MOTHER DIVINE
Dr. Martin Phillips introduced MOTHER DIVINE, at the same time providing a little background information on the Peace Mission Movement and Woodmont. He said:
We in Gladwyne are happy to have them as neighbors. MOTHER DIVINE and a number of Her followers are very active in our community; they come to our Civic Association. Mr. Philip Life is on the Board of the Civic Association and they take part in the community. They participate in civic and community activities, not only here but all over the world.
In fact lots of things they do in the community are really not well known and publicized. One small example--and not really a small example, it's a big example--is that they helped Trevor's Campaign get off the ground by donating a building for a shelter in North Philadelphia, which really started the whole business of sheltering the homeless in Philadelphia, thanks to Trevor Farrell of Gladwyne. So it was MOTHER DIVINE who donated that building that was formerly a hotel and now houses the homeless of Trevor's Campaign.
I have been privileged to know MOTHER DIVINE for the last few years. I've had the privilege, along with a few others in the room here, to have dined and broken bread with MOTHER DIVINE at one of Her beautiful Banquets. Their Message is the basic Message of Brotherhood and Peace and any time that you call there the first word that you hear is 'Peace.' When meeting MOTHER DIVINE or any of Her followers, the first thing they will say is 'Peace.' Certainly in today's atmosphere and climate that is quite apropos. Their faith and philosophy really cross all religions, races and nationalities, so I'd like to introduce MOTHER DIVINE.
MOTHER DIVINE: Peace, Peace, Peace, not war! Peace to FATHER DIVINE Whom I recognize as being with Me wheresoever I go. Peace to the President, Peace to Dr. Phillips and Peace to all the Ardmore Rotarians.
I Am happy to be here today in answer to your invitation because I feel that your interest in hearing what I have to say, about FATHER DIVINE and the Peace Mission and Woodmont, is very genuine. When so many hearts are troubled about war, it's a pleasure to speak to you about a House at whose pinnacle is fashioned in copper lettering the word
'Peace,' and whose residents are dedicated and consecrated to the Brotherhood of Man under the Fatherhood of GOD, and where they are dedicated to the principles of true Americanism and Christianity and we endeavor to live these principles in all sincerity and humility.
Woodmont, as you have just learned, is located at 1622 Spring Will Road and it was purchased by the followers in 1952, and was dedicated by FATHER DIVINE on September 10, 11 and 12, 1953. FATHER dedicated it as Our Country Estate and as the Mount of the House of the Lord in fulfillment of Isaiah's prophecy that I'm sure you're familiar with:
'And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the Mountain of the LORD's house shall be established in the top of the mountains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall flow unto it.'And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the Mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths; for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem. 'And he shall judge among the nations and shall rebuke many people; and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.'
That's truly what Woodmont is all about. It's a material, geographic location where we emphasize a state of Consciousness that will bring Peace to the world. To those of you who are not familiar with Woodmont, it was built at the turn of the century, 1891-1895--actually the corner stone reads 1892--by Alan Wood of the Alan Wood Steel Mill, located in Conshohocken. It is a steel structure built on solid rock at an elevation of 475 feet above tidewater, the highest point in Montgomery County, at the bend of the Schuylkill River. It overlooks Conshohocken. The red building that identified the Steel Mill has just now been torn down.
The Philadelphia Country Club is across Spring Mill Road and it was part of the original 500-acre Woodmont tract. Alan Wood sold the estate to his nephew Richard three years after he completed the building, and Richard Wood lived there with his family until he subdivided it in 1929 and sold it to J. Hector McNeal. J. Hector McNeal was a Corporation lawyer and after the demise of Mrs. McNeal, it was sold to the followers of FATHER DIVINE. Followers had been in the employ of the McNeals and Mrs. McNeal had requested that it fall into the hands of the followers because she knew they would value its beauty.
The house was built in 1892 at a cost of one million dollars. Of course it cannot be replaced today, with the fine carvings and the way the building a built. It's just a joy to see the way it was built. In 1952, the Manor House, the 73 acres and five other buildings were sold to the followers for $75,000. Taking into consideration that it had fallen into a state of disrepair through years of neglect it was a good buy (laughter) for anyone who wanted to take the responsibility of restoring and maintaining it.
