96. Preparing for the Months Ahead

Hyun Jin Moon
February 13, 2008

On February 13, the day after True Parents' Birthday, UPF held a one-day World Leaders Meeting at the Chungshim Youth Center, situated in the valley below the Cheon Jeong Peace Palace not far from Chung Pyung training center. Many of the leaders attended Hoon Dok Hae with True Parents at the Peace Palace at 5:00 AM, and the leaders meeting began as soon as they had returned to the youth center. One important focus of the meeting was preparation for the Global Peace Festivals. It was Hyun-jin nim's impassioned speech that opened the meeting and we are pleased to include here a major portion of it.

The word I use often is alignment. If you are aligned with God's providential timetable, the timetable of the age in which we live no then you will have the motivation to fulfill this dream of building one family under God. Recommit yourself.

Have that absolute alignment! Spirit world will use you as a channel through which that blessing can be given. That is your 5 percent responsibility.

The best way to have that kind of alignment is to get rid of all the baggage. What do I mean by baggage? All the doubt, all the reluctance, all the calculations, all the misgivings. Come to a zero point, being willing to put your neck on the line as an absolute owner of this dream. Then let's see what happens. Let's see the kind of miracles that you can bring. I have seen it over and over again. Why don't you determine to become like that? This is that kind of time.

The world needs leaders, not followers. I always wanted to be a leader of leaders, not a leader of followers. Giving directions is too much work! Imagine if we could all run together, move together in leaps and bounds, with that one single-minded focus of establishing one family under God. The Ambassadors for Peace know the age and the time in which we live as well. They realize it's something historic. Well, shouldn't we be the ones to lead the way? Do you want to follow, or do you want to lead the way? I can't hear you! [We'll lead the way!]

Maybe one of the things we need to do first is become young again, to dream again, to hope again, to see the possibilities again. It's that time. We need to adjust ourselves to fit this age, to fit this time. You know, when I speak to many of you older guys that I grew up with and who are approaching middle age-forty, fifty or even inching toward sixty-they say, "Hyung-jin nim, I only have ten good years left in me" or "...five good years." My goodness! If you are fifty or sixty and you say you have only ten good years left in you, what about Abba, at 89? And he's still committed to the realization of the goal. Even more so.

That example aside, even if it is true that you only have five or ten good years left in you, do you want to go out with a sputter, or do you want to go out with a bang?

Do you still feel like a teenager? It seems like yesterday when I was seventeen. I feel no different. I might be older in actual age but my spirit is still seventeen. What about you?

People's original minds are young and youthful because they are looking to the future and the possibility of what can be. It is our original mind that needs to guide us so that we can accomplish what we need in the new age. There is nothing in the past that decides what will be in the future! We are charting a new course. What should be our guide? What should be our vision? What should be our dream? Shouldn't it be like the time in the Garden of Eden at the beginning of creation, when history was dawning, and Adam and Eve had one thing to hold on to -- the dream of God? Don't you think that this should be the age when we cling to that one dream and bring it into reality in this age?

This is what the Global Peace Festivals are going to be all about. We are going to have a Global Peace Festival on every continent. The Global Peace Festivals will show our movement and our True Parents to the world from a different perspective.

We misrepresent True Parents if we think that they are just our personal messiahs, or simply the founders of the Unification Church, of which we are members. The perspective that we built of Father as the founder of the Unification Church, a religious man that kind of breaks the mold, needs to be changed.

Religions must cooperate, not divide people

We need to let the world know about the providential role of True Parents and the providential age in which we live. Thus, through the International Leadership Conferences, I have been reintroducing Father as the owner of the dream of God, one family under God. He was the one who brought that dream to all of us. The Global Peace Festival will take it one step further. It will be a venue for the world to latch onto this dream. It is not just for a select few.

The vision of the GPF is to build "One family under God, One family at a time." What do we mean by one family at a time? The Global Peace Festival will highlight the vision of the blessing as the way to build this one global family, one family at a time. Throughout the world there are prepared young leaders now rising up who embody the vision of the blessing. Those of you at the ILC probably heard Rev. Paul Murray speak just two days ago. His father is black and his mother is white. This is the time when people will be moved by the vision of UPF, the vision of building one family under God. It is a vision whose time has come! We need to believe in it!

Even if I have to get on my knees and beg or pull you along, I want you to know that this is indeed the time when we must mobilize an entire movement to realize this dream of building one family under God! We are the ones who should stand in the forefront! We have to be the ones who are able to lead this world to realize this dream of building one family under God. We need to have that type of dedication, that type of urgency in this age. Then we will see a tremendous victory by the end of this year!

Global Peace Festivals are not going to be just stand-alone events. You'll probably hear more about it from other leaders, but I am giving you the vision. We plan to hold the Global Peace Festival every two years, in 2008, 2010 and 2012. And if need be, if the world has still not changed, we will have it again and again until the dream that can bring humanity together is made real.

United Nations renewal

The United Nations was created out of the ashes of World War II for the purpose of ensuring peace. The founding vision of the UN was rooted in the same dream that inspired the formation of America. The first and foremost rights in the Declaration of Independence are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, which the declaration insists are endowed by God. These rights are called inalienable, that is they cannot be abridged by human beings. In other words the most fundamental rights upon which America was established came not from a human institution but from God. That is what made America great. And that was the initial impulse that originally inspired the creation of the UN.

However, many people, even within the UN itself, agree that the UN has been less than fully successful in bringing about a peaceful world, and that the member countries are mired in their own political self-interests.

One reason for this may be that, unlike those of the United States, the founding documents of the UN make no mention of God, nor does the UN make any formal recognition of the existence and primacy of God. How then can we expect that God will sanctify this institution with His blessing? Not only that, but the UN is clearly out of sync with the entire world on this issue. If you took a worldwide referendum on the existence of God, we would probably find a reverence for God in 90 percent or more of the world's people.

The United Nations needs to recognize the sovereignty of God. Although the UN is working hard and doing many good things, it cannot be ultimately effective against the roots of conflict with only a secular humanistic, anti-theistic perspective. The United Nations needs more than a political face lift; it needs spiritual renewal as well. In biblical terms of Cain and Abel, the UN needs to be more Abel-like in its motivation and its structure.

The Global Peace Festival is ideally suited to help with this. The festivals attract top leaders in every nation and region who are aligned with the idea that humanity can and must overcome all the barriers of nationalism, racism and religious intolerance. We will hold them worldwide every two years -- and what better way is there to build an Abel UN?

Imagine if we had a Global Peace Festival in every single nation! What if each country, large or small, takes the initiative with the vision of bringing people together to build one family under God, letting that seed germinate and blossom?

How can we create peace? Foundational values and beliefs are not incidental. They are pivotal. If you want to talk about absolute principles and universal values, which are keys to establishing everlasting peace, you first have to acknowledge the eternal creator of whom we are the extended family.

In the future you might see, in the leading newspapers and publications, a challenge to the UN and to all the governments and citizens of the world about doing a referendum on the existence of God, and the need to establish eternal absolute principles that can only come from God. How do you establish peace if you do not acknowledge an eternal Heavenly Father who not only gives us our existence but the values that we cherish?

