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After graduating from the electrical engineering department of the Kyongsong Institute of Commerce and Industry in Seoul, True Father traveled to Japan to continue his studies. Korea was under Japanese colonial rule, and this was the first time True Father left his native land. In his autobiography, As a Peace-Loving Global Citizen, True Father noted that he went “because I felt that I had to have exact knowledge about Japan.”

Nevertheless, his leave-taking was painful. On the train from Seoul to Pusan, he “couldn’t stop the tears from flowing,” covered himself with his coat and “cried out loud.” It grieved him, he said, “to think that I was leaving my country behind as it suffered under the yoke of colonial rule.”

He promised that he would return, “carrying with me the liberation of my homeland.” True Father boarded the ferry from Pusan to Shimonoseki, Japan, at 2:00 a.m. on April 1, 1941. On arriving in Tokyo, he entered Waseda Koutou Kougakko, a technical engineering school affiliated with Waseda University. He stated that he chose electrical engineering “because I felt I could not establish a new religious philosophy without knowing modern engineering.”

True Father long considered the United States to be the gateway to the world. In early 1975, the church launched activities worldwide based upon its successes in America, particularly True Father’s Madison Square Garden rally in September 1974. The initial step was the creation of a global “Day of Hope” team. On January 14, the first global team, which included some 340 American and European members, boarded a chartered jumbo jet in Los Angeles for Tokyo. There they joined forces with an even larger contingent of Japanese members to evangelize and hold Day of Hope rallies in Japan.

After spending nearly 80 days in Japan, the global team of more than 500 members traveled by ferry to Pusan, South Korea, on March 27. There, from April 1 until May 17, they supported massively attended Day of Hope festivals in Pusan, Taegu, Seoul, Inchon, Jeonju, Kwangju, Taejon, Cheongju and Chuncheon. These culminated in the “World Rally for Korean Freedom,” which was held at Yoido Island Plaza in Seoul before an estimated 600,000 to 1.2 million people on June 7.

Today’s World served as the Unification Church’s leading international missionary newsmagazine for thirty-two years, from April 1, 1980 through 2012. It included sermons of True Father and church leaders; extensive coverage, including glossy photographs, of the True Family and their activities; historical testimonies; and reports from missionary outposts in Africa, South America, the Middle East, Oceania and southern Asia. It provided an indispensable account of international Unificationists, indexed by year, during its years of publication.

In its earlier years, Today’s World was published out of New York. During the 1990s, it and the movement’s World Mission Department relocated to Korea. After 2012, Today’s World was superseded by Internet and e-publications, notably iPeaceTV and True Peace Magazine, which provide international coverage.

Opening arguments began in the infamous court trial of United States vs. Sun Myung Moon, on April 1, 1982, leading up to and during the trial; True Father’s supporters charged that the prosecution was motivated by racial and religious prejudice. At a rally outside the courthouse in lower Manhattan’s Foley Square, True Father famously stated, “If my skin were white and my religion Presbyterian, I would not be here today.”

Though Father’s attorneys had requested a bench trial alleging that it was difficult to find an unbiased jury, the prosecution objected and the judge denied the motion. The trial lasted six weeks and was held in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

On May 18, 1982, the jury returned a guilty verdict, and on July 16, 1982, the judge sentenced True Father to 18 months in prison and a $25,000 fine. True Father’s legal team filed every appeal motion available but was ultimately denied. Ironically, in spite of all this, the movement emerged from what Unificationists term “the Danbury Course” on more solid ground than it had been on before. The reason for this was that American public opinion changed. A substantial number of influential Americans, including many of the libertarian persuasion, concluded that True Father had gotten a raw deal.

His imprisonment led to an outcry from religious leaders and civil rights activists, who joined together in solidarity to protest what they saw as the unjust persecution of a religious leader. The movement deftly organized some of this sentiment into a series of “Rallies for Religious Freedom” and amicus curiae briefs supporting True Father’s appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. However, the spontaneous support that emerged in op-ed pieces was more effective and consequential. More than any other sequence of events, the Danbury Course was the fulcrum around which the history of the Unification movement in America turned at the time.

