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The Father Divine Project

Miss Roma

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Contents of this path:
1. The Marriage of Father and Mother Divine
2. Sayville 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.”
3. Sweet Angel 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."
4. The Circle Mission Church
6. Mother Divine (part 2)
7. Miss Heddy's Conviction 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.
14. Personal Absence / Personal Presence 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.

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"The Kingdom"

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The everyday lives of followers of Father Divine still balance two components of their communitarian and celibate tradition: the formality of structured living and the celebration of the freedom of the spirit. All co-workers, for example, adhere to a formal administrative structure of the various Peace Mission Churches and carry out set assigned duties whether working in the kitchen or taking care of some administrative matters.

Peace Mission members still work to feed underprivileged city children and run a thrift store in downtown Philadelphia. They also support political campaigns that express Father Divine's ideas. Although traditionally conservative (many followers, for example, worked on Ross Perot's 1982 presidential campaign), the election of Barack Obama has been embraced as the ful?llment of Father Divine's teachings for a racially integrated and harmonious federal government. In another fascinating development, the Peace Mission has made friendships in the last decade with members of the local Pennsylvania Amish community, as well as the remaining Maine Shakers, establishing inter-religious conversations between the various American sectarian communities.

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