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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.

And yet, “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 1996.

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This newsreel was provided by Mother Divine from the Father Divine archives. The Peace Mission has cut certain parts that show the “raciness” of a nightclub in Harlem and the references to Father Divine as “black” or “negro.” They don’t believe in or use these terms. Father Divine asked his followers to distinguish skin color only by such terms as “dark complected” or “light complected.” This was how they were thinking in the 1930s!

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In the spring of 1996, Dr. Leonard Primiano (my college Folklore professor) called me with an event he wanted to record on video; did I have any time? The event was the 50th Wedding Anniversary of Father and Mother Divine. Who? Over the next two years, I would learn a lot about Father and Mother Divine. Leonard and I gathered over 70 digital video hours of interviews, banquet services, tours, song and dance with Mother Divine and the remaining members of the Peace Mission Movement. Conceived as a feature-length documentary, we soon realized that to make a traditional and linear documentary we would have to concentrate on one main story and consequently diminish all the others. But there are too many potent strands in this little-known story of Father Divine and his followers – race, faith, gender, electronic media, religious freedom, the elderly, reincarnation, food, political activism, Americanism. To do justice to the subject, we would need to make a “database documentary” made up of short videos, photo galleries, audio recordings and text, all searchable and open to comments from anyone who came by for a visit. The Father Divine Project has found its ideal form – a vlog with an RSS Feed. This is an ongoing project with zero funding, so please be patient with how things look for now. If you are interested or just curious, please consider subscribing to the video feed. To view the videos, you will need the latest version of apple’s free quicktime player. LINKS: The International Peace Mission Movement Wikipedia: Father Divine Lev Manovich on Database Narratives The Labyrinth Project on Interactive Narrative