Massive social problems worldwide

Our world is faced with massive social problems such as incurable sexually-transmitted diseases, hunger, poverty, geopolitical problems of genocide and terrorism against civilians, and so many more. These problems are well-documented and addressed in the United Nation's Millennium Development Goals.

The world is still much further from achieving these goals than it should be. We are not going to find a solution if we do not bring the discussion back to the importance of the existence of God as the basis of our eternal values and principles. This is an opportunity and time to seize the moment. The time will not come again. This foundation was created because of the blood, sweat and tears of True Parents.

In one sense, this is very similar to the time just after World War II. Imagine what would have happened after World War II if Father had been able to inherit the foundation of Christianity. Do you think Father would have been known just as a religious leader, the founder of one religion? Or would he have stood on the world stage, straddling the religious, political, economic and media fields? In that case, the UN would not have become just a secular institution.

We have come to that point where we can set the record straight, and fully substantiate what was expected those many years ago. This is the time in which we are living. The Global Peace Festival will be a conduit to allow that to happen. It is time for "One Family under God." And believe me, people are waiting for it.

I first announced the vision of GPF in the Philippines in 2006. I said that one day we would bring more than two million people together in the Philippines. In 2007 we launched the Global Peace Festival here in Korea during the World Culture and Sports Festival. From the beginning, we wanted that festival to be owned by as many partners as we could bring in.

Global Peace Festivals -- a vision of youth and volunteerism I want you to bring young leaders that can move society -- the political, media, and social sides -- and I want you to bring them to the International Leadership Conferences for training and education. That's how we began bringing young business leaders, social leaders, media leaders, to the first International Leadership Conference in Washington, DC. And we explained our vision to them there. These leaders were all around my age -- in their thirties and forties.

Young people -- whether out of ignorance, or exuberance and energy, and the willingness to challenge and to face new challenges -- are willing to try when others do not dare to. I want to encourage you all to be young people again. Young people are different from old people. But it has nothing to do with chronological age.

In contrast, old people have a tendency -- regardless of age -- not to believe anything is possible! Is that a fair assessment? They say that their past experience showed them that although they did something, it didn't work. Why would we do it again?

I say, "Look, young people, you can be audacious; you can get away with it!" I want you to get these Ambassadors for Peace that we educated, and have them get fully involved, and put their skin in the game. Once they know about this vision, I want them to invest! Everyone should invest their resources, their time or their energy to fulfill this dream.

This is exactly what happened in Korea. Two Korean woman congressional leaders caught the vision. They offered their whole staff to help organize a conference at the Korean National Assembly Building, with three hundred members of the National Assembly and ambassadors to Korea from other nations. The conference was televised. Several presidential candidates came and gave presentations. This was purely on vision, dream, alignment... ownership.

In the past when we held events at the National Assembly Building, the next day, there was usually a litany of attacks in the media. But this time, there was none. The media in Korea is changing. There is a revolution happening in the media world today. That revolution is the internet. It is totally changing how news is being read and digested, especially by the younger audience, who are the ones driving this. We are re-shifting our media strategy to embrace this new paradigm.

Slowly but surely, the owners of the dream of one family under God will come. Do you believe me? It's okay if you don't believe me. We'll just see what happens.

Now, through the Global Peace Festivals, we have the keys to move nations. We have the keys to establishing the debate on any international issue. We hold the keys, and we have the determination. The time is now! 

95. Washington Times Names Post Reporter Its Top Editor

Howard Kurtz
January 15, 2008
Washington Post Staff Writer

John Solomon, named executive editor, is not regarded as an ideological journalist

The Washington Times reached into its chief rival's newsroom for a new executive editor yesterday, naming Washington Post national reporter John Solomon to succeed Wesley Pruden at the paper's helm.

Solomon was an unexpected choice to take over what Pruden, who has run the Times for 16 years, has long described as a conservative newspaper. But Solomon, 41, who spent two decades at the Associated Press and is not known as an ideological journalist, said he doesn't view the paper in those terms.

"I'm still going to do the same style of journalism," he said. "It's going to be about being fair and balanced and accurate and precise.... There needs to be a bright line between the journalism on the news pages and the commentary that appears on the editorial and opinion pages."

Thomas McDevitt, the paper's publisher, said Solomon has a great "nose" for stories and that "we wanted to find a working journalist with some area of expertise that was related to our strategic vision -- enterprise and investigative reporting." He called Solomon a "virtuoso" who could beef up the paper's online offerings and "a leader who can motivate the talent in our newsroom. If we want to play in the big leagues, we've got to do some things differently."

"Of course," McDevitt added, "there has to be a cultural fit."

Erik Wemple, editor of Washington City Paper, said that "having a guy like this who not only comes from a fiercely independent newspaper, but has a fiercely independent reputation himself, is refreshing. This is one of the first real, solid moves the Washington Times has made in a long time."

Solomon said Times executives have promised him there will be "no political interference" and that he is "very comfortable" with the fact that the paper is financially supported by members of the Unification Church. He said that during the interview process he met with Hyun Jin "Preston" Moon, the son of church founder Sun Myung Moon and the chairman of parent company News World Communications.

Solomon is a gregarious, slightly rumpled journalist with a dogged reporting style. In November, he collaborated with CBS's "60 Minutes" on an investigation into a discredited FBI forensic tool that raised questions about the conviction of hundreds of defendants.

At the AP, Solomon served as assistant Washington bureau chief for a half-dozen years. He presents a sharp contrast with Pruden, who ran the Times while also writing a pugnaciously conservative column, which will continue despite his stepping down from a full-time role. Last week Pruden described Hillary Clinton as "everybody's candidate for bitch-in-chief."

Managing Editor Francis Coombs, who was passed over for the job, told his staff that he was resigning.

In a statement, Pruden said the Times has been "the fearless alternative to The Post and the mainstream media -- rowdy, independent, politically incorrect by design -- and I've been assured that won't change" under Solomon. Asked if he sees the paper as a right-leaning alternative to the establishment media, Solomon said: "The Times has prided itself on trying to find stories others have missed."

The Times has a daily circulation of 100,000, compared with 691,000 for The Post, and 40,000 on Sunday, compared with 945,000 for its bigger rival. But the Times helps drive the national agenda, particularly among conservatives, through its Web site, national edition and editorial and commentary pages.

Solomon said that being first or second in print circulation "doesn't matter" because in the digital age "people want to interact with the news and learn more than you can fit into a 30-inch hole in a story."

The Times has been a feisty competitor to The Post but has occasionally been accused of pursuing an agenda. In 1999 Pruden defended a front-page piece headlined "Media Abuzz With Rumors That Clinton Fathered Boy," based on a false rumor, by saying that journalists and political insiders were talking about the allegation.

Solomon's reporting for The Post, where he worked for one year, has drawn both praise and criticism. He has written about Bill Clinton earning nearly $40 million in speaking fees over six years, members of Congress devising new ways to secure funding for home-state projects, and an internal audit finding possible violations by the FBI while it sought information in national security cases.

