Colleagues, students, divinity scholars, and ministry leaders from as far as Kingston, Jamaica, gathered at the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel on the Morehouse campus to celebrate Carter’s retirement as founding dean, set for June 30, 2026, after 47 years of service. Photo by Tabius McCoy/The Atlanta Voice “Divine providence is always at work,” the Rev. Dr. Lawrence Edward Carter Sr. told the attending audience at Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel on Thursday evening, during his expression of appreciation ceremony. “There are no accidents in the universe.” Morehouse College honored its founding chapel dean, April 9, 2026, with a day-long celebration that drew divinity scholars, elected officials, alumni, and ministry leaders from across the country and as far as Kingston, Jamaica, each arriving to bear witness to the close of one of the longest tenures in the historically Black men’s college’s history. Carter, set to retire from the deanship on June 30, 2026, after nearly five decades of reshaping the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel into a global hub for ethics, peacebuilding, and interfaith dialogue. When asked to describe the day in a single sentence, Carter did not hesitate.“Fulfilled,” he said. Photo by Tabius McCoy/The Atlanta Voice Colleagues, students, divinity scholars, and ministry leaders from as far as Kingston, Jamaica, gathered at the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel on the Morehouse campus to celebrate Carter’s retirement as founding dean, set for June 30, 2026, after 47 years of service. The day-long tribute included a morning induction ceremony with U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock as preacher, a retirement luncheon at Forbes Arena, oil portrait unveilings, and an evening open mic for those who wished to offer personal testimony. When asked to describe the day in a single sentence, Carter did not hesitate. “Fulfilled,” he said. “The people have told me that I’d done what the Lord told me to do, and that I can be at peace and go on to the next stage for my new assignments.” Carter spent his tenure reshaping what had been called Memorial Chapel into the Martin Luther King Jr. International Chapel, insisting from the start that the space reflect a living mission rather than a monument to battles already won. He launched the Chapel Assistants Pre-Seminarians Program, introduced the Gandhi–King–Ikeda awards, and built what recruiters widely regard as one of the premier feeder programs for divinity schools in the country. Stone tablets salvaged from a King monument at Boston University were installed on the chapel’s facade under his watch, artifacts that Carter accepted as confirmation of his calling to remain at Morehouse. The reach of that work was on full display Thursday. Kelly Brown Douglas, canon theologian of the Washington National Cathedral and a visiting professor at Harvard Divinity School, was among those receiving an oil portrait tribute from Carter’s chapel. She said the encounter left her with a singular feeling. “I’m humbled by this moment and by this award,” Douglas said, “but he has done the most significant work, and that work is that he has helped generations of young men to move from this place, to find their own ministry, to find their own voice, and he sent them out into the world. I’ve had these young men in my classes, and you can tell they’re marked by his excellence.” Photo by Tabius McCoy/The Atlanta Voice The Rev. Michael Bernard Beckwith, founder and senior minister of Agape International Spiritual Center in Los Angeles, recalled the first time he encountered Carter. The impression was immediate. “I went home, and I said I met Dean Carter,” Beckwith said. “I want to be better. That was the effect.” In the attending audience of the celebration was Rev. Dr. Sheila McKeithen, president of the Universal Foundation for Better Living, a network of ministries spanning North and South America and the Caribbean. McKeithen, who flew in from Kingston, Jamaica, specifically for the occasion, said the turnout spoke to something larger than ceremony. “We have to give people their flowers while they can smell them, and we have to say the kind words while they can hear them,” she said. “Let people know you appreciate them while they can hear you, and not when they’re in a pine box.” Photo by Tabius McCoy/The Atlanta Voice Alumni returned from across the country. Elijah Waller, Class of 2024 and the 38th president of the Chapel Assistants program Carter founded, said the dean’s influence extended well beyond any classroom or chapel service. Waller said he stayed for the entirety of the day’s events, unwilling to leave before seeing Carter’s reaction to the outpouring of gratitude that had been building since the retirement announcement. “Dean Carter changed the entire trajectory of not just my life, but my ministry,” Waller said. “I would not be where I am today if it were not for Dean Lawrence Edward Carter Sr.” Morehouse College has announced an international search for Carter’s successor, to be chaired by trustee and alumnus the Rev. Dr. Delman Coates, Class of 1995. Carter plans to maintain his professorship and take a one-year sabbatical, a quieter pace after nearly five decades at the center of the college’s spiritual life.  “They’ve been telling me that I did it,” he said. “And then the strange thing is, they’re saying nobody else could have done this, but you’ve done it.” What drove him, he said, was never the institution itself. It was the man the institution was named for. “I have wanted more than anything to do something significant for Martin Luther King Jr., before I close my eyes, having been powerfully impacted by his ministry,” Carter said. “I thought he deserved the most dynamic memorial possible. That’s why I was given the chance as founding dean to create it.” Photo by Tabius McCoy/The Atlanta Voice The post The Honor Was Ours: The Celebration Of Morehouse’s Dean Lawrence Edward Carter, Sr. appeared first on The Atlanta Voice. ...read more read less