Jimmy Carter’s final farewell as he moves from Capitol to National Cathedral…

Tony Lowden, Carter’s personal pastor, urged people to take Carter as an example to live a Biblical life of service, saying “last Sunday, our God called the Sunday school teacher home.”

“President Carter is still giving us a lesson today on faith and hope to be the guardrails of our democracy, to be the guardrails of everything that we do,” he said.

Calling out individual members of the Carter family and other guests, Lowden urged people to judge Carter not only by his accomplishments but by his relationships with people, particularly his relationships with Black people. “Jimmy Carter wanted to make sure that his pastor knew they made a difference in his life and it took them all the way to the White House.”

“I often wonder what the world will be like after all this celebration is over. Will we pick up the baton?” Lowden said, urging people to live their life by the Bible. “Or will we just clap our hands and say we were there, instead of moving it forward, picking up the fruits of the spirit from the book.”

Maranatha Baptist Church’s pastor, Ashley Guthas, saluted the simple surroundings including the church’s “red velvety pews” and “green carpet” while acknowledging the marathon of events that Carter family members have been running, saying “exhaustion has been an unwelcome companion for days. Our eyesight is blurry, our emotions frail and our steps feel unsteady.”

She saluted the legacy of “Mr. Jimmy,” saying the “seeds of equality, justice, humility and freedom were planted by President Carter and Rosalynn and they are now ours to tend here in Plains, in the United States and in the world.”

Guthas stands out as a woman leading a Baptist church in the South. Maranatha is not a Southern Baptist Convention congregation. In his 70s, Carter disassociated from the Southern Baptists saying it subjugated women in the church, home and society. He expressed pride that Maranatha had women as deacons—and, now, a woman as pastor.

The crowd lining the highway by Main Street in Plains was mostly quiet as they waited for the motorcade.

When the hearse carrying Carter’s casket and the rest of the motorcade passed by, some people shouted “Thank you!” Others waved American flags.

President Carter’s body has arrived for a second, more intimate service at Maranatha Baptist Church, the small congregation on the outskirts of Plains, Georgia, where he long taught Sunday school.

Unlike Thursday morning’s service packed with presidents and other dignitaries at Washington National Cathedral, this simpler service will mostly be highlighted by remarks from Tony Lowden, Carter’s personal pastor. Other guests besides the Carter family have been waiting at the church, even as Carter’s procession runs more than an hour behind schedule.

When Carter is interred at his longtime home after the Maranatha service, that may mean he will be buried in darkness after the sun sets on a short January day in southwest Georgia.

People are waiting for the motorcade carrying Carter’s casket to arrive in his hometown so they can pay their respects.

Louise Hurless, 65, said Plains felt “eerily quiet” and “peaceful” as she waited. While people lined Main Street exchanging memories about Carter, she sensed a shift from the usual bustle of the town during other celebrations and festivals.

Now a resident of Columbus, Hurless met Carter countless times when she lived in Plains and worked for Habitat for Humanity. When Carter built homes, Hurless said he set aside time to talk to people then kept quietly to himself so he could build.

Hurless fondly remembers trying to sing Christmas carols to people at a nursing home with a small group from Maranatha Baptist Church, including Carter.

“We laughed and laughed, we couldn’t even sing,” she said. “We spent Christmas with the Carters.”

Simone Bradley signed her 16-year-old son out of school to celebrate Carter’s life in Plains, wanting him to “witness history.”

Carter “could have gone anywhere” after his presidency, said Bradley. She appreciates that the humble peanut farmer decided to come back to Plains and give back and called him “an advocate for people of all backgrounds.”

The Carter family and former President Jimmy Carter’s casket are on the road home to Plains after touching down at Lawson Army Airfield in Georgia. Another military guard, band and 21-gun salute greeted the plane on a cold, sunny afternoon at the Fort Moore infantry base near Columbus, southwest of Atlanta. The Carter family stood on the tarmac as the casket was loaded into a presidential hearse. Former members of Carter’s Secret Service detail and their families also watched.