This the followers have done. They have preserved it in fine condition; recently the entire roof has been re-done. It was nearly 100 years old and the ceramic tiles were still good and looked lovely, but the copper flashing and the tar paper underneath had crumbled and it wasn't protecting the home as it should have been, so we had the whole thing re-done. It's been kept up through the labor of love of the followers of FATHER DIVINE.
There are a certain number on the staff but the different followers come out and volunteer their services--different Church members who live and work in the city, and of course their dedication to the Work and Mission of FATHER DIVINE is what has kept it and preserved it. Not so long ago the Historic Preservation Society came by and they said they don't know of a building of this vintage that has been so well cared for.
It could have been a far different story. It had been presented to many by the McNeal family. The Catholic Archdiocese looked at it seriously and the Philadelphia Country Club were looking for a club house at the time. No one was interested, so they had handed it over to the Gleba Brothers, a demolition company, to demolish. But I guess they took a second thought and Mr. Harper, Executor of the McNeal estate and husband of Celeste McNeal Harper, presented it to the followers. It could have gone under the wrecking ball like so many of these wonderful estates on the Main Line that do represent part of our American history.
This is a building that really lets people of today know the type of homes the industrial giants of that period built, although this one was modest, I would think, and not as ornate as some of them because the Wood family were Quakers and William Price, who was the architect, was also a Quaker. It is a fine example of the homes that were built 100 years ago.
Mr. Wood traveled in Europe and got his ideas, and then with William Price, they were able to build this gray granite stone building with its beautiful ceramic tile roof and with its spires and limestone trim, many gargoyles and figurines that make it unlike any other mansion on the Main Line. There's not one--at least I haven't seen one--that looks quite like Woodmont with its lofty spires.
I don't know if you are interested in hearing a little bit about the interior. The main floor is mainly hand-carved oak. The Great Hall has a flying buttress ceiling of 45 feet and a large Caen limestone fireplace. The dining room is outstanding with its Jacobean ceiling, hand carved oak walls with niches displaying religious figurines.
In 1966 the Shrine to Life was built where FATHER DIVINE is enshrined. It is located in the terraced west gardens and is literally a glistening jewel with its apex of glass glistening in the sun or shining in the darkness of the night. The Shrine really adds to the value--material and spiritual value of Woodmont.
Its Portal of Life Eternal made of bronze was executed by Donald DeLue, the famous sculptor who did many of our war memorials, and you may have seen 'Washington at Prayer' at Freedom's Foundation in Valley Forge. He had done that just before he came to do the Door at Woodmont. The iconography of the Door is outstanding and it tells of the Life and Teaching of FATHER DIVINE. It was very difficult to build a memorial to FATHER DIVINE because everything about FATHER was so down-to-earth and simple, and we just don't believe in a lot of symbolism, but the Door does tell the story of FATHER's Coming and of HIS Work and Mission.
Since Woodmont was dedicated in 1953, many people have enjoyed Woodmont. It was dedicated as FATHER's and My Country Estate and that afforded us some privacy from being in the public limelight so much, and I really have enjoyed the privilege of living there since 1961. But FATHER and I have certainly enjoyed it with countless numbers of people.
On the Anniversary of the dedication every year since 1953 it has been open to the public, and in 1976 we opened it through the summer months so the neighbors could bring their out-of-town guests, which many of them like to do. Now it is open every Sunday from the first Sunday of April until the last Sunday in October from 1 to 5 P.M., and if you can't come then, by appointment you can bring friends or a group. We do have a Modest Code that requires everyone to dress appropriately. This is also the policy of the hotels.
You know our outreach to the community is really to lower the cost of living for the people, to help them to be self-supporting and independent. Through the Depression years FATHER became famous for the way HE fed the people, feeding as many as 3,000 people a day. HE said that was not the height of HIS Ambition; HE desired them to have a chance rather than charity. That's why we sold meals for ten and fifteen cents. When people were put out on the street they were able to be housed for $1 or $2 a week, and those low prices have been proportionately maintained through the years. Now we have hotels where we allow the public to come and benefit from rates much lower than elsewhere for the same high standard of accommodation.
Our Churches are Church Homes and Training Schools. We live in our Churches; we have a religion that is 7 days a week, not just a Sunday religion, but all day every day. Some of the followers are consecrated and dedicated as full-time co-workers, others work out and live in the Churches. Some live in their own private homes with their children. It depends on them. They are followers to the degree that they follow, to the degree that they wish to be consecrated and dedicated. However, the public can be housed in our hotels, where we do have a policy of
'No smoking, no drinking, no obscenity, no profanity, no vulgarity, no undue mixing of sexes and no receiving of gifts, presents, tips or bribes.'