True Mother began a 16-city speaking tour of North America, beginning April 1, 1998, in Washington, D.C. The official title of her speaking tour was “Blessed Marriage and Eternal Life.” True Parents conducted a Hoon Dok Hwe tour to seventeen cities in Korea from late January until mid-February. True Mother continued the tour in twelve cities in Japan.

Tour participants received a book of excerpts from True Father’s words entitled True Parents. True Parents’ speaking tour was an important condition in preparation for the June 13, 1998, Madison Square Garden Blessing linked to 120 million couples worldwide.

Dong Ban Gyeok Pa was a term employed by True Father to mean breaking through at district (Dong) and neighborhood (Ban) levels. It carried the connotation of “breaking down walls” and eliminating evils as well as gaining support. In Korea, the emphasis was on Hoon Dok family churches and Hoon Dok grass-roots leaders—that is, local churches and leaders focused on True Parents’ word.

On April 1, 2004, FFWPU-USA President Michael Jenkins announced the launch of Dong Ban Gyeok Pa in the United States. The movement immediately convened a National Level Leadership Summit in Ocean City, Maryland, which was followed by regional “bloc” meetings. These were described as times of “honest sharing”—not “look-good reports” but opportunities to empower tribal messiahs. Although top-down providential mobilizations continued, the decentralization model became increasingly prominent in local Unificationist life.

Begun in 2003, in the heat of the Palestinian Second Intifada, the Middle East Peace Initiative (MEPI), a project of the Universal Peace Federation, organized several dozen “peace pilgrimages” to Israel, the occupied territories, and, on occasion, to Jordan over the course of the next decade. In its first two years, more than 10,000 religious leaders, civic officials, NGO leaders, professionals, and Unificationists from throughout the world participated in the pilgrimages. American Clergy Leadership Conference (ACLC) participants were prominent in the earliest of these, and a number of them undertook high-risk trips into Gaza.

During the fifth pilgrimage, four MEPI pilgrims went to Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Jerusalem Temple Mount to join Friday prayers and make arrangements for the larger pilgrimage contingent to visit when hundreds of Israeli soldiers stormed the compound. True Father was notified of the situation while in a boat on the Hudson River, where it was his practice to pray for the pilgrimages. With the U.S. State Department, and even the U.S. Marines, at the ready, due to the presence of U.S. citizens inside, the situation was diffused only when Al-Aqsa negotiated the safe exit of the worshipers. Prior to their exit, Imam Bundakji, a member of the MEPI delegation, called from the mosque to say that he might not make it out alive but wanted to tell MEPI’s Jewish delegation that his love for them “remained unchanged.”

True Parents offered a number of declarations in conjunction with their providential work in South America in the 1990s. One of the most important was the New Hope Farm Declaration delivered at 5:00 a.m. on April 3, 1995, in front of representative leaders of 160 nations gathered at the New Hope Farm in Brazil.

It was in this declaration that True Parents declared the principle of “absolute faith, absolute love and absolute obedience,” which in 1998 was added as Pledge No. 8 to the Family Pledge. True Parents declared that New Hope Farm Jardim was a training site for practicing this principle; in loving the earth, water and nature; and in showing the world “a community of love transcending skin color, culture and nation.”

The Building True Families for World Peace Rally in Korea concluded on April 3, 1997, in Seongnam, the twenty-second city where the rally took place. It began on March 13 with the rally in South Gyeongsang Province.

In each city, True Father gave words of encouragement through the speech “View of the Principle of the Providential History of Salvation,” while True Mother gave the keynote speech titled “In Search of the Origin of the Universe.” True Father emphasized, “The Returning Lord will come in the flesh and form new relationships based on God’s lineage; he will do so through the international mass Blessing Ceremonies.” (Materials provided by the FFWPU History Compilation Committee)

True Father declared a “Great Jubilee Year” in 2007. He said the reason for the declaration was the rise of the Pacific Rim Era. On April 3, True Father began a tour in Korea for the purpose of declaring the beginning of a new universal civilization of peace. He spoke in 25 locations of Korea.

The first of the rallies took place on April 3 in the Changwon Stadium in South Gyeongsang Province. More than 9,000 Ambassadors for Peace from the province gathered that day along with guests, relatives and friends of the local members. The program began with entertainment, then a reading from the messages from the spirit world. A Holy Wine ceremony and Holy Burning ceremony were held for all the participants.

