Bottoms, who last week became the first Black woman elected governor of Georgia and the first Black woman elected governor in U.S. history, was welcomed to the pulpit by U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock, the church's lead pastor.

"Thank you, Ebenezer, for all your prayers and your votes," Bottoms said, drawing cheers from the pews.

The governor-elect described a campaign that began nearly 18 months ago with little certainty about money or political headwinds, but with what she described as a clear sense of direction.

"Pastor, when we began this campaign almost a year and a half ago, I didn't know where the resources would come from. But I knew that I had prayed and God told me to go," she said. "It was moving me out of my comfort zone and I said repeatedly, 'He won't give vision without provision.'"

Ebenezer, where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. once preached, occupies a central place in the history of the civil rights movement, and the setting gave the morning an added weight for longtime members.

Walter Blackmon Jr., an usher and 40-year member of the church, said he never expected to see the day.

"I can remember Dr. King and all the things we went through over at the AU center. I never thought it was possible — let alone a female — in the state of Georgia," Blackmon said. Asked how the moment made him feel, he answered with a single word: "Proud."

Bottoms also recounted a trip late in the campaign to a cemetery in Crawfordville, where she located the headstone of her great-great-grandmother, who was born into slavery.

"People who were once enslaved are buried in this cemetery and we found the headstone of my great-great-grandmother," she said. "I don't believe it's happenstance that on the eve of this historic election in Georgia, that I made it to the gravesite that we didn't even know existed. I got to tell her thank you. I got to tell all the ancestors thank you. Now I get to tell you thank you."

She closed with a warning against complacency: "And now the real work begins."

The service drew dozens of middle school students from across the country on a civil rights tour. Ben Simmons, an eighth-grade history teacher from Denver, said the visit to Ebenezer is a centerpiece of an annual trip that begins in Atlanta and ends in Memphis.

"This is the first day, so we come to the service, which is one of the most special parts of the trip," Simmons said.

Luisa McKinstry, an eighth-grade student from Denver, called the experience "really good."

Bottoms' victory marks a milestone in a state whose political landscape has shifted sharply in recent cycles. Georgia Democrats flipped the state House in this month's elections while Republicans held the Senate majority, according to state results. Bottoms will take office as the state's chief executive with a mandate shaped by a coalition that turned out heavily in Atlanta and its suburbs.

For the Ebenezer congregation, the morning was both a celebration and a reminder of the long arc of history that runs through the church's doors.

"I got to tell all the ancestors thank you," Bottoms said. "Now I get to tell you thank you."