This path was created by Craig Dietrich. The last update was by Will Luers.

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The Father Divine Project

"I Know You Are God": A Database Documentary by Will Luers

-use right and left arrows to access the videos in the gallery above-

In 1996, Leonard Primiano asked his former student Will Luers to document on video the Fiftieth Wedding Anniversary of Father and Mother Divine. Luers recorded numerous banquets and interviews with Mother Divine and about twenty of the followers. Many of those interviewed have since died and there remain many more whose stories have not yet been recorded. These are inherently fascinating and uniquely American personal narratives. Women and men, rich and poor, black and white, from as far away as Australia and Switzerland, came to Harlem or Philadelphia in the thirties and forties. They dedicated their lives to an incarnation of God and to working for racial justice and world peace. Each living member embodies a dramatic story that reveals a hidden history of race and religion in America.

In the years since their initial filming, Primiano and Luers tried to produce a linear documentary out of this material. It has proved difficult, not only because of its controversial subject, but also because the story contains so much about the changes in twentieth-century America: poverty, segregation, war, Americanism, civil rights, right and left wing politics, gender, women’s liberation and the alternative medicine movement. The Father Divine Project was born out of the need to present a multi-linear and multimodal experience; a network of micro-narratives that convey to the general public a deeper, more nuanced understanding of religion, race, belief, aesthetics, culture, and America.

All of the videos (shot between 1996 and 2000) in the Father Divine Project are collected here on this page in the gallery above and also linked as pages below.

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Sayville, Long Island (40 miles East of New York City) is where Father Divine’s ministry was transformed nearly overnight. In 1931, Father and Mother Divine (Peninniah) had purchased a house in the small white suburb of Sayville and there they held their Holy Communion banquet services where everyone was served “more than wine and a wafer.” In the middle of the depression, these multi-course feasts must have been miraculous. Visitors from all over, black and white, began arriving at 71 Macon Street, “the Home of the Soul,” to be fed and healed. The dancing and singing would often continue late into the evening. One night in 1932, there was a police raid on the house during a particulary spirited service. Father Divine and several followers were arrested. They were charged with disturbing the peace, but the case became about the white community’s fear of racial commingling. The events that followed turned Father Divine into a nationally known figure and brought tens of thousands to the belief that he was “God, condescended in a body.”
In 1940, Edna Rose Ritchings left her home and family's flower shop business in Vancouver, Canada to join the Peace Mission Movement. She broke ties with her parents and traveled to Philadelphia to live communally and interracially. She became Father Divine's secretary and was given the name "Sweet Angel". One day in the office, Sweet Angel proposed to Father Divine by saying, "I want to marry you because I know you are God."
Each follower of the Peace Mission Movement has a story about his or her conviction that Father Divine is the living incarnation of God. Miss Heddy’s conviction occured before the Swiss alps in 1940. At the time, she didn’t speak English and had not visited the United States. She had met a small group of Peace Mission followers in Basil and heard all about Father Divine, but her logic told her that God could not possibly be walking around in Harlem, New York.

In 1949, nine years after her conviction, she found her way to New York City to work with children. She met Father Divine and her faith was confirmed. She moved permanantly to the United States in 1956.
When Father Divine died at his Woodmont estate on September 10th 1965, Mother Divine became the spiritual leader of the movement. She took on the enormous responsibility of maintaining the properties and businesses that housed and employed thousands of followers. She also carried on the spiritual teachings both within the movement and in public.

Mother Divine and the followers continue to recognize the “personal presence” of Father Divine everywhere and at all times. In conversation, he is refered to in the present tense. Everyday, a new suit and tie are layed out for him on his bed. At Banquet services, a place is kept for him at the head of the table. His plate is served from the many platters of food and a follower working in the kitchen will be “blessed” to eat this food after the service. There are photographs of Father Divine in all rooms and recordings of his sermons played at all meals.

“The Shrine to Life” was built at the Woodmount estate in 1968 to house his body, a recognition of his absence. Considering that followers believe only in “heaven on earth,” Father Divine is both personally present and personally absent.

These interviews were held in July, 1997.