True Father delivered the speech that he gave on March 17 in Kona, Hawaii, when he declared the dawn of the Pacific Rim Era to representatives from 120 nations. It was entitled “A Providential View of the Pacific Rim Era in Light of God’s Will: The United States and the Future Direction of the United Nations and the World.”

On April 4, 2002, the Ceremony for the Total Liberation of Six Thousand Years of Providential History took place at East Garden, New York.

This was a special ceremony that liberated the evil spirits that had blocked central figures within the providence of restoration from completing their responsibilities and one through which the eight levels of liberation were attained. On 2.22 on the lunar calendar, at 0:22 minutes 22 seconds, in connection with the Cheongpyeong Heaven and Earth Training Center, True Parents carried out liberation in a prayer. In the prayer True Father said, “Now that we have welcomed an era in which we can newly pioneer and organize, we desire to dedicate this sacred liberation ceremony of all indemnity.” (Materials provided by the FFWPU History Compilation Committee)

On April 5, 1973, True Father met with the visiting president of South Vietnam, Nguyễn Văn Thiệu. According to Freedom Leadership Foundation (FLF) Special Assistant Mike Leone, “The meetings were very, very successful.” In the late 1960s and early 1970s, one of True Father’s main goals was “to prepare for the fight against communism.”

Since 1969, the FLF had spearheaded the Victory over Communism (VOC) efforts in the United States for the Unification movement. Through the organization, True Father met numerous U.S. senators and congressmen in the early months of 1973, as well as President Thiệu. The meetings were an important step in developing the campaign to fight communism, something that would become one of the defining characteristics and focal points of the movement in the years to come.

Three special Holy Blessings were held in New York City in the Grand Ballroom of the World Mission Center on April 7, 1989. These Blessings were significant because there were three categories of Blessing candidates: matched couples, previously married couples, and individuals.

The 42 Couples Blessing consisted of matched couples, connected to the 1,275 Couples Blessing in Korea. The 138 Couples Blessing and 57 Members Single Blessing comprised, respectively, previously married couples and individual members over 60 years old. There were 37 nations represented, and the oldest Single Blessing candidate was an 87-year-old sister from France.

True Parents proclaimed the Era of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification at a rally at the Central Training Center in Guri, Korea, on April 8, 1997. Approximately 1,000 national messiahs and leaders from Korea and Japan were in attendance as True Father announced that the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity (HSA-UWC) would officially change its name to the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (FFWPU). (Materials provided by the History Compilation Committee)

Former U.K. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher (1925-2013) was a friend of the Unification movement. In 2007, on the 25th anniversary of The Washington Times, she sent a warm video tribute. The following year she accepted the Universal Peace Federation’s Leadership and Good Governance Award, and in 2010, on the occasion of True Father’s 90th birthday, she sent a hand-written greeting expressing her hope that it would be a “splendid occasion.”

Her appreciation stemmed from a common interest in combating global communism and promoting the values of “family, faith, and freedom.” She likely was unaware of True Parents’ pronouncements regarding an emerging era of women. Nonetheless, her career as a national and world leader provided a model that resonated with Unification values.

Parents’ Day was the first Holy Day established in the Unification tradition. True Father established it on April 10, 1960 (March 15, according to the lunar calendar). Unificationists observe Parents’ Day—now designated as True Parents’ Day—on the first day of the third month of the Heavenly Calendar. The establishment of Parents’ Day followed True Parents’ engagement on March 27, 1960. It signified that God had finally established His first son and daughter as the True Parents of humankind.

True Father later stated, “Parents’ Day is the first time since God created all things and humankind that there is one balanced man, one balanced woman, balanced in love, to whom God can descend and with whom He can truly be.” Following Parents’ Day, True Father established Children’s Day (1960), Day of All Things (1963) and God’s Day (1968) as Holy Days. They were set up to celebrate the emergence of the True Family and the foundation upon which a new world can take shape and a new history begin.  
 

Prior to his release from Danbury Federal Correctional Institute, True Father asked American members to focus on educating 70,000 ministers, and on that foundation to send 7,000 ministers to Korea. This request led to the creation of the CAUSA Ministerial Alliance, the 300,000-videotape project, and, beginning in April 1985, the Interdenominational Conference for Clergy (ICC) seminars.  

