tolled 28 times. In Massachusetts, bells in churches around the state, including Boston’s historic Old North Church, rang in honor of those killed in the attack. A moment of silence was observed throughout Colorado, and bells rang out in Denver, while in Wyoming, St. Mary’s Cathedral in Cheyenne and other places of worship rang bells 26 times. In Ohio, places of worship from Cincinnati to Clevelandand beyond tolled their bells 26 times, and schools across the state marked the moment with silence.

There is rarely a mention by residents of the first person whom police said Adam Lanza killed that morning: his mother, Nancy, who was shot in the head four times while she lay in bed.

New details emerged Friday about Adam Lanza, who acquaintances said was able to take apart and reassemble a computer in a matter of minutes but rarely spoke to anyone. In high school, Lanza used to slip through the hallways, pressing himself against the wall while wearing the same green shirt and khaki pantsevery day.

“As long as I knew him, he never really spoke,” said Daniel Frost, who took a computer class with Lanza and remembered his skill with electronics.

Lanza seemed to spend most of his time in his own large space in the basement of the home he shared with his mother - the same basement where she kept a collection of guns, said Russell Ford, a friend of Nancy Lanza’s who had done chimney and pipe work on the house.

The basement of the Lanza home was fully carpeted and had artwork, including a picture of a horse, on the walls. There was a computer, a flatscreen television, couches and an elaborate setup for video games. Nancy Lanza kept her guns in what appeared to be a secure case in another part of the basement, Ford said.

“She was from gun culture. Live free or die. That was truly her upbringing,” said Ford, who often met Nancy Lanza - a New Hampshire native - and other friends on Tuesdays at My Place, a local restaurant.

Over the past year and a half, Ford said, Nancy Lanza had told him that she planned to move out West and enroll Adam in a “school or a center.” The plan started unfolding after Adam turned 18.

“He wouldn’t be dwelling with her,” said Ford, who remembered that Adam Lanza never spoke to him or even made eye contact.

Back in high school, Frost recalled, Lanza once made a class presentation about how to change the color of folders in Microsoft Windows. He did it without saying a word, just demonstrating the steps on a screen.

Someone in the class brought in a video game called Counter-Strike, a first-person shooting game in which players compete against each other as either terrorists or counterterrorists, Frost said.

Lanza “seemed pretty interested in the game,” Frost recalled, and would play it with other students. He remembers the weapons Lanza chose: an M4 military-style assault rifle and a Glock handgun.

During the rampage at the school, Lanza used a militarystyle assault rifle and carried handguns, authorities said.

A private funeral was held Thursday in New Hampshire for Nancy Lanza, according to the police chief in Kingston, N.H., where her funeral was held. About 25 family members attended.

The Newtown area weathered more funerals Friday, with five planned.

A standing-room-only crowd filled the St. Stephen Roman Catholic Church in Trumbull for the funeral of Mary Sherlach. Sherlach, the school psychologist who rushed toward the gunman during the shooting, was remembered as a caring professional, a fan of the Miami Dolphins and a woman who ultimately put the lives of others ahead of her own.

Information for this article was contributed by Michael Melia, John Christoffersen, Eileen Connelly, Susan Haigh, David Klepper, Matt Apuzzo and Pat Eaton-Robb of The Associated Press.

Front Section, Pages 6 on 12/22/2012