After he co-authored a front-page story on Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards having consulted for a hedge fund, The Post's ombudsman, Deborah Howell, wrote that "the facts are eminently worth reporting, but the tone of the story implied that consulting for a hedge fund... is incompatible with caring about the less fortunate."

Solomon also co-authored a report that the previously undisclosed buyers of Edwards's Georgetown house were under federal investigation. Howell wrote that "it seemed like a 'gotcha' without the gotcha," since the former senator said he never spoke to the buyers.

Solomon, who starts his new job Jan. 28, described his time at The Post as an "extraordinary experience, but this opportunity was too good, for my family and for me professionally, to turn down."

94. It's a Celebration of Life - Global Peace Festival Introduction Booklet

It's a Celebration of Life - Global Peace Festival Introduction Booklet

93. Global Peace Festival 2007

Hyun Jin Moon
December 12, 2007
Quirino Grandstand, Manila, Philippines
Courtesy of Dr. Jimmy Vergara, President - FFWPU-Philippines

Good evening Philippines!

Welcome to the Global Peace Festival 2007! We are celebrating the festival here in the Philippines because the Philippines is a nation of peacemakers, is it not? (Yes!). I can't hear you! Is it not? (Yes!).

Let me look at the audience tonight. I see a lot of young people in the audience tonight. If there are young people in the audience, do we need to dream big, yes or no? Do we want to dream the biggest dream? Yes or no? (Yes!). One of our dreams can move this nation and eventually move the world. What about that dream? Yes or no? (Yes!) Do you want to hear what that dream is? Yes or no? (Yes!).

It is a great pleasure and honor to be here. I was told not to come down here tonight (near the audience), but I cannot hold myself back. I want to look at all your faces. We are starting a revolution, but do not worry, it's not a revolution of guns but is a revolution of heart that will move people to live for the sake of others.

For if you want to change the world, you first have to change yourself. You have to be a peacemaker, do you not? (Yes!).  We want to bring change to the Philippines tonight with a contingent of world leaders -- we are going to make a change!  And that change is going to happen within us first so that we can become the aegis that can move our communities, our neighborhoods, our families, our nation, and eventually, the world.

Before I can even talk about that dream, the biggest dream of all, we have to first start with a narrative because it starts somewhere many, many years ago. As I look at the audience, I saw a lot of young people.

There was a young man at a tender age of 15, that went up into the hills behind his home in North Korea on a cold winter on Easter Sunday. He went there with a mind and heart to liberate the suffering heart of God.

He was taught in Sunday school that God is an almighty God, an all-powerful God, an omnipotent God. But he knew looking at the human condition for he lived at a time when he saw evil committed by one man towards another. He lived in a nation at a time when it was dominated another nation.

He lived at a time when he cannot even speak his own language and cannot express his own cultural tradition. Yet, he had faith in humanity, he had faith in God, and with that spirit he went up in that hill deep in prayer. And when he was praying, sweating, yearning to find a way in which he could liberate the heart of God. He received a revelation, God spoke to him, and then Jesus spoke to him, and all the saints and sages spoke to him. And say that the way to liberate the suffering heart of God is to build One Family Under God, Aju!

Now the reason why God's heart was suffering was because as a parent of all humankind, he lost His family. He lost the human family. God is a God of love, of peace, and of unity. Yet the history of humanity has been a history of hatred, war, bitterness, and conflict: a total antithesis of what God represents.

Yet, God had absolute faith, love, and devotion for humanity. He believed that eventually humanity, who stood in the position of lost sons and daughters, will come to him and rejoice with him and celebrate with him in creating this eternal family.

There were many saints and sages, men of God throughout ages and histories, founders of great religions that taught the fundamental message, the key universal message of true love, living for the sake of others and building a community of faith. Yet, overtime, that message got lost, got forgotten, and what came up was tradition and dogmatic point of view?

It lost the fundamental core message of building a human family under God. We have to find love, a True love. I defined love as living for the sake others.

For that young boy who made a promise on that hilltop that night. He made a promise to God on that hilltop on that Easter Sunday. He pledged that he would be the one that shares that peace to all humanity and plants this seed in the hearts of men by making them the owner of this dream. That young boy that went up to that hilltop on Easter Sunday was none other than my father, the Rev. Dr. Sun Myung Moon. (Applause)

As you can see, there was a lot of seed-planting, planting the seeds of peace that was done in the many years that followed that promise that was made on that fateful night. The seeds that were planted were raised with sweat, tears, and even blood. They were faced with persecution and misunderstanding.

Yet, standing true to that promise that was made on that night, with absolute faith, love, and obedience in the goodness in humanity and the possibility that this dream can be realized, he overcame all those mountains.

And today, as the son of this man who made that promise, that dream is alive! Not in one generation but in the next and that dream is alive as we plant the seeds of peace in the hearts of all that are gathered here!

First, it starts with a dream and today we are here to dream the biggest dream of all. For if we are committed, if we are determined, if we make our pledge and our promise just like that young farm boy made many years ago, here today in Manila, in the year of 2007 with the numbers that are gathered here, then that dream will be multiplied and it can spread across the world fostering a new age as we enter the era of 2008.

Now I want to give you a story that is rooted in the Good Book. For this nation of the Philippines is a Christian nation. In the Good Book in the book of Genesis, it is said that God created all things and humanity in six days, and on the seventh he rested on the holy Sabbath.

It is fitting that we are here in the Philippines on this last day of the World Peace Festival in 2007. We are gathered here to launch the beginning of Global Peace Festivals 2008. For this might be the end of one year, but it means the beginning of a whole new year. This era of 2008 is not just one year in waiting it represents the beginning of a new history. You are gathered here having the vision and the dream of building one family under God deeply in your hearts as young people looking forward into the future.

A new covenant has been written, a new promise has been made that will carry on the hope of humanity in building One Family Under God, Aju! Let's say it again: One Family Under God, Aju!". Let's say it again, "One Family under God, Aju!".

That is what I'm talking about. Amen? (Amen). Amen? (Amen). Aju? (Aju). Now what is Aju? My goodness, what is Aju? We got this crowd steered up saying Aju, Aju. But I don't think they even what that means! What Aju means is that, "I will do it". It's a Korean word. It starts with A and J and U, AJU. It's not AeJU, it is AhJU. (AJU).

Now what Aju means in Korean is that, "I will become the owner and I will do it!" So more filial exclamation point is there than the word AJU? So when we say, "One Family Under God", AJU!" It says, "One Family Under God" is my dream and I will do it! Yes or no? (Yes!) Yes or no? (Yes!) Yes or no? (Yes). Hoooo.. It's Providential and we haven't even started yet.

This is a Global Peace Festival of 2007. We are here to celebrate a vision for peace; my vision for peace. Not somebody else's vision for peace but my vision for peace. For it should be... your vision for peace.

This vision that was received by this farm boy many years ago was not the vision solely for that farm boy nor was it for that farm boy's family. It was a vision for all of humanity. It should be our dream as we have the same Heavenly Father.