Ladies and gentlemen are housed on different floors and there's no visiting in the rooms. This is very strict and I Am very proud of the way we have been able to maintain that Standard through the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s; now that we're into the 90s we have a waiting list to get in the hotel.
The Divine Tracy Hotel on 36th and Chestnut Streets, between Chestnut and Market, is a transient hotel, while the Divine Lorraine Hotel on North Broad Street is a residential hotel. Though the Divine Tracy Hotel is for transients, we have catered to students. We do take them in if they have a course. We extend their stay and allow them to remain if they live up to the rules and are eligible while they are taking the course. The people are just too anxious to get there because it does afford them security. We find they are happy to abide by our policy and the students love it because it's quiet. Students will check in there just to study for their bar exams, or different exams, where they can be quiet.
So getting back to Woodmont, we have had an array of people who have come to visit Woodmont through the years and we do enforce the Modest Code there, and of course we have a dress code. The people have enjoyed Woodmont and they come for many reasons. Some come to pay their respects to FATHER DIVINE, some to study the architecture, others come as tourists, just to see a Victorian home of that period, and others to learn about the Peace Mission. I might say the followers through the years had many homes in such localities because FATHER was breaking down segregation, really making life as it should be in America, with people of all races, creeds and colors to enjoy the same if they prove themselves economically, in their behavior and so forth.
We could never get FATHER to stay anywhere, HE would always go back to HIS Headquarters at Broad and Catherine Streets, where the Circle Mission Church is. FATHER DIVINE moved from New York in 1942; the officials came to New York and invited FATHER to come to Philadelphia. HE condescended to live at Woodmont in 1961 and was in residence there until 1965. He served there twice a day and it was like the master and servants, so to speak, sitting down and enjoying a communal meal; the co-workers and different ones would come and dine with FATHER.
I know the time is getting late, but FATHER's Work and Mission is so all-encompassing, to get all of it in in such a short time, but I must say of FATHER, HE was a Minister of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and our Churches are founded on the Old and the New Testament of the Bible, and especially the Sermon on the Mount.
Anyone seeking to be a follower is told to read Matthew, Mark, Luke and John and pattern their lives after the Holiness of Jesus and the Virginity of Mary. Whatsoever you believe that Jesus did, that's what you should do. If you think He would smoke a cigarette, then you should smoke a cigarette. I thank FATHER for this freedom that HE has given us. No one is a follower by coercion; where coercion begins, the Work of GOD that moment ends. FATHER always told us to be led by our highest intuition; however we interpret things and it's real to us, that's what we should do.
We believe that Jesus is the first-born among many brethren and that we should pattern our lives after the Life of Christ. He is the Sample and Example. He did fulfil the Judaic Law and we would get the victory over the vicissitudes of life if we would bring ourselves into subjection to His Teachings, especially the Sermon on the Mount, deny ourselves and let the Christ Nature and Characteristics have full access for expression in us.
So to those of us to whom it has been revealed, FATHER DIVINE is the Second Coming of Christ to the Christian World and the Coming of the Messiah to the Jewish world. FATHER DIVINE is unlike most, if not all of the ministers of the Gospel, in that HE has never taken up a collection in any of HIS Churches. HE never receives a salary; HE never went anywhere where collections are taken up. HE never receives donations, love offerings or remunerations of any kind for HIS Spiritual Work and humanitarian service. HE said HE came as a free gift to the world, gratis to mankind.
When I immigrated to this country I was married to FATHER and it did help ME that I was married to an American, but FATHER couldn't sponsor Me because HE didn't have a dime. The Unity Mission Church, one of the Churches of the Peace Mission, sponsored Me, and in 1965, Harrisburg let Me know that FATHER had no financial estate, and many FBI investigations of FATHER DIVINE prove that HE has no Personal finances and the IRS has never been able to demand HIM to pay Income Tax, because HE never had any income.
HE really trusted the Holy Spirit, HIS Own Spirit. HE really teaches us what we sow, we're going to reap, and it we serve others and get the mind off of ourselves, somehow GOD does take care, and we firmly believe that if GOD gives us life, HE can give us that which is to sustain Life. My desire is that we all can work together to share all the blessings. FATHER came in the time of the Depression singing the song:
'There's a plenty, a plenty,
A full and a plenty;
There's a plenty, a plenty for all.'