Under the theme “Rev. Moon and Korea in the Providence of God,” 64 ministers from 21 denominations attended the first “advanced seminar on Unificationism” from April 10 to 19, 1985. From 1985 to 1988, the U.S. Unification Church sponsored 38 ICC seminars for 7,069 American clergy and religious leaders who traveled to Korea and usually Japan. The “meaning of the 7,000” was connected to the time of Elijah, when throughout Israel God prepared 7,000 people who had never bowed down to Baal (I Kings 19:18). The visits preceded significant breakthroughs in Korean society, including the 1988 Seoul Olympics and eventually True Parents’ meeting with North Korean President Kim Il Sung in 1991.
 

On April 10, 1992, True Mother delivered the keynote address before a filled Seoul Olympic Stadium at the inauguration of the Women’s Federation for World Peace (WFWP). In her speech, True Mother testified to “the reappearance of the True Parents … the conclusion and final fruit of human history.” “The Reverend Sun Myung Moon and I, Hak Ja Han Moon, standing in the position of the True Parents have walked the course of worldwide indemnity so that all humanity may be liberated from their bondage.” She stated that “women have the mission to give proper guidance to men who lead lives of moral decadence and disorder” and noted, “the Women’s Federation for World Peace must someday develop into a federation of families for world peace.”

Established on the foundation of the Women’s Federation for Peace in Asia, WFWP has become a women’s organization of international scope with members in 143 countries. In 1994, more than 200,000 Korean and Japanese women “came together to create sisterly ties” on thirty-eight occasions under the auspices of WFWP. In 1995, WFWP sponsored “sisterhood ceremonies” between some 8,000 Japanese and American women, culminating in dramatic “bridge crossings” which were moving to many participants, including former first lady Barbara Bush. She and her husband, former U.S. President George H.W. Bush, subsequently accompanied True Mother and spoke in support of WFWP on a six-city speaking tour of Japan. In 1997, WFWP received general consultative status with the United Nations’ Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). As only 11 percent of religious NGOs associated with ECOSOC attain “general” status, this was a signal achievement.

In his Congratulatory Address, True Father proclaimed the beginning of the “Age of Women.” Thousands answered the call, and under the direction of True Mother, began a movement that would span the globe. Since its inception, WFWP has become a formidable voice in the struggle for women’s rights around the world. The organization holds forums at the United Nations, and continues to do service work and projects that encourage racial and religious reconciliation both locally and abroad.
 

On April 10, 1992, forty-two Muslim couples took part in the 1,265 Previously Married Couples’ Holy Blessing in Seoul, South Korea. Their Blessing was the culmination of an Interreligious Leadership Seminar. True Father termed the participation of Muslims in the wedding “a miracle.” In fact, it broke the religious barrier and opened the door for True Father to extend the Blessing to people of a faith other than Unificationism. This was a key stepping-stone toward expanding the providence of the Blessing and instilling interreligious harmony as one of the Unification Church’s key pillars. In the years since, the Holy Marriage Blessing has been given to thousands of people of all races, nationalities, and religions.

On April 8, 1997, True Father proclaimed: “We have entered the era not just for the unity of Christianity but for the unity of the world. Therefore, as of April 10, we should put aside the name ‘Unification Church’ and instead work under the name of the ‘Family Federation for World Peace and Unification.’” He further stated: “With the completion of the mission of the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity, the mission of religion has been brought to a conclusion.

For the first time in human history, we have entered a new era that does not require salvation through religion. The objective of the Family Federation lies in transforming families into ideal families, thereby restoring and perfecting God’s ideal of creation and establishing the ideal heavenly world.” True Father noted that until now, religion has focused on the individual. “All religions without exception,” he said, “preached salvation for the individual and never once mentioned salvation for the family, tribe or nation.” The Unification tradition, on the other hand, “is preaching the salvation of the nation and the world based on the family.”

April 11, 1960 (March 16 by the lunar calendar) marked the historic day in the Unification tradition of “the marriage supper of the Lamb.” True Parents joined in holy matrimony in the Chungpa-dong headquarters church. Wedding decorations were put up in the main hall, the walls and floor were covered with white cloth, and a platform was erected. When preparations were completed, True Father consecrated the hall with salt. This began the church tradition of consecrating belongings with Holy Salt.