Not as Christians, Jews, Muslims, Baptists, Catholics, Pentecostals, you name it, whatever box you are in. Before we are Korean, Filipino, Japanese or whatever we call ourselves, we are first and foremost the sons and daughters of God and members of His eternal family. (Applause)

We have to break down the wall first within us and become divine creation of God and is an extension of my eternal family. For we all share one God as our Eternal Parent. We all share one humanity as our eternal family and one whole planet as our home. Let us break down the walls that separate us because those walls are not erected by a God of love, unity, and peace.

Those walls were erected by us and it is in this age, in this new millennium, that we need to go back to God, back to his original dream and ideal that he had for humanity. Let us make a sound pledge tonight as we share in this festival, in this event here in Manila, let us make a sound pledge that we shall become the owners of this "One family under God". That it will not be my cousin's dream, my neighbor's dream, my parent's dream, my brother's and sister's dream, a Korean dream, a Filipino dream, but it will be my dream as a member of God's eternal family, as a member of God's eternal family, Aju.

We, the young people. That dream, if you can plant that in your hearts and become the owners of that dream with true love power having a dream of building One Family Under God; with the power of true love! With what kind of power? (True love power!) What kind of power? (True love power!)

Now, what kind of love is True Love? True love is a divine love of living for the sake of others and as Jesus taught on that hilltop, many, many years ago, and he said, "it is said an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth; it is not about getting retribution or getting the unrighteous doomed and if you are hit on the cheek and you shall offer the other.

It is about true love! For it is only through true love that we could find true freedom and true salvation! No matter what harm has been done to you, if you exact that same harm on your fellow human being you will not bring back that which you lost.

The only way that you will find true freedom is to able to forgive and to love even those who do injustice to you. That was the message that Jesus taught. That was a message of true love, living for the sake of others even loving thy enemy.

Imagine if we check this true love power that has the ability to transform men and women, to move mountains and nations -- imagine what can happen in terms of building a culture for peace in our lifetime in this world.

We are gathered here to celebrate the vision of peace that is rooted in "One Family Under God", but what shall we carry to fulfill that vision? It's true love power! Can you say that with me? True love power! What kind of power? (True love power). What kind of power? (True love power).

Those of you who want to check this vision, plant it in your hearts and go to the world with true love power, stand up and raise your hand and say AJU. (AJU) AJU. (AJU) AJU (AJU) -- with what? (True love power!) -- with what? (True love power!)

Let us make a new world order, a new revolution, creating One Family Under God with true love power, AJU!

I can't hear you! (True love power). I can't hear you! (True love power). What kind of dream? (One family under God!) I can't hear you! (One family under God!) ¡¦ with what kind of power? (True love power!)

I've got a 20-minute speech but you know what? You fired me up! Whenever we talk about a dream as big as building "One Family Under God", there's no way you can stand still, for that was a dream that I inherited when I was a young boy. But every time I heard of this dream, it pressed a nail into my heart.

I could not stand still! For as I look at the human condition it allows me to become a historic figure that can make a difference in the world. It allows me to align myself to the will of God and to the purpose of humanity going back to the original dream that God had from the beginning of human creation. That's why, you can't stand still.

That's why the fever pitch of "One Family Under God" is a contagious fever. And the ability to be able to realize such a dream is through true love power. This is the truth and cannot be denied. That is why, whenever we talk about this big dream, "One Family Under God", Aju. And true love power, how can you not -- how can you not but be in a fever pitch, Aju. (Aju)

What are we creating, what is our dream? (Our dream is One Family Under God) And with what power will we realize this dream? (With true love power) And what is true love power? (The dream of every Filipino here in the Philippines) That's true, but it is the power of living for the sake of others, and it is the aspiration of all Filipinos. Is that right? Give her a round of applause.

HJN continued talking, interviewing the audience, including Manny Pacquiao, Chairman Bayani Fernando, etc.

Amazing things are happening tonight. God works in mysterious ways. The dream of building "One Family Under God" is being planted in the hearts of those gathered here. As you live forth from this second, let this big dream be not someone else's dream but my dream and then usher in a new age of peace through true love power.

Thank you very much.

92. Activities and Future Directions

Hyun Jin Moon
September 2007

A report to True Parents and our global membership based on the activities of the last six months. This is an abridgement of a longer report Hyun-jin nim recently presented to True Parents.

My loving parents and precious brothers and sisters: I want to offer my sincere gratitude and honor to True Parents and congratulate them on so many successes in this providential jubilee year as we work to usher in a new civilization of peace for heaven and earth.

Moving as one with True Parents and the providence we have entered an era when God's will is being made substantial and the providence is bearing fruit. If this entire Unification movement of God-affirming people of all faiths and traditions will align to the will of God, unite and invest themselves, we will accomplish our goal of seeing true and lasting peace in the world by 2013.

In this report, I will outline the key strategies and results for the first part of this year, including the most recent activities of our Middle East Peace Initiative (MEPI), the Global Peace Festivals (GPF) in Europe and the recent launching of an Abel-minded international body that is similar to the United Nations in the scope of its mission and is guided by spiritual and moral principles. I will briefly explain how this "Abel UN," offering its support and encouragement to the peace-building efforts of the United Nations, will function in service to God and humanity.

My motivation is always to receive deeper guidance from True Parents when we meet together in person, and then move forward. Everything we are doing is bearing fruit because of their lives' investment.

I. Vision and strategy

The seventh year of Cheon II Guk is a jubilee year, in which centered on the three generations of the True Family, blessed central families and Ambassadors for Peace, the age where the entire Unification movement must go beyond its own boundaries begins. This is the time of aligning to God's original will and moving as one.

For the past seven years, I have prepared for this time by educating our blessed central families in how to fulfill God's dream and True Parents' legacy by creating true families based on the Family Pledge and Father's Peace Messages, and to align with God and become owners of a new culture of heart.

True Father has explained that Jesus was the one who came to realize God's dream for all people of the world. He did not live long enough to accomplish his full mission, and he said he would have to come again. Today True Father has come to fulfill God's original ideal and the same dream Jesus had. Thus, Jesus "returns" in the work of the True Parents. They have come to finish the uncompleted mission of Jesus.

Like Jesus, True Father's original mission was not to create another religion or a separate theology but to realize the ultimate dream of God in creating a true inter-religious, international movement.

True Parents' interfaith movement is different from other existing interfaith efforts. Instead of merely respecting and tolerating the differences of each religion, True Parents' interfaith efforts focus on the universal principles found within all religions and unify the different religions centered on these principles in order to realize God's dream.

Through the first twelve-city speaking tour, directed by True Parents, I was able to begin spreading this message about the need for all humanity to go beyond religions and fulfill their true mission of realizing one family under God. To this, I add the word, "aju," a Korean word (coined by Father) that implies the concept, "I will take responsibility for doing it." Therefore, "One Family under God, Aju!" There is no more profound or simpler way to express it.

True Father received the Divine Principle directly as a revelation from God, but this is not Unificationist "theology." This is a set of principles behind the Creation, fundamental truths that the world's faith traditions already embody -- and that can serve as a basis for bringing us all into oneness under God. I have been explaining this through the International Leadership Conferences (ILC), MEPI (Middle East Peace Initiative), at the Korean National Assembly, the United Nations Headquarters in New York, and in meetings with the pastors of some of the largest Christian churches in the U.S.