The motorcade is crossing the peanut fields and pecan groves of a state Senate district Carter represented when he first was elected to office in 1962 during the 60-mile (95-kilometer) trip to Maranatha Baptist Church. There, a second, private funeral will precede Carter’s burial.

Carter, a Navy veteran, was honored with a 21-gun salute at the Naval Submarine Base New London in Connecticut on Thursday afternoon.

Carter served in a Navy nuclear submarine program from 1946 to 1953, attaining the rank of lieutenant commander.

Watch live coverage of former President Jimmy Carter’s state funeral in Washington, D.C., hosted by AP journalist Bill Barrow.

Carter’s casket is headed back to Georgia. The former president’s remains were loaded onto a plane that usually serves as Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland after a brief ceremony that included an artillery salute and the U.S. Air Force Band playing the hymn “O Master, Let Me Walk with Thee.”

A knot of 11 military officers gave a crisp final salute as the plane taxied away. The aircraft, carrying the casket, the Carter family and their guests, lifted off for Fort Moore in Georgia, where another motorcade will return Carter’s body to Plains for a second funeral service and burial Thursday evening.

Carter’s casket has been placed in the hearse and is departing the cathedral.

The casket, along with Carter’s family and guests, are traveling to Joint Base Andrews and will head next to Georgia.

There were a few more handshakes after the service. Dignitaries have filed out of Washington National Cathedral, with a few more interactions.

Biden walked over and shook the hands of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Prince Edward, who had been seated together.

Harris, who entered the cathedral swiftly ahead of the service, stopped to speak to Obama. As he left, Bush leaned over and briefly interacted with Trump, shaking hands.

Ahead of the service, many of the former presidents and other officials greeted Biden privately as they all arrived at the cathedral.

Chief Justice John Roberts also spoke to a number of senators as he walked out, including Sen Raphael Warnock

Carter’s service has concluded.

Following prayers and benediction from the assembled clergy, Carter’s services at Washington National Cathedral have come to a close. Once the procession reaches the cathedral’s outside steps, “Hail to the Chief” sounds again, following “Faith of our Fathers” from the U.S. Coast Guard Band.

Carter’s casket is then placed in the hearse, and it, along with Carter’s relatives and guests head in a motorcade to Joint Base Andrews.

At that point, Carter’s final journey home to Georgia begins. At the air base, there will be more music and another 21-gun salute before the casket is loaded onto the plane, and Carter’s family boards.

Once it lands in Georgia, there is another ceremony, then the journey to Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Georgia, for a private funeral service.

The Rev. Tony Lowden, Carter’s longtime personal pastor, spoke briefly and asked God to grant the former president “eternal rest.”

Lowden is among many Black pastors Carter has been close to in his life, including Young, whom he met in politics. Carter once wrote of how much he was impacted by sometimes attending services as a child at the Black Methodist Episcopal church attended by the sharecropping families who worked for his father.

In recent years, the homebound Carter also liked to watch Georgia Sen. Raphael Warnock’s Sunday services at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta.

Country music stars Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood are singing their arrangement of John Lennon’s “Imagine,” which they also sang at Rosalynn Carter’s Atlanta funeral in 2023.

The lyrics are remarkable for a former first couple of the United States, the world’s preeminent military and economic superpower.

Speaking without a prepared speech in front of him, Young said he knew Carter “for more than half of my life,” yet “never ceased to be surprised” or “inspired” by the former president’s actions.

“Jimmy Carter was a blessing that helped to create a great United States of America. And for all of us, and many who are not able to be here, I want to say, ‘Thank you. You have been a blessing from God, and your spirit will remain with us,’” Young said.

President-elect Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris saw each other for the first time following his victory in November’s election during former President Jimmy Carter’s funeral in Washington DC.

Carter’s longtime friend and fellow Georgian, former Amb. Andrew Youngis recalling the unlikely intersection between him, a Black man, and Carter, a white man, who both grew up amid Jim Crow segregation.

He recalls Carter telling him upon their meeting that the future president was friends with Sumter County’s racist sheriff.”

But time and again I saw in him the ability to achieve diversity by the personality and upbringing,” Young said. “He went out of his way to embrace those of us who grew up in all kinds of conflict.”