As described by Rev. Young-hwi Kim, True Mother, dressed in a white hanbok (the traditional Korean dress) with a long wedding veil over her head and ornaments befitting a bride, came down the stairs from the second floor, arm in arm with True Father. A chorus of “Song of the Banquet” was their wedding march. The ceremony was carried out twice, first in the Western style with a wedding veil, and then in the Korean traditional style with a blue silk hanbok, square belt and black hat for the groom and a bridal headpiece and Korean royal dress for the bride.

The offering table for the Holy Wedding was set up according to revelations received from Heaven, with some forty kinds of food in cylindrical columns. After the meal, celebrations were held in the same hall, joyously highlighted by True Parents’ dance. True Father said that because of this ceremony, the Principle and the existence of the Unification Church would become known throughout the entire world, and the Will of God would be accomplished.

Organizers of the 11th World Media Conference, which took place in Moscow in April 1990, learned by late afternoon on the day of True Father’s address to the conference, that President Gorbachev had given his approval for a meeting with True Father. Larry Moffitt, who helped organize the media gathering, noted that the “maximum victory” for the Moscow event “was defined early on as a cordial meeting between True Father and Gorbachev.” In fact, expectations had risen to the point that a failure to secure such an invitation would have been interpreted as a providential setback. Thus, organizers breathed a collective sigh of relief when True Parents, along with twenty-eight former presidents or prime ministers and several assistants, entered the Kremlin at 4:30 p.m. on April 11, 1990, and were seated in a conference room.

There was an initial meeting of President Gorbachev with all present, which was followed by a private meeting between the president, True Parents, one ambassador and a couple of senior staff. During the 90-minute open meeting, President Gorbachev said that the media conference was “very important” and expressed satisfaction that it had been “very successful so far.” True Father thanked him for the opportunity to come to Moscow, explained that all former heads of state at the table were supporting him, and urged him to consider the World Media Conference his “asset.”

Dr. Bo Hi Pak, who attended the half-hour private meeting in President Gorbachev’s personal office, reported that the president was “completely free, embracing and talkative.” The Segye Ilbo newspaper reported that President Gorbachev “asked Rev. Moon to help either directly or indirectly in the development of the Soviet Union by using the multinational economic foundations and worldwide organizations of the Unification movement.”
 

A new era began for the Unification Church on April 12, 1986, at the Little Angels Performing Arts Center in Seoul when True Parents gave the Holy Marriage Blessing to 36 Unificationist-born couples.

This was the first Holy Marriage Blessing of Unificationist-born young adults apart from the Marriage Blessings of four of True Parents’ own children. On April 8, True Father called candidates in Korea to assemble and began the matching engagement, which continued into the following day. Unificationist-born candidates outside Korea were matched by photograph. Those participating were the sons and daughters of Unificationists who had participated in the 36-, 72-, and 124-Couple Blessings. Through the marriage of their children these early Unificationists became relatives.

In his message to the newly engaged couples, “The New Historical Vanguard,” True Father described the occasion as “an amazing providential event.” He called upon the young couples to “renew the true tradition of the Unification family” by being “standard-bearers … for the sake of all the people of the world.” He also asked them to “learn the historical lesson” from the Israelites who perished after returning to Canaan “by aiming at worldly goals requiring knowledge, money and power.” Finally, he called upon them to be “victorious over the entire world” by going “through suffering that no one else in the world can handle.” He advised them to “find the abandoned path that the people of this world would consider worthless. That is the path God is asking you to walk.”

True Father delivered a Proclamation of Liberation and Release on April 13, 2004. He noted that three days earlier, on April 10, he had declared the “release of the angelic world,” the “release of Cain and Abel,” and the “release of the Parents of Cheon ju, Cheon ji, Cheon ji-in” [Parents of the Cosmos, of Heaven and Earth, and of Heaven, Earth and Humankind]. He said he was completing spiritual conditions on many levels that are needed for God to exercise “His authority of all-immanence, all-authority, all-power and all-transcendence.”

Since the Coronation Ceremony for the Kingship of God (January 13, 2001), True Father had proclaimed various realms of liberation. In the Proclamation of Liberation and Release, True Father distinguished between Hae Bang(liberation) and Seok Bang (total and complete release and freedom). True Father added Seok Bang to the Family Pledge on August 20, 2004, meaning that not only sin but any record of sin would be eliminated.
 

