FATHER and MOTHER DIVINE, Sayville, L. I., N. Y.
The Peace Mission has always served the community through its hotels, cafeterias, food markets, dress shops, barber shops, gas stations, shoe repairing and dry cleaning establishments and such services that provide the necessities of life at lower prices than can be found elsewhere. This is 'preaching the gospel in dollars and cents' as FATHER DIVINE would say, by giving the best for the least. Therefore, HE considered these business places to be more sacred than the Churches. As an Iranian student staying at the Divine Tracy Hotel expressed it,
'This Mission is giving. It is giving in a way that the people who receive it do not know they are receiving - they would be ashamed [if] they knew what they are actually receiving. . . . This is the meaning of the work of GOD.'
NEW DAY, December 29, 1979, p 15.
Prime testimony to this concern for the people are the five hotels, the two in Philadelphia as well as the three in New Jersey.
(These Hotels, after over 50 years of service each, are no longer under the jurisdiction of the Peace Mission Movement)
These hotels were open to the general public - those who were willing to abide by the rules of conduct, speech and dress which the hotels maintain. These rules are most confining, but are welcomed by those who seek peaceful and quiet resting places and value the Principles of the Peace Mission. Here the ordinary man or woman can find excellent accommodations at costs that are always well below prevailing rates at other hotels.
Hotel guests come from all over the world and for various reasons. They are mainly made up of post-graduate students, foreign and domestic, attending local schools and universities; Church groups and other touring groups that come to the city for conventions; relatives of out-of-town patients being treated at Philadelphia's distinguished medical facilities; people seeking refuge from the pressures of oppressive circumstances; people who want to avail themselves of the economic advantages, in order to better their lot in life later on; career ladies and gentlemen and people seeking a haven as pilgrims to a large city.
Knowledge of FATHER DIVINE had already spread nationally and internationally before the hotels were opened. As guests at these hotels come and go over the years, the benevolence of FATHER DIVINE, reincarnated in HIS followers and extended in a practical way through the Divine chain of hotels, is spread further, and is attested by the many who have returned to give thanks and say that had it not been for the blessing of eating and sleeping under the jurisdiction of the Peace Mission, they would not be enjoying their present success and prosperity.
FATHER DIVINE has always enjoyed serving Holy Communion as an abundant meal for the benefit of the body as well as food for the spirit and mind, and the public are welcome to partake of it along with HIS followers. Over the years untold thousands have come to observe the Peace Mission by this means, and large groups of students from universities, colleges and high schools have learned of FATHER DIVINE in this way. Thousands of students have come from Temple University, the University of Pennsylvania, Trenton State Teachers' College, the Union Theological Seminary, the University of Delaware, Beaver and Swarthmore Colleges, Friends Work Camps and Burlington Junior High School, to name those who have made regular visits with their professors, as part of their sociology or religious courses.
Peace Mission Churches have been active in encouraging the children of the
neighborhood to do well in school by providing after-school
classes and sometimes
individual tutoring. At the Unity Mission Church in West Philadelphia the young
people, specifically teen-age boys, have benefited by the use of the gymnasium,
given freely without monetary consideration of any kind, so that they could
enjoy their leisure time. The Peace Mission has cooperated with the Police
Athletic League (PAL) in providing a recreational program that supported boys
who did not want to be members of gangs, or had formerly been members. Together
with the American Youth Academy and Camp Wingfoot, their use of the Church
gymnasium and auditorium has been without any obligation, financial or otherwise.
The sincere intent of the followers of FATHER DIVINE, through the Church activities, is to develop the youth into strong, honest, American citizens. If, through their harmonious contact and participation in Church activities they become followers, it is absolutely of their own volunteer volition.
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