Young, an ordained minister and onetime aide to Martin Luther King Jr., said Carter “grew up in the tremendous diversity of the South, and he embraced both sides.”Now 92, Young became a Georgia congressman, Atlanta mayor and Carter’s U.N. ambassador.

Biden ended his remarks saying “God bless you, Jimmy Carter.”He grazed his left hand along Carter’s flag-draped casket as he passed by it in a return to his seat in the front row.

Biden is using his remarks to intertwine what he sees as the importance of Carter’s own faith in God, and an enduring faith in America itself.

“The very journey of our nation is a walk of sheer faith, to do the work, to be the country we say we are, to be the country we say we want to be,” Biden said. “Today many think he was from a bygone era, but in reality he saw well into the future.”

Biden also recalled Carter as a “Southern Baptist who led on civil rights,” “brokered peace” and, along with Mondale, formed a “model partnership” of what it means to serve in the White House.

“I miss him but I take solace in knowing that he and his beloved Rosalynn are reunited again,” Biden said.

A rare reunion of the remaining members of the US presidents club at the funeral for 39th President Jimmy Carter. President-elect Donald Trump and his Democratic rival Kamala Harris don’t interact before service starts.

Biden began his remarks by recalling how his relationship with Carter began, by endorsing the Georgian ahead of the 1976 presidential campaign.

Repeating “character” several times as Carter’s chief attribute, Biden said the former president taught him the imperative that “everyone should be treated with dignity and respect.”

“We have an obligation to give hate no safe harbor,” Biden said, also noting the importance of standing up to “abuse in power.”

Biden is taking the lectern to deliver his remarks in remembrance of Carter.
With decades of experience in a variety of political positions, Biden has often been called on to delivery eulogies for a number of allies – including Democratic Sens. Fitz Hollings and Ted Kennedy – and even foes.

In 2003, Biden spoke at the funeral of Sen. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina, a Democrat-turned-Republican who once ran for president as a Dixiecrat opposed to civil rights for African-Americans, Biden praised the senator as someone who stood by him during the confirmation battle of doomed Supreme Court nominee Robert Bork.

Carter describing his grandparents and their house: “Walls papered with pictures of children and great-grandchildren.”

“They had a little rack next to the sink where they’d hang Ziploc bags to dry.”Carter, he said, “Eventually did get a cell phone.”

“They were small-town people who never forgot who they were and where they were from no matter what happened in their lives. … But I realize we are not here because he was just a regular guy.”

“As governor of Georgia a half-century ago, he preached an end to racial discrimination and mass incarceration,” he said.

Stu Eizenstat, who served Carter as a domestic policy aide and has written a book on his administration, says he thought his boss’s longshot presidential bid could, at best, end with a vice presidential nomination “for regional balance.”

He said Carter told him flatly that he would win the Democratic nomination. Carter did, and Eizenstat noted that Carter was the only Democrat elected president between 1968 and 1992.

Eizenstat also said Carter brought “integrity” back to the office following Watergate and his help in establishing the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, which Eizenstat chairs.

Eizenstat also said Carter “laid the building blocks for a better world” in terms of the U.S.’ relationships abroad, saying he operationalized the “soft power” of human rights with the “hard power” of military strength.

While so many Carter tributes focused on his humanitarian work, public service and personal decency, Eizenstat made a head-on effort to frame the Carter presidency as more successful than voters appreciated at the time.

Eizenstat ticked through legislative achievements — and their bipartisan support, noting that Carter deregulated U.S. transportation industries, streamlined energy research, created FEMA, and notched the Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel. He emphasized that Carter’s administration secured the release of the American hostages in Iran, though it did not happen until after his 1980 defeat.

“He may not be a candidate for Mount Rushmore, but he belongs in the foothills,” Eizenstat said.

While so many Carter tributes focused on his humanitarian work, public service and personal decency, former White House aide Stu Eizenstat made a head-on effort to frame the Carter presidency as more successful than voters appreciated at the time. Eizenstat ticked through legislative achievements— and their bipartisan support.