On April 16, 1960, the fifth day following True Parents’ Holy Wedding, True Parents blessed three couples in Holy Matrimony. They were Kim Won-pil and Chung Dal-ok; Eu Hyo-won and Sa Gil-ja; and Kim Young-hwi and Chung Dae-hwa. There were a number of providential conditions connected to these couples. True Father noted that they represented the families of Adam, Noah and Abraham. They also were chosen as the resurrected figures of Cain, Abel and Seth in Adam’s family. In addition, they were in the position of Jesus’ three main disciples and restored archangels.

True Father stated that he required “three disciples” in the position of spiritual children “who will be loyal to him and follow him through persecution, even at the risk of their lives” as a condition for his Holy Wedding. True Father, thereby, engaged the three couples ahead of his wedding. One of the couples had been previously married, one had been previously engaged, and one was “matched” immediately before their engagement. In this way, they were intended to represent all marital situations. The three couples joined 33 additional couples who were blessed in marriage the following year as the Unification Church’s original 36 couples.

Unification theology teaches that the course of creation and restoration unfolds according to the three stages of formation, growth and perfection. True Father applied that principle in conducting his ministry. He initially applied it to his individual course upon embarking on his public ministry after World War II.  The 21-year course with which Unificationists were most familiar followed True Parents’ Holy Wedding in 1960.

True Father described how True Parents walked a family-level course for seven years, followed by a national-level course in which the Unification tradition stabilized itself within Korea, and then a worldwide course during which True Parents planted Unificationism globally. True Father declared that 21-year course to be completed on Parents Day, April 16, 1980. He said that it was to be followed by another 21-year course centered on Unification blessed families. This course, he noted, would be centered first upon deterring the advance of communists and then liberating them. To do so, he said Unificationists must “be superior in God-centered character and in strength of knowledge, experience and organization.” The new 21-year course would be centered upon “Home Church,” which True Father described as the methodology to “liberate the entire world centered on the true love of God.”

In his autobiography, As a Peace-Loving Global Citizen, True Father traces circumstances that led to his profound encounter with Jesus on Easter morning, 1935. In particular, he notes his exposure to suffering which included the suffering of Korea under Japanese colonial authorities and his family’s suffering, which included the loss of five younger siblings during his fifteenth year.

From this time, True Father began to immerse himself in prayer, often at desolate locations. He recounts, “The night before Easter in the year I turned sixteen, I was on Mount Myodu praying all night and begging God in tears for answers.” Then, in the early morning, having spent the entire night in prayer, True Father stated that “Jesus appeared before me … in an instant, like a gust of wind, and said to me, ‘God is in great sorrow because of the pain of humankind. You must take on a special mission on earth having to do with Heaven’s work.’”

True Father said that Jesus’ manifestation “caused my body to shake violently, like quaking aspen leaves trembling in a strong breeze.” He said he was “simultaneously overcome with fear so great I thought I might die and gratitude so profound I felt I might explode.” Jesus, he recounted, “spoke clearly about the work I would have to do … saving humanity from its suffering and bringing joy to God.” True Father said he was “truly afraid.” He wanted “somehow to avoid this mission” and remembers, “I clung to the hem of his clothing and wept inconsolably.”

Just after Parents’ Day was established in 1960, True Parents proclaimed the Resurrection of Shimjeong (Parental Heart) on April 17. It was the day on which all Unificationists who had accepted True Parents inherited the potential to be restored as sons and daughters of the True Parents on the shimjeong level. “If you believe in me,” True Father said that day, “spiritually you become my sons and daughters on the shimjeong level.”

True Father believed that “deep-rooted conflict between major religious traditions” constituted the background of “violent wars all over the world. It followed that religious leaders should take the initiative in restoring peace. True Father taught that Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders should resolve their differences as a condition for the cessation of violence. However, this necessitated that Christian clergy acknowledge that “the era of the cross” had passed and, in fact, remove their crosses, which had been a barrier between the first and second Israel.

The “Take Down the Cross” initiative crystallized in early 2003. In February, True Father asked Unification Church and American Clergy Leadership Conference leaders to educate Christian clergy in Unification theology. At the beginning of March, he called upon clergy to remove crosses from their churches. The goal was that on April 18, Good Friday, 120 ACLC clergy nationwide would have a public ceremony to take down the cross.