To accomplish concrete providential goals, centering on the vision of "One Family under God" and the Peace Messages, there is a need to newly integrate and align our Unification Movement worldwide, inter-religiously and internationally. Therefore, I have presented three key strategic initiatives as focal points for our Unification Movement.

The first strategy is to encourage the Pan-Pacific Rim peace movement to move toward the peaceful reunification of the Korean Peninsula. This is the desire of every Korean and will bring stability to the region.

The second strategy is to work with inter-religious peace movements worldwide to finally resolve conflict of the Abrahamic faiths and end the hatred and bloodshed in the Middle East.

The third strategy is to help bring renewal to the UN by taking the lead in achieving the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDG), centered on the principle of living for the sake of others.

Along with these three strategic initiatives, I have been preparing to hold Global Peace Festivals throughout the world from 2008 until 2012. These Global Peace Festivals will expand the global peace movement, uniting many kindred spirit organizations and people who embrace the ideal of one family under god. The Global Peace Festivals will also bring the international, intercultural Blessing Movement into the mainstream as the path to build a culture of world peace among all nations, races and religions.

II. Report of major activities during first half of the year

1) Universal Peace Federation activities

Last October, True Parents expanded the scope of the Ambassadors for Peace, asking them to take on greater responsibilities. In order to do that, we developed the International Leadership Conference (ILC). In February, the first ILC was held in Washington DC, cosponsored by the Universal Peace Federation (UPF) and Youth Federation for World Peace (YFWP), gathering young leaders from the nations involved in the Six Party Talks about the Korean Peninsula.

We conducted numerous conferences, each time increasing the number of sitting parliamentarians in attendance, culminating in June with a gathering of five hundred world leaders in Hawaii. Participants testified they were greatly moved by the program.

The ILC has been developed to engage world leaders in discussion of the fundamentally unifying principles of peace building and to build an internal network of Ambassadors for Peace. Through these conferences, we are standardizing the content of our programs in preparation for ILCs to be held on national and local levels. As we observed in Europe recently, leading figures who have participated in the ILC and have become Ambassadors for Peace are taking ownership and establishing educational and service programs in their own local areas.

I was able to take part in two MEPI programs in the Middle East. These led me to deeply contemplate how to bring a solution to the conflict in the Middle East. Who has more concern for the peace issues in the Middle East than True Parents, and who has invested more in the Middle East than our True Parents over such a long period of time? Many political, religious and social movement leaders such as Martin Luther King III have been amazed by the true interfaith quality our True Parents' work brings to the Middle East.

MEPI is not a political organization, involved in political issues. It focuses on cooperation among the many religious traditions of the region, and that makes it an ally of both Jews and Palestinians. A peace process utilizing our inter-religious foundation is our unique strength and is an area the world has overlooked. I have guided MEPI to seek strategic partnerships with the UN and faith-related offices within the White House. We have built relationships over the years with the people of the Druze faith as well. They are inspired by the blessing and look forward to conducting a Blessing Ceremony for the entire Druze membership and to standing at the forefront of building peace in the Middle East.

Last year, in July, at a rally for twenty-five thousand young leaders in Korea, I announced that from 2008 I will visit each region of the world and hold youth rallies for up to a million people in each location. We created the name "Global Peace Festival" for these events. As explained earlier, the sole motivation for and goal of proclaiming such a project is to bring the peace movement centered on the vision of One Family Under God and the culture of the international marriage blessing into the mainstream on the worldwide level. In order to prepare for the 2008 events, in 2007, we are holding preliminary programs in Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East.

2) North America Continent Activities

On the foundation True Parents have created through their devotion, this year the United States has been preparing to take its role as the elder son nation as central to the Pacific Rim Providence. American leaders have exhibited a level of ownership and teamwork they did not have before and are breaking through on many levels. The Washington media team and church leadership have achieved a newfound unity, creating strategies and cooperating on projects.

In January, under the slogan One Family under God and centering on the Peace Messages, I visited Christian churches in twelve cities and presented a new vision and hope for America's Christianity. True Parents' direction to visit the Christian churches was to breakthrough to a new level of the providence and allow America to inherit heavenly fortune. This could not have been done at a more opportune time. The American churches have been newly energized and the dwindling ACLC activities are being revived. In the future, the ACLC movement should not only be re-ignited in America but worldwide.

The leadership for evangelizing America lies in the hands of the large independent churches, the so-called "mega churches." In August, I visited some of America's mega churches and engaged in face-to-face conversation with their leaders. Many of these pastors expressed their respect for True Parents, having heard much about their work through local Ambassadors for Peace. None of them had a problem with our vision for ideal families and a broad, inter-religious movement. In fact, these churches grew by finding people who love God but don't belong to any one church.

The American Freedom Coalition (AFC) has been inspired by Korea's nationwide foundation of Ambassadors for Peace and is reinvigorating its organization. This is the age when we can reach out to prepared leaders and create a global network to stand at the forefront of a new providence.

Next year is an election year and the American membership must grab a hold of heavenly fortune and take responsibility to give rise to an American administration that Heaven desires. We have a strong media foundation through which to express our opinions on key social issues. The American Clergy Leadership Conference, which will be working independently of the AFC, interacts with our Christian brothers and sisters. Through this unity, we can offer spiritual guidance to our elected leaders.

The American movement is continuously working to expand and settle the hoondok family church. Currently there are close to four hundred active groups. One Colombian-Filipino couple works during the day and uses evenings and weekends to serve the local community and convey True Parents' guidance. As a result, they have created over three hundred blessed families, and they oversee many projects. At the most recent leadership meeting, we decided that hoondok family church leaders should gather to share their best practices and standardize hoondok family churches. With standardized educational materials, we can raise leaders who help America's hoondok family churches develop a strong grassroots foundation.

3) Regional and Family Federation Activities

With True Parents' permission, at every holy day and major event, I have convened regional chair meetings, where we plan how each region can be aligned with God's will and the worldwide providence. I have paid special attention to the Family Federation in the three providential nations of Korea, Japan and the United States, visiting both the headquarters and the field to help leaders and members establish a clear vision and goals.

We are creating guidelines and measurable standards for Family Federation activities worldwide. After God's Day, I visited Japan and spoke to the Japanese members. I am working closely with the leaders, guiding and encouraging them on the foundation of many years of True Parents' investment.

During the recent Global Peace Festival tour of Europe, I saw how our members are being revived by seeing Ambassadors for Peace come without being pushed, because they are moved by Parents' message. The members have repented, and this became a new start for Europe.

During the recent events in New York, I was able to take time to speak to regional leaders individually. I received detailed reports on the hopeful activities that are taking place worldwide, taking time to look at our worldwide strategy and help our leaders align themselves with it. This was also a time to understand the difficult situations on the local levels and our brothers and sisters' needs and to encourage the hard work of these leaders that True Parents have long guided. Their request was that leaders who can harvest the fruit of this providential time be sent to their regions. This was a time to reconfirm the importance and urgency of a comprehensive system to raise and manage leaders.

