A soaring rendition of The Lord's Prayer moved thousands of mourners at the funeral of civil rights pioneer Rosa Parks yesterday. Former President Bill Clinton, his wife, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, and others paid their respects at Parks' open casket before the start of the funeral service that included the prayer in song by mezzo-soprano Brenda Jackson. Those in the audience held hands and sang We Shall Overcome as family members filed past the casket before it was closed just before noon. Bishop Charles Ellis III of Greater Grace Temple opened the service for 4,000 people packed in to say goodbye to the diminutive figure who sparked a civil rights revolution by refusing 50 years ago to give up her seat on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. "Mother Parks, take your rest. You have certainly earned it," Bishop Ellis said. Mourners waited in long lines in the chilly morning to honour Parks. Hours before the funeral began, the line to get one of the 2,000 available public seats at the church extended more than two blocks in Parks' adopted hometown. "The world knows of Rosa Parks because of a single, simple act of dignity and courage that struck a lethal blow to the foundations of legal bigotry," said Clinton, who recalled riding segregated buses in his native Arkansas until Parks' stand allowed him and others to break through that barrier of racism. Clinton once presented Parks with the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Michigan Gov Jennifer Granholm called Parks a "heroic warrior for equality". "Her greatness lay in doing what everybody could do but doesn't," Granholm said. "She was unexpected. She was untitled. .(She was) an improbable warrior that was leading an unlikely army of waitresses and street sweepers and shopkeepers and auto mechanics." The casket was flanked by large bouquets of white flowers and a white cross. Flower arrangements lined the stage steps and scores of choir members sat on or near the stage. As a white hearse carried Parks' body from the Charles H Wright Museum of African American History, where viewing lasted until the pre-dawn hours, dozens of people holding pictures of Parks crowded around it. As it began moving, they shouted, "We love you". Parks was 92 when she died on October 24 in Detroit. Reprinted from jamaicaobserver.com