That goal was met. As reported by Michael Jenkins, who at the time was the president of HSA-USA: “123 clergy took down their crosses over the Easter weekend … supported by another 135 clergy. … All told, 258 clergy directly affirmed the taking down of the cross, proclaiming an end to the era of bloodshed and sacrifice and the beginning of a new era of faith and resurrection.” Though controversial in some quarters, their action launched the Middle East Peace Initiative (MEPI) which brought 10,000 clergy and Ambassadors for Peace to the Holy Land over the following two years.

Giving a public speech every day for 12 days in a row, True Mother crisscrossed the country, completing the 12-city United States leg of her 2000 World Speaking Tour from April 8 to 19. The tour had been undertaken following Phase One of the 400 Million Couple Holy Blessing and True Father’s 80th birthday. True Mother spoke on “The Path for America and Humanity in the Last Days” to capacity audiences throughout the country. She challenged the United States to fulfill its providential destiny in living for the sake of others.

For the tour finale in New York City, approximately 3,000 people squeezed into Avery Fisher Hall, a concert hall that is part of Manhattan’s famous Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. True Mother received awards and gifts from the Nation of Islam, the True Family Values Clergy Coalition, and the Family Federation. She then selected from a basket the number which would indicate the lucky recipients of 24-carat “Pure Love” rings. At the end of the program, True Mother presented the Living for the Sake of Others Award to persons and organizations who had demonstrated the spirit of living for the sake of others.

Rev. Young Hwi Kim (b. 1928), who with his wife were one of the original three couples engaged by True Parents prior to their own Holy Wedding, joined the Unification movment on  April 20, 1955. He had studied electrical engineering at Seoul National University and joined the first class of Korea’s Special Air Force Academy in 1953. He subsequently served the Unification movement in various leadership positions over the last sixty years. 

Following Rev. Hyo Won Eu’s passing in 1970, he became the second president of the Korean Unification movement. He was the lecturer at the first Divine Principle workshop in the United States overseen by True Parents and author of The Divine Principle Study Guide, Part 1. He served as a regional leader representing True Parents in several European countries and as their envoy to the United Kingdom. In 2013, Rev. Kim represented True Mother in a five-city U.S. revival tour. He also served as director of the Cheon Seong Gyeong project in Korea.

Hirokazu Ota, a longtime Japanese Unification Church leader, Japanese national messiah to Paraguay, and president of the Unificationist-affiliated land management company in Paraguay, was kidnapped at gunpoint, along with his secretary, on April 1, 2007. Asian people there (Koreans, Japanese, Chinese) were thought to be rich and are frequently targeted by criminals.

Mr. Ota, his secretary and two bystanders, one of whom was a police officer, were abducted while traveling by car. The kidnapping gang, which was thought to involve as many as 25 people, raised the initial ransom demand from $25,000 to $300,000. Negotiations were difficult, with Mr. Ota and his companions being relocated numerous times as the kidnappers attempted to stay ahead of Paraguayan authorities.

In the end, through the efforts of the Paraguayan police, the Japanese Embassy, the Church and company officials, a reported $138,000 ransom was paid and Mr. Ota was released in Ciudad del Este, a city on the eastern border with Brazil. Mr. Ota recounted his harrowing experience in several news conferences and testimonies. The following year, the Brazilian kidnapping ringleader was shot to death by Paraguayan police in a gunfight.
 

True Father founded the Spanish-language newspaper Noticias del Mundo on April 22, 1980, as an effort to begin a relationship with the Hispanic community in the United States and Latin America that would help turn the tide against communist infiltration of the Western Hemisphere.

Earlier, True Father set up the anti-communist educational organization CAUSA and sent Dr. Bo Hi Pak to meet officials in Latin America. In his remarks at its inauguration, Dr. Pak, the paper’s founding president and publisher, expressed True Father’s desire for Spanish-speaking Americans to help shape the nation’s future and to correct misunderstandings and misrepresentations in the North American press. Leadership of Noticias Del Mundo later passed to Phillip V. Sanchez, the former U.S. ambassador to Honduras and Colombia.