It's wonderful to see the movies of FATHER with all of these people, out-of doors, under-privileged and downtrodden and so forth, giving them the inspiration and courage by letting them know that they are Sons and Daughters of GOD, and there's a plenty, a plenty for all. And HE really let them know that if they knew that GOD was their Employer and got the Spirit of Independence, then that which was necessary to make them independent would come along. That's why they opened businesses and did all sorts of things to get themselves on their feet, and then FATHER told them if they wanted to be a follower of HIS, to right all their wrongs, pay their old back bills, return all of the stolen goods and then pay as they went and owe no man; buy nothing on credit or the installment plan. We don't to this day.
This is practical Christianity, it's not anything different. FATHER really believed in making practical our Christian beliefs and we don't buy anything on the installment plan. We pay cash for everything. Everything we own is paid for. If you want something and you don't have the money, you wait until you do have the money.
We do believe in the American way of working. Everyone has to be self-sufficient and independent. Our country declared her independence as a nation, but we as individuals have to declare our independence. Each individual must be self-supporting and independent. We mustn't depend on the Government. I'm not for all these Government programs that teach people to depend on the Government. FATHER DIVINE really taught the people to work and trust GOD, and it's marvelous; it's just absolutely marvelous how things began to work for the people because they had that Spirit. You know this is what made our country great, and I just wonder where that Spirit of Independence is today that we can't be without depending on oil in the Middle East.
I must tell you this. FATHER is also an International Diplomat. HE sent many letters to the Administration--Roosevelt and the leaders of the different countries in the time of World War II--and in 1938 HE proposed the purchase of coveted Czechoslovakian territory, substituting cooperation and Peace for terrible inhuman warfare consequences. And then when we did go to war. FATHER suggested that we unite the Three Americas and make it one nation, one language and one people. They wondered where we would get all the money. Well, I wonder where we are getting all the money today!
Anyway FATHER said that there were sufficient national and natural resources, sufficient manpower to make us independent. So I'm saying now that I know that there is sufficient in this hemisphere to make us independent. I know that there is sufficient in this hemisphere to make us independent, and there is sufficient scientific ability, American ingenuity and know-how that has made us a great nation, that we don't need to depend on foreign oil, and we certainly don't need to have all of this oil just to run our cars to pollute the earth.
We thank FATHER DIVINE to save this beautiful planet earth. This is what we are living for, the followers of FATHER DIVINE. We believe in being American citizens. Americanism, Brotherhood and Christianity and true Judaism are synonymous, and we should be as zealous to propagate and promulgate and propagandize Americanism as the Communists are to convert their people and as Hitler did. We've got to get this Americanism working. We've got to teach the children in school. We've got to get a catechism of Americanism. I'll stop here but I could go on and preach other things. (Long applause.)
At this point an opportunity was given to ask one or two questions.
Question: Who owns the big house there now?
MOTHER DIVINE: The Palace Mission Incorporated.
Question: Do you pay taxes on it?
MOTHER DIVINE: Yes, we pay taxes on it. After the Shrine was built we were able to lower the taxes. There are no taxes on the Shrine or the Main House, but there are taxes on the other buildings on the property.
Question: Is it important why FATHER DIVINE chose the Name DIVINE?
Does it signify HIS equality with GOD?
MOTHER DIVINE: I have always known FATHER as FATHER DIVINE and HIS Name has gone through the courts. They tried to put another name to FATHER, but that's never been established. From way back, there was a record when FATHER DIVINE married MOTHER DIVINE in 1882 and HIS Name was DIVINE, but I have never discussed that with FATHER....GOD is All and we are a part of GOD, and Jesus came teaching us how we could be One with GOD as He was One with GOD.
Question: Does your organization pay income tax?
MOTHER DIVINE: Oh yes; if people work they pay income tax.
Question: But your organization?
MOTHER DIVINE: No, we're a non-profit organization.
Dr. Martin Phillips: MOTHER DIVINE, we would like to give you a little present in token of our appreciation for Your coming here today, and again I wish to thank You for Your very informative Message. (Addressing the gathering:) There's some literature up here, some newspapers and something about Woodmont, and again I urge you to stop by there for an enjoyable Sunday afternoon. Thank you!
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