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1. 1 2011-05-10T11:56:55-07:00 Will Luers 2f0376b300f2ff7145f4f5c8f06d3ab51e0c730d "There's No Heaven in the Sky" Will Luers 1 Song by Miss Mary Justice plain 2011-05-10T11:56:55-07:00 Will Luers 2f0376b300f2ff7145f4f5c8f06d3ab51e0c730d

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• 1 #16a72c 2010-10-08T22:48:48-07:00 The Fiftieth Wedding Anniversary 126 split 2011-05-11T14:21:47-07:00
  In April, 1946,  the remaining Peace Mission members celebrated The Fiftieth Wedding Anniversary of Father and Mother Divine with seven banquet services held at various properties in the Philadelphia area.  
  Mother Divine arrived at each banquet by limousine and wearing a formal gown, as she had always done at her anniversary banquets with her husband since their marriage in 1946.  She greeted the invited guests of Father Divine and then took her place at the head of the long table next to the place set for her "personally absent," but still spiritually present husband. 
  Guests from the city's private and public sectors joined followers and co-workers in re-enacting a "divine"celibate marriage that, to the believers, was a union of races, nations and most importantly a union of Heaven and Earth. For the hundreds of elderly believers still in the Movement, the marriage was not only between God and his "spotless virgin bride," but between God and themselves, his own church. Peace mission believers, male and female, continue to wear a wedding ring in recognition of this 1946 bond.
  The Bible Institute, part 1

  The Bible Institute, part 2

  The Divine Tracy, part 1

  The Divine Tracy, part 2

  The Circle Mission Church

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• 1 #3f8b66 2010-10-08T23:08:09-07:00 "God in a Body": The Religious Roots of the Movement 34 text 2012-05-04T15:50:28-07:00 Within Peace Mission belief, Father Divine stands for the incarnation of the creator God to human form for the purpose of personally inspiring and re-directing humanity away from the negativity of carnal or "Adamic" consciousness intrinsic to the human condition to a positive spiritual oneness of body and mind with God. Peace Mission belief is a revelatory in nature.  Believers often arrive at the conviction that "Father Divine is God" out of the struggles and questions of their own life situations and accompanied with the healing presence of the body or spirit of Father Divine. Peace Mission belief is monistic is term of its philosophy of mind, that is the soul is not separate from the body, and God does not exist on a plane of consciousness separate from the human one. In Peace Mission belief, there is no heaven because heaven has been here where Father in a body once existed corporeally, and heaven is conceptually everywhere and anywhere one can earnestly make a mental connection with that eternal mind substance that is the essence of what believers know as Father Divine. 

• 1 2010-08-07T18:00:20-07:00 Transcendentalism, New Thought and Mind Science Religions 8 text 2011-12-02T19:13:26-08:00

  The ideas of restoration and re-use had its roots in the monistic worldview of the Peace Mission, a perspective on the single governing principle of reality shared by such American metaphysical movements as  Unity and Christian Science "" all related to the nineteenth-century spiritual movement known as "New Thought."  This non-dualistic view of what is "really real" can be observed in the words of one Peace Mission song, "There's No Heaven In The Sky."

  The present reality is heaven, and the development of perfect consciousness in this life is possible. Not only would such a consciousness result in a source of spiritual supply but also an abundance of all material needs.  Father Divine's truth transcends the material world, but the material world still bears the reflection of that spiritual transcendence. Such a connection with the "universal mind substance" allows individuals to re-create and rebuild their lives whether a direct follower of Father Divine or someone just touched by his message. These were powerful ideas to Depression-era American urban poor in Harlem and other communities of African-Americans, referred to as "dark-complected  people" due to Father Divine's avoidance of racial references, as well as to "light-complected" individuals in the United States, Canada, Europe, and Australia.  This theological perspective was often related to and amplified by Father Divine in messages concerning Peace Mission buildings.  In a September 1938 statement to his followers gathered at Jamaica, Queens, he elaborated on how the restoration of buildings was connected to the restoration of the person:

  Then I say, you can see these old buildings in different communities that were run down, dilapidated, and absolutely good for nothing, as you may term them to be, as God is the Center of Attraction and a Standard of Perfection expressed, He demonstrates it by bringing perfection in these different places" the perfection of competence" the perfection of truth, both in the minds and the hearts and lives of the children of men, and in the surroundings; renovating old material, natural buildings, remodeling and renovating them, causing them, to be comfortable and convenient, causing them to have all improvements for the comfort and convenience of the inhabitants of such buildings a sample and an example for others. (The New Day 12 Sept 1938:13) Father Divine had no reservations about reusing the buildings acquired from other denominations such as Roman Catholics or Baptists. No matter a building's original purpose, once it is consecrated to the service of humanity, it resonates with a positive vibration that is experienced daily. He explained in 1947 in a private conversation in his office at the Circle Mission Church on Broad Street in Philadelphia that "the advantage of the sacredness of the edifices or the edifice there [is] because it has been under the jurisdiction of a religious organization that is highly admired by MYSELF and MY following" we feel the atmosphere there as we do not feel or would not feel automatically in the beginning of a place until it is fully consecrated "" if it has not been consecrated by others" (The New Day 16 August 1947:13).   Of course, any property could be converted to an "evangelical" purpose, and Father Divine would proudly announce in his messages at Holy Communion Banquet Services recent acquisitions: And making this an occasion of the season, through MY Condescension to present MYSELF and appear in Person, I have come to call your attention to the Blessings of those of the Followers who have recently purchased 22 E. Kinney Street [Newark, N.J.] "" having purchased it, renovated it and have now set it up for the Dedication and Consecration to the Service of God; for when you serve yourself and others ARIGHT you serve your fellowmen! (22-23 November 1945 message; printed in The New Day 30 November 1991:3)