# International Peace Mission Movement · The Cult Dossier · The Atlas · The Congregation of Tomorrow

Source: https://congregationoftomorrow.org/atlas/library/cults/036-international-peace-mission-movement/ · The Congregation of Tomorrow · the Atlas · language: en
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The Cult Dossier · No. 036 · Christian-Derived
International Peace Mission Movement
Father Divine's Peace Mission
c.1907 – present (much reduced) · Georgia, New York (Harlem, Sayville), Philadelphia
IV. THE EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY
Fully religious — a leader claiming to be God
### Who led it
### What it worshipped and taught
### Who was in it
### How it ended, or where it stands
### The dead
### Of note
### Its timeline
- c.1907–1912 Preaches in the South as The Messenger; jailed in Valdosta, Georgia in 1914 in a case titled The People vs God.
- 1919 Buys a house in Sayville, Long Island, and runs free banquets.
- 1931 Arrested for disturbing the peace; convicted in 1932 by Judge Lewis J. Smith, who dies of a heart attack four days later. Divine's reported comment — I hated to do it — makes him nationally famous overnight.
- 1930s Peak influence. The movement runs hotels, restaurants and shops, feeds vast numbers during the Depression, and campaigns for federal anti-lynching legislation.
- 1946 Marries the 21-year-old Edna Rose Ritchings — an interracial marriage presented as purely spiritual.
- 10 September 1965 Father Divine dies at Woodmont. Mother Divine — Edna Rose Ritchings — becomes official leader of the movement and holds the position for FIFTY-TWO YEARS.
- 4 MARCH 2017 MOTHER DIVINE DIES AT WOODMONT, aged 91, of complications of old age.
- 2017–2026 The surviving followers, celibate and mostly in their EIGHTIES AND NINETIES, take on administration of the estate and run a LIBRARY AND MUSEUM at Woodmont to preserve Father Divine's legacy. Estimates of the remaining membership range from 12–15 living at Woodmont itself to 25–35 across Woodmont, the Circle Mission in Center City Philadelphia, and Sayville, New York.
### Its people
### Father Divine
George Baker Jr.; the Messenger; Reverend Major Jealous Divine
Founder, the International Peace Mission Movement · c.1876 – 10 September 1965 · active c.1907–1965
Before the law. Multiple convictions for disturbing the peace and related charges; never convicted of fraud.
Where things stand. Deceased 1965. A handful of elderly members remain at Woodmont.
- 1914 Tried in Valdosta, Georgia, in a case docketed as 'The People vs God'.
- 1919 Buys a house in Sayville, Long Island; begins the free banquets.
- 1932 Convicted of disturbing the peace; Judge Lewis J. Smith dies four days later.
- 1930s Peak influence; hotels, restaurants and shops across several states.
- 1946 Marries 21-year-old Edna Rose Ritchings, a white Canadian.
- 10 September 1965 Dies at Woodmont, Pennsylvania.
Checked 2026-08-24
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