Bishop Earl Paulk Jr.'s funeral

Metro Atlanta

Bishop Earl Paulk Jr.'s funeral

Photos of Bishop Earl Paulk Jr.'s funeral

Hundreds of people paid tribute to Bishop Earl Paulk Jr. on Saturday at the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit in Decatur.

Paulk was remembered as a brave civil-rights lion who stood with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in the 1960s.

Mourners tried to look past the sex scandals that besmirched Paulk's name since the 1990s, as a number of women claimed he had affairs with them. Another claimed Paulk molested her as a teenager and as a child. That suit was settled out of court.

The service began with a horse-drawn carriage carrying the bishop's body and a mourners following it around the church's grounds.

Paulk's son, Rev. D.E. Paulk now leads the church and gave the eulogy. "A saint is just a sinner who fell down and got back up again," D.E. Paulk said. "As I walked around the hallway of the Cathedral yesterday, I began to get a sense that we were about to get back up again."

Paulk and his brother, the Rev. Donnie Paulk, built a church of more than 10,000 members until the scandals brought membership to about 1,000.

Norma Lucille Davis Paulk, wife of the late bishop, waits for the horse drawn carriage procession.

Bishop Eddie Long told the crowded sanctuary that Paulk's flaws as a man did not undermine his greatness as a religious leader.

Paulk's body is carried from the horse-drawn hearse into the church.

Visitors gather before the service.

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Hundreds of people paid tribute to Bishop Earl Paulk Jr. on Saturday at the Cathedral of the Holy Spirit in Decatur.

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