To achieve the unification of North and South Korea, as True Parents desire, we must first redirect North and South America and Japan, in the Pacific Rim sphere. The European nations centered on the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic also come into play. Ultimately, we must move Russia, India and China. Through the Global Peace Festivals and through continually touring the regions, I will continue to educate the leaders, young and old, and encourage the Ambassadors for Peace to become owners of the providence. We will help our members recapture the fiery spirit of the early days of the movement. In the latter half of this year, I will tour Japan, Africa and Asia. Please look forward to the advancement that will take place in these regions.

CARP and the Second Generation

1) CARP

CARP currently is focused on accomplishing four goals:

1. By 2008, CARP will establish chapters in 192 nations.

2. At the same time, in each nation, CARP will establish clubs in every university in the nation in order to establish a global collegiate foundation for service and education.

3. Through strengthening the traditional seventy-day educational system,' CARP will raise the standard of core members worldwide and standardize this system.

4. Finally, CARP will create a new collegiate student peace movement through organizing and educating Collegiate Ambassadors for Peace.

In order to expand CARP's worldwide foundation, we absolutely need trained leaders in each region and leadership training. In Africa, we held workshops in Benin and the Democratic Republic of Congo, educating over four hundred leaders from seventeen nations. Later this year, CARP will go to Oceania and South America.

Thanks to CARP and STF training, second-generation leaders are being sent out as world missionaries to pioneer CARP. Currently fourteen couples have received missionary training and are preparing to go to their missionary nations. In the Philippines, for example, CARP has a goal to establish itself on 400 university campuses by the end of 2008. They plan to be on 120 campuses by the end of this year.

In the first part of this year, Japan's excellent witnessing-education system was used as the model system to build a witnessing system for college students and has been upgraded further. In Korea, Japan, Thailand, Nepal and the Philippines, CARP has carried out various seminars, forums and peace projects, receiving support from governments and university administrations in major regions of each nation.

Special Task Force (STF) education is entering its sixth year and is beginning to be recognized internationally as setting the educational standard for second-generation leaders. The first year of fund-raising education, the second year of witnessing education and the third year of missionary activities, followed by four years of CARP activities on the college campus is the model seven-year public course for those in the second generation to challenge in order to prepare to be leaders.

Already close to two thousand second generation members have gone through the gates of STF and are stepping into central roles in CARP activities on campuses. STF education is raising our blessed children and is spiritually reviving their parents. This year, in order to raise the standard of STF education, the qualifications of candidates wishing to join the STF program are being checked through a selection process. Those who do not pass the selection process receive education through a general program and are given an opportunity to try for STF later.

Currently four hundred and fifty members are receiving education through STF programs in Korea, Japan, America, Europe, South America, and so on. Through this program, CARP and UTS second-generation youth will become top-level leaders for the Unification Movement.

In Korea, the newly launched Sunghwa Department (for the second generation) has begun raising leaders from the elementary school level. They have launched the I-STF program as a model program with twelve and thirteen-year old second-generation members. Parents have been actively supporting the program. In the past three years, we have invested in the Jr. STF program, which is expanding in Korea, Japan, America and Europe. Currently, about seven hundred middle and high school members pass the selection process and receive training. The Sunghwa Department, following True Parents' guidance, has launched the Kids Ambassadors for Peace, which recently held its kick-off ceremony in Korea.

2) Youth Federation for World Peace

With a rally of twenty-five thousand in Korea and our intention to hold rallies of a million young people in each world region, the Youth Federation for World Peace (YFWP) has seen tremendous growth and expansion of activities in the first half of the year.

YFWP has a newly established international headquarters, as well as chapters in fifty-four nations. They have appointed eleven thousand youth Ambassadors for Peace.

At the most recent World Sports and Cultural Festival, they successfully organized an event at the National Assembly Building and a Peace Festival in front of Seoul City Hall. A major rally was also held in Bangkok, Thailand with the participation of the Deputy Prime Minister of Thailand. The Asia Youth Ambassadors for Peace Council was initiated at that time at the Asia UN Headquarters, in Bangkok.

In the latter half of the year, we will expand the Youth Federation in Asia, hoping to revive our youth movement in Japan.

3) Service For Peace

Widely recognized and influential in the service world in the United States, Service For Peace is partnering with Martin Luther King Jr. Seasons of Service 2007, which is being conducted throughout America and involves more than sixty-six thousand participants in 857 different projects.

Service for Peace has been recognized as one of the top six service organizations in America. The UN has recognized Service For Peace as meeting the standards of an NGO, which qualifies it to apply for grants from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Of the tens of thousands of NGOs in America, only three hundred organizations have this status.

Service For Peace also shares service goals in common with Points of Light Foundation (supported by both Presidents Bush), and the public service work of Wal-Mart and similar corporations.

On the international stage, Service For Peace has worked alongside UN organizations in the Dominican Republic and Central America. Service work in the Middle East has led, this year, to the opening of a Service For Peace chapter in Israel.

Service for Peace was the first not-for-profit service organization to bring South Korean volunteers to North Korea and to do service activities with North Koreans (helping build homes and heating systems). South Korean municipalities are now expressing interest in partnering with us to finally link up cities and citizens of our long-divided country

4) Unification Theological Seminary (UTS)

From the first half of this year, through 2013 and by its fortieth anniversary in 2015, UTS has a vision to become the world's top interfaith seminary. UTS seeks to become the premiere institution for raising interfaith peace leaders who can apply their leadership to the universal ideal of one family under God, which is God's dream.

UTS enrollment is increasing. The school has opened its doors to the Ambassadors for Peace and has been preparing to receive leaders from every faith tradition, so they can study our interfaith vision and principles and go back to the field and network with international leaders. Last summer, eighty students applied from fifty nations, of which the top forty-two were accepted. Among them, thirty leaders from twenty-one nations have already received their U.S. visas and entered UTS in September.

Among the new students is the niece of a former prime minister of Zimbabwe. This opens the possibility for UTS to receive the children of famous Ambassadors for Peace and religious leaders who will come, study and deeply research True Parents' ideology. The UTS extension center is currently in Manhattan, New York. UTS is further developing programs intended for Christian ministers.

In the future, the leaders who graduate from UTS will become pioneers for our global inter-religious movement. Through this challenge, they will drive the spirit of our Unification Movement. UTS will become the base for producing standardized educational material and programs.

III. The future direction of our activities

With the establishment of the Abel UN, from now on, the Unification Movement must get rid of its church-centered framework and reconnect with its original roots as the model of an inter-religious, international, interracial movement that can unite all religions, nations and NGOs within the "One Family Under God, Aju!" peace movement. Moreover, centered on clear goals and a core strategy, we must realign and reorganize our profit and nonprofit areas and our activities that have been carried out by regions and through each providential organization.

In order to carry out this type of movement organizationally, the Abel UN, under UPF -- as the highest providential organization in our sphere -- will need to have both the necessary authority and capacity. We must establish proper vertical order between UPF and each providential organization. Under the direction and supervision of the UPF international headquarters, each providential organization must carry out its specialized activities with the motivation of bringing integration and cooperation, centered on the overall goals and strategy. To bring about teamwork between the regions, beginning with the three providential nations, and the providential organizations, an organized meeting system and regular reporting and evaluation system must be set up.