He noted Carter deregulated U.S. transportation industries, streamlined energy research, created FEMA, and notched the Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel. He emphasized that Carter’s administration secured the release of the American hostages in Iran, though it did not happen until after his 1980 defeat.

“He may not be a candidate for Mount Rushmore, but he belongs in the foothills,” Eizenstat said.

Presidential funerals are often filled with military presence given to the president’s stature as commander-in-chief. Carter’s had an added poignancy because he was the last of the Greatest Generation to have sat in the Oval Office and his death leaves only George W. Bush as a president who has worn a military uniform. It is a change from an era when veteran status was as ubiquitous as the Presidential Seal.

In his remarks, Mondale spoke at length about Carter’s efforts toward equality for women, noting that Carter had appointed “five times as many women to the federal bench” as any of those who preceded him as president, combined.

In addition to U.S. political leaders, there are also a number of foreign dignitaries in attendance, including Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau – who recently announced his resignation – Prince Edward, the Duke of Edinburgh, and United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres.

Seated together, Prince Edward and Trudeau were seen speaking at length as they awaited the start of the service.

Correction: A previous version of this post incorrectly said that Prince William attended Carter’s funeral and spoke with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Prince Edward, William’s Uncle, attended the service and spoke with Trudeau.

Ted Mondale, son of the late Vice President Walter Mondale, rose to read a letter from his father in honor of his former running mate.

Walter Mondale wrote that he was “surprised” that Carter asked him to be his running mate for the 1976 campaign, saying that his only requests were that he make a real contribution to the team, and not be “embarrassed, as many of my predecessors had.”

Mondale wrote that Carter “protected” him from “humiliation” faced by other vice presidents.

Among Biden White House officials attending Carter’s funeral are chief of staff Jeff Zients, climate adviser John Podesta and Tom Perez, director of the Office of Intergovernmental Affairs.

Steven Ford, son of Gerald Ford, noted Carter and his 1976 rival aligned in pushing the U.S. foreign policy establishment to take action on Israel and Palestine—a reference to the longtime U.S. policy advocating a “two-state solution” in the region.

Carter sometimes rankled his successors and the U.S. foreign policy establishment with his emphasis on the rights of Palestinians.

Nearly a half-century later, Israel remains at war with Hamas in Gaza.

Those close to Carter have said that the president, in his final months, was often agitated and bothered watching news coverage of the conflict in the region where he had brokered the Camp David Accords between Egypt and Israel.

Ford’s letter also mentioned Rosalynn, whom he referenced as a “true citizen of the world” who was a friend to his wife, Betty, and entire family.

It’s often referenced as an exclusive organization wherein only the members understand the stakes, but the club of former presidents is evident in some of the reactions coming from the front few rows at Carter’s funeral.

As Ford’s son read his father’s remarks about how he and Carter had joked about the expense of presidential libraries, Clinton and Bush were among those laughing, since – as former presidents – it’s a cost and process they both well know.

In the remarks read by his son, Gerald Ford wrote that the 1976 election brought about “one of my deepest and most enduring friendships,” in his bond with Carter.

Steven Ford also joked that his father and Carter had bemused themselves about which of them would die first, in agreeing to eulogize each other.

Steven Ford noted that Carter “supported my mom and gave her hope that week” when Ford died.

The Carter children are seated in order of age on the front left pew, starting from the aisle: Jack, Chip (James Earl III), Jeff and Amy.

They are across the aisle from the other presidents and first ladies.

The brothers were young adults who worked as key campaign aides and volunteers in 1976. Amy Carter was in elementary school. Photographers captured her when she was with her parents on the trail. But she spent most of the campaign in Plains, being cared for by her grandmothers.

Joshua Carter talked about the legendary Sunday school class his grandfather led for decades at Maranatha Baptist Church, also noting that Jimmy Carter spent his “entire life helping those in need.”

He said his grandfather “eliminated diseases in forgotten places” and “waged peace” around the world.

During Sunday School lessons, Carter said he did it because “he worshipped the Prince of Peace, and He commanded it.”