During the 1970s, a towering figure was always in close proximity to True Parents and members of their family. He was Gerhard Peemoeller, or “Big Gerhard,” as he also was known. An impressive 6 feet 6 inches in stature, Gerhard joined the Unification movement in 1972 and came to the United States in 1973. From the moment he encountered Unificationists in his home country of Germany, Gerhard was infused with the desire to be a “bodyguard for Christ,” ignited by a vision he had while praying.

On coming to the United States he was given the opportunity to join True Parents’ security team for speaking tours and later at East Garden. Eventually he became one of three traveling bodyguards for True Parents. In his book Bodyguard for Christ: One Disciple’s Experience Protecting the Messiah, Gerhard emphasized that the most important aspect of his job was internal unity with True Parents. He outlined the conditions he set for the safety and protection of the children and relatives of True Parents, including a daily breakfast fast, washing and waxing a car every day that True Parents weren’t at East Garden, and praying constantly while on duty. After 1980, he become a leader in the Ocean Church and pioneered work in Virginia.

It took him seven years to start to like fishing, but he eventually started to feel like a real fisherman and gained the respect of other fishermen. Gerhard was blessed with Nobuko Komura in 1976 as part of the 74 couples’ Holy Marriage Blessing Ceremony. He was survived by his wife and seven children.

Based on the Interfaith Marriage Blessing of 60 clergy couples on May 27, 2001 (which included Archbishops Emmanuel Milingo and George A. Stallings, among others), True Father called for a 12,000 Couple Clergy Blessing at New York’s Madison Square Garden in September 2001. That was postponed due to the terrorist attacks of 9/11. Instead, True Father announced a Marriage Blessing for 144,000 clergy couples around the world on April 27, 2002.

The main venue was the Sheraton National Hotel in Arlington, Virginia, for some 700 representative clergy couples. Thousands of other couples participated in all 50 U.S. states and 196 nations via satellite connection. Commendations for the Blessing came from four U.S. governors and 25 members of Congress, including several U.S. senators. United Press International, Associated Press, ABC National, CBS local, The Washington Times and many Spanish-language and African-American newspapers covered the event.

Religious leaders from every faith tradition offered prayers. Thirty couples came from the Nation of Islam, directly sent by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan. Twenty-one Buddhist couples came from Korea. More than 21 Sikh leaders came from the Washington area. True Parents declared that the interreligious and international ceremony was a “total victory.” Pastor T.L. Barrett Jr. from Chicago, who helped organize the event, declared, “Father [Moon] is a marrying man! He wants everything to be married. He would like a desk and chair or even the two light bulbs to be married, if possible.”

On the foundation of “Legacy of Peace” ceremonies held at the UN headquarters (March 18) and in Washington, D.C. (April 1), New York (April 2), Las Vegas (April 3), Hawaii (April 9), and Korea (April 13), True Parents conducted the Coronation for the Establishment of the Abel UN and hosted a luncheon celebrating their golden wedding anniversary at the Cheongpyeong Heaven and Earth Training Center with some 1,000 guests from around the world on April 29, 2010.

A congratulatory address was given by the Venerable Un San, former president of Taego Buddhism in Korea, who gave his deepest respect to True Parents who have “offered themselves for the actualization of a peaceful, ideal world.” The ceremony was prepared as a traditional Korean royal wedding. Afterward True Parents conducted the world-level Golden Wedding Anniversary for the Establishment of the Abel UN and Ascension Festival in Las Vegas on May 9.

The demise of Marxism as a viable ideology created a serious void for the USSR. True Parents’ meeting with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev on April 11, 1990, opened the way for the Unification Church to sponsor seminars for Soviet officials and eventually Divine Principle workshops for thousands of Soviet university students and professors.

In December 1990 and February 1991, the church sponsored seminars for 80 deputies of the Supreme Soviet (federal, republic and city levels) in which they received lectures on Victory over Communism (VOC) theory as well as briefings on the underpinnings of U.S. democracy. Then, from April 30 to May 2, 1991, the church sponsored an unprecedented seminar and fact-finding tour in Washington, D.C., for approximately 200 high-ranking Soviet officials and political leaders who were introduced to True Father’s thought and achievements. Dr. Thomas Ward, who lectured, noted, “This was the only time during the final years of the Soviet Union that any person, government or private organization brought together representatives from all 15 Soviet republics.”