In the future, to coordinate mid and long-term capacity building and the strategic placement of human resources centered on UPF, we will need to receive information from throughout the world on our main human resources and to manage this comprehensively at the headquarters level.

For the sake of accomplishing our providential goals, we must manage our many foundations and businesses, and the properties and economic foundations we have invested in worldwide. We must take responsibility for financially supporting providential activities. In addition, the international foundation is also directing and auditing the financial operations and management of key providential activities and organizations according to their priority.

My loving parents, though the works of God will remain for eternity, the earthly lives of our True Parents are limited, and you have lived every moment of your lives in order to bring about complete victory for the will of God on earth. Those families that have received the blessing have been engrafted to True Parents' lineage physically and spiritually; constituting the extended True Family, as your children, they must know what the true way of filial piety toward our True Parents is the greatest way to be filial to our True Parents is to absolutely accomplish God's will by 2013.

Knowing this, I hope, together with all my brothers and sisters and with all blessed families, that we can become one and continue to march forward. 

91. Hyun Jin Nim Speaks In Kodiak Alaska

August 29, 2007
Kodiak Alaska
Unofficial Notes By Michael Lamson

Hyun Jin Nim has been raising up members, AFP and friends of our movement with the true heart of an elder brother. Seeing him interact with others is a learning experience in itself. He is always focused, respectful and concerned while at the same time pushing his father's vision and empowering others to join him. While he is doing all this work he is also hunting and fishing with the same focus. I wish all of you could be here to have this experience and I can only pray that I can inherit something and bring it back to the district.
Rev. Lamson

Dr. Hyun Jin Moon

I can tell you that as a young boy I used to follow my father and we would fish early in the morning. We used to go out around 4:00 or 4:30 am. Back then, we were fishing for Blue Fin tuna in Gloucester.

We used to go out for 2 hours and fish. My Father always believes that the early bird gets the worm, so before anyone is even awake we would get in the boat and go out there. I was still in grade school. In the beginning I would get seasick.

We’d get in the car and drive toward the wharf and your stomach starts grumbling. Its pitch dark and you smell the heavy diesel fumes and the rumbling of the boat. You start feeling the breeze as you go out and it takes the rumbling in the stomach away.

Once we get past the breakwater, then the excitement begins because we would go out even when there were small craft warnings. I remember going out in those rough seas and the boat going "bang, bang, bang"… if I got to all the details it will take all day.

Those memories are so vivid to me. In the beginning it was rough and it was hard, but those experiences, I believe, not only planted the seeds for the love of creation and nature, but of character to be able to challenge ones own fears and limitations.

Whenever I have the opportunity to interface with creation I look at it as a spiritual, internal experience. Nature pushes you to examine yourself. I would like to encourage you. I know all of you are pioneers in spirit like my parents and family. I encourage you to expand your horizons and come out of your box. This s the best placed to do it.

I have the great fortune to travel the world and testify to my parents' dream of One Family Under God. I can’t believe how well it's accepted.

The world has changed from 20 years ago. People need euphemism. When you add faith and fanatical belief to conflict, people will do the most unheard of things. That’s why the message of One Family Under God will bring all the faith traditions together; living for the sake of others, loving your enemy, viewing humanity as one family.

This is putting the human family within the familial context. The family is where you will find the most intimate relationships. When we talk of a friend, say a man to a man and you want to say he’s more than my best friend you say "that person is like my brother". It means he’s as intimate as my brother.

In the same respect, if I was friends with a woman, I would say she is "like my sister," or "like my father," "like my mother," "like my son," "like my daughter". I use the simile of the familial relationship because it is most intimate. So what is revolutionary is my Father’s teaching, especially in the Principle of Creation which outlines God’s dream for the first human family.

The first book of the good book is the book of Genesis. What is discussed? Creation! It says that God wanted to give men three Blessings. How does one become fruitful and multiply children?  -- The divine gift to give life -- to participate in the divine act of creation, and have dominion.

As the family expands to cover the earth, then humanity would be the true masters and have dominion. God’s dream is One Family Under God. But, the dream was dashed as humanity went a direction 180% different from God’s expectation. So History is a history to rectify this error and to realize the dream.

My Father received the mission to testify to this dream long, long ago. It wasn’t through the study of scriptures, or of theologies, but it came to him as a young 15 year old boy. He earnestly went into the hills of North Korea and prayed fervently to know how to liberate the aching heart of God and humanity from the trappings of suffering, conflict, remorse, battering, hatred, etc. etc.

On those hills, Jesus anointed him and God gave him a revelation: The way to relieve God and humanity was to establish the One Family Under God. All of this might sound esoteric and transcendental. But, usually it starts from there. But he had a mission and he had absolute faith, love and obedience. He made a promise and has stayed true to it.

There is a saying. "If there is a will, there is a way;" especially if it’s the "Will of God". Imagine how daunting that challenge must have been for a 15 year old boy. Imagine how throughout his life the course he had to walk.

I am deeply moved when I think about when my Father was born and the tremendous historical period in which he lived. In 1920 Korea was a colony of Japan and Koreans had no freedom. They were like the blacks of the south. In one sense it was worse, because they were 2nd class citizens in their original homeland. In their own ancestral homelands they were enslaved.

I don’t think we can understand it in western terms -- they were like dogs or slaves. He grew up in a nation oppressed. Yet, he carried no bitterness. My Father was involved in the Korean independence movement and imprisoned and tortured.

One guard tortured him in the most demeaning and horrendous of ways. When the Japanese lost in WWII, my Father aided this very guard because he knew that if other Koreans knew where he was that he would be killed.

It's amazing that this man lives until today and some of our members tracked him down and he testified that he was amazed; he testified that he owes his life to Father although he had been the source of so much torment. He was in tears when he met our family. He was contrite and repentant.

My father was incarcerated 6 times because of the promise he made to God and Jesus many years ago. Yet he stayed true to that promise when anyone else could have easily given up. The fact that we as an international community and come to the understanding of One Family Under God is due to the over 50 years of blood sweat and tears of my parents and those who followed them to invest in humanity.

They invested so that this could be the dream of all humanity, not just one man or family. Nothing is more powerful than a message whose time has come. The message of Building One Family Under God is a message whose time has come.

The world is embroiled in a potential war of religions that could lead to the most horrible and violent of wars. Wars rooted in religion and ideologies cause the most cruelty and destruction of all wars. The 20th century is unparalleled in war deaths, an estimated in 100 million deaths.

Yet we started this century with potential religious war.

This is the time when humanity has only one direction. The vision of One Family Under God is our salvation for people of conscious, truly religious people are first devout sons and daughters of God -- before being followers of denominations or theologies.

I toured for 12 days and visited to churches and shared the One Family Under God vision. I also chastised those churches because religion hasn’t realized the dream of the founders of the faith traditions. Yet, we narrowly focused on our own faith and the salvation of only our people.

In Isaiah it says that when the temple is built, all gods can worship there. Jesus said to offer the other cheek if hit one. His ministry went out to all of God’s children. The same is true of all faith leaders, yet humanity lost sight of this original goal as men and women of faith.