He noted Carter’s Sunday School students were the first to learn he’d won the Nobel Peace Prize.

Carter outlived many of his Cabinet members, campaign advisers and inner circle. Not all that remain were included in the limited tickets for his state funeral at National Cathedral.

But many of those are gathering in Washington for a reception and reunion to watch the funeral. Several Carter administration figures who are inside the cathedral will join their former colleagues after the service as Carter and his family return to Georgia for his hometown funeral and burial.

The Very Reverend Randloph Marshall Hollerith, dean of the cathedral, opens by recognizing Carter as “your servant James.”

Carter rarely used his given name. He took the oath of office as “Jimmy Carter,” and he signed official documents that way.

Carter’s casket has taken its place at the front of Washington National Cathedral. As it passed, a number of dignitaries on the front row, including Biden and Clinton, placed their hands over their hearts. Rather than music for a processional, Carter’s casket is being carried up the center aisle in silence, broken only by a reading that includes passages from the New Testament gospel of John and book of Romans.

The footsteps from the military pallbearers can be heard as they pivot to place Carter’s casket for the service.

The funeral procession of Carter has begun, with a crucifer, torch bearers – typical of an Episcopal church procession – as well as representatives of all branches of the U.S. military.

Jason Carter, Jack’s son, is the most high-profile of the Carter grandchildren and great-grandchildren. Like his grandfather, he was a Georgia state senator and lost a governor’s race. An Atlanta attorney, Jason Carter serves as The Carter Center board chairman, groomed by his grandparents to take over when they finally retired in their 90s.

Carter insisted his grandparents were normal – teaching grandchildren to fish, modeling frugality by rewashing Ziploc bags, mailing birthday cards with a bit of cash.

This is the order of ceremony for Carter’s service, according to the White House.

• Joshua Carter reads the First Lesson (Romans 8:1-18, 38-39)
• Steven Ford delivers remarks
• Ted Mondale delivers remarks
• The Armed Forces Chorus, the U.S. Marine Chamber Orchestra, and the Cathedral Choir perform “Eternal Father, Strong to Save.”
• Stuart Eizenstat delivers remarks
• Jason Carter delivers remarks
• Phyllis Adams and Leila Bolden perform “Song Rise to Thee.”
• The U.S. Marine Orchestra performs “Amazing Grace”
• The President delivers a eulogy
• James Carter delivers the Gospel reading (Matthew 5:1-16)
• Reverend Andrew Young delivers the homily
• Garth Brooks and Trisha Yearwood perform “Imagine.”
• The Lord’s Prayer
• The Right Reverend Mariann Edgar Budde and Reverend Anthony Lowden deliver The Prayers
• The Most Reverend Sean Rowe, The Right Reverend Mariann Edgar Budde, and The Very Reverend Randolph Marshall Hollerith deliver the Commendation
• The Most Reverend Sean Rowe delivers the Blessing
• The Very Reverend Randolph Marshall Hollerith delivers the Dismissal
• Dismissal song “All Hail the Power of Jesus’ Name.”

Carter’s casket is being removed from the hearse and being positioned for delivery into Washington National Cathedral.

Biden and his wife Jill are taking their seats next to Harris and her husband Doug Emhoff. There were no visible greetings, but the former presidents were all just together in a private room ahead of their entrances into Washington National Cathedral.

One of the dignitaries missing from the former president lineup is Michelle Obama.

Ahead of the funeral, CNN reported that the former first lady had a scheduling conflict and remained in Hawaii, where she had been on an “extended vacation.”

Asked why she was absent from Carter’s funeral, Michelle Obama’s office issued a statement saying that her thoughts and prayers are with the late former president’s family but otherwise did not say where she was or explain her absence.

Other former presidents and their wives are being seated just down the row from Trump, including George W. Bush and his wife, former first lady Laura Bush.

As she and her husband entered, former first lady Hillary Clinton walked around the end of the row on which Trump was sitting, going first to greet Bush and others.

Obama has taken his seat next to Trump, chatting with his successor in office, who did not stand to greet him but shook hands. They were engaged in conversation as Harris entered the cathedral.