“There was a child born unto me…”

Reincarnation is not central to Father Divine’s doctrine of “Heaven on Earth”, but it did become an important aspect of his marriage to “Sweet Angel” (Edna Rose Ritchings) in 1946. He claimed she was the reincanation of his first wife Peninniah, the first Mother Divine, who died in 1943. Peninnah was a devoted follower of Father Divine in the early days of his Peace Mission and became his “spiritual wife” in 1914 or 1917. Though Peninnah was “dark complected” and Sweet Angel is “light complected”, many followers speak of the resemblances of the two “Mother Divines.”

In this video, Miss Meekness Love tells a personal story about her past, before she became a follower of Father Divine. The story sheds light on Father Divine’s conception of reincarnation. Rather than seeing reincarnation as part of rigid cosmology, it is brought out as a willful, creative and compassionate act.

This interview was held in March of 1996.

Subscribe to the RSS Video Feed

Spirit and Rhythm

The Peace Mission banquet service always ends with spontaneous song and dance. During dessert (when four or five diffrent sweet dishes are passed around), followers and guests will stand and give testimonials of faith, praise Father Divine or simply give thanks. Between these testimonials (as dishes are collectively cleared from the table), someone will be inspired to sing. The Peace Mission has their own treasury of songs that span their history and draw on many musical traditions. There will be shouts of joy, clapping, dancing and sometimes a follower will be “moved by the spirit.” Miss Roma Graveur, a follower from Australia, talks about first connecting to Father Divine’s sense of ryhthm and then we see a lively night at The Circle Mission Church on Broad Street in Philadelphia – one of many 50th Anniverssary banquet services.

Subscribe to the RSS Video Feed

March of Time Newsreel

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!

Subscribe to the RSS Video Feed

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.

Subscribe to the RSS Video Feed

The Marriage of Father and Mother Divine

phone | mov

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