I looked them in they eye and said we have failed because we failed to see from the perspective of God, the entire human family failed. God wants to bring to his bosom. The message of One Family Under God is imbedded in all our faith traditions.

Three generations represents the past, present and future. If three generations do that we can bring the continuum of humanity together.

Establishing ideal families to the larger role of One Family Under God.

Then, we can touch humanity where it counts on every level. The 21st century can be a century of peace, not war. This is the noble task and the vision to be embedded to our hearts today. If so, then true hope can germinate. You all are Ambassadors For Peace. An ambassador in his position advocates for the nation. You are Ambassadors For Peace; you represent the vision of One Family Under God.

Dr. King talked about the Beloved Community. That’s great, because I believe in One Family Under God, which is more intimate.

A community is made of neighbors that you tolerate. A family is made of love, and that’s how you bring peace. Martin said to me, "You are Right"! Why do I follow it with Aju? It's Korean but means many things. But, it’s a testament that "I will do it" it also means "this is great"!

One Family Under God! This is Great! I will do it! Please enjoy Alaska and open your hearts and minds. You are a family now. Let your hair down. Strip yourselves of pretension and open your hearts and minds.

90. Open Your Mind to a Vision of Peace

Hyun Jin Moon
August 18, 2007
ILS Keynote Address
Lotte Hotel, Seoul, Korea

This is the keynote address given by Hyun Jin Nim at the International Leaders' Conference for Japanese, Italian, and German Ambassadors for Peace.

Distinguished panel, respected guests from abroad, especially from the axis nations of Germany, Italy, and Japan.

Welcome to Korea and to this International Leadership Conference. I know that you have all made a long journey to this, my homeland and the homeland of my parents, to participate in this most special and illustrious of conferences that deals with the current crisis that our world is engaged in at this very moment.

As you all know, the world is in peril. We stand on the precipice of a century that could lead to peace, or a century that could carry on the horrible legacy that humanity had to endure since the beginning of human history; the legacy of war, conflict, misunderstanding, hatred, you name it.

Those of us gathered in this auditorium were probably born in the 20th century. Many of us developed ourselves, our concepts our perspectives in that century. Yet when we reflect on the 20th century -- that century rooted in the Atlantic sphere, it has been a century of the greatest violence, wretched in its crimes against humanity.

Comparatively, to all the centuries preceding, more people died in the 20th century than in all the centuries combined. The war was engaged in conflict. Up until the 20th century there was no such thing as a world war; yet, we had three world wars in the 20th century.

We had the First World War, the Second World War and then we had the Cold War. It was a century of unprecedented violence, bitterness, and hatred. Yet, tremendous things happened in the 20th century, things that we take for granted today in terms of development in the sciences, as well as efforts to bring the international community together.

As we can see, the founding of the United Nations happened shortly after the Second World War and what a commending effort it was for the world community, trying to build an illustrious international body that could deal with the problems of war and conflict. Yet still, as we look at the world today, we see that we have not resolved these fundamental root problems that lead to war and conflict.

The reason why we are gathered here today, the reason why I am able to stand here and talk to you about a potential formula for peace, is because of the effort of my parents, The Rev. Dr. Sun Myung Moon and Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon. Now the course on which they built this foundation on which we stand today was not an easy one.

In order for me to contextualize and put this into perspective, we have to go back many, many years to this hillside in North Korea, when a young boy at the age of 15 went into those hills, climbed up top of those hills and prayed with the heart of liberating God.

To pray for humanity and how humanity could realize the dream that God had and has been having ever since the beginning of time. There he was anointed by Jesus and was inspired by God to be the owner of God’s dream, the dream of building one family under God. Somehow, it had not been lost or forgotten because isn’t that the true way to peace, first going back to God? Going back to the dream that he had for humanity?

Not our dream for humanity but God’s dream for humanity. God stands in the position of our eternal parent and a parent does not have favorites. The parent looks to the family that the parent is the steward of.

Well we have a Divine Heavenly Parent My father realized that if we can some how bring this message of One Family Under God to this human family and allow the conscience to speak to their hearts, then, maybe the process of restoration, of touching the conscience and the soul of that individual, or that family, or that nation, could bring about the foundation for eternal peace as that dream becomes owned by that individual, by that family, by that nation, and eventually the world.

The work of the Universal Peace Federation is to realize that fundamental dream of building one family under God beyond our religious traditions, beyond our nationality, beyond our ethnic differences or our racial differences; to bring the human family back to the origin of building one family under God.

Today, we gather the illustrious leaders of the axis powered nations -- this is not a gathering to bring back all the crimes and horrors that were perpetuated by these nations during the 20th century. It is not a time of judgment and it is not a time for forceful redemption. It is a time in which we can liberate the history of these nations by bringing to light the mistakes that these nations made.

When we look at World War II, the horrible crimes that came about during this world conflict was rooted in a national identity. Where the nation surpassed the dream of God or religion, where the nation surpassed the dream of humanity or sense of global justice, it was an egocentric vision.

The difference today is, if we learn from the past and we come out of our egocentric perspectives and somehow align ourselves to a higher calling, a higher vision, that goes beyond nationality, that goes beyond race, that goes beyond religion, then, potentially, we have the ability to touch on a truth that can liberate us and that can bring the human family together.

My father believes that the human family, if it was able to realize the dream that God had since the beginning of time in the family of Adam and Eve, if that dream was realized in that original family, that we would not be inheritors of this world in which we live; the world of conflict and war. Yet what is that original family built on? That original family is built on the culture of heart. True love, a culture that is rooted in true love; true love, which is a divine love of living for the sake of others.

There is one illustrious panel member here who talked about a love that can embrace ones enemy. I believe that if we go back to our religious roots and study the teachings of our founders, may it be Jesus or Mohammed or Moses, the fundamental truth of true love, of living for the sake of others, even loving thine enemy is the true path to everlasting love and peace.

It is the true path in which one can find redemption, one can find forgiveness, one can find the strength to bring the human family together. Also, within that vision, the creation of God centered families, I believe that all the panel members here all talked about the importance of families, of building traditional God centered families.

Well, my father has always believed that the way to peace, to learn about true love, can only happen in God centered families. Because is it not in the family that we learn about true love and become the owners of that love?

As we own the love of a parent loving a child, as we own the love of a husband or a wife loving their spouse, as we own the love of a son or a daughter loving his or her parent, as we own the love, the true love of a family member living for the sake of that family, as we own it then take that love that we’ve learned, that we own, to the broader community, to the broader nation and to the world, could we not build a foundation for everlasting peace?

That has been the dream that my father had since the beginning. Although he had faced tremendous persecution he has stayed faithful to that dream because he realized the fundamental root of the problem of war and conflict happened in that original family. And in order to build a world of everlasting peace we first need to restore the family.

I can say that as a member of my family -- all fourteen brothers and sisters, as I look upon each of my siblings, there is not one who is like me. Each one of us is unique and special. Yet because we are members of this family, we are able to go beyond our differences and come together with the knowledge and the identity of being part of the Moon family.

Now what happens if the human family was able to look beyond the differences of being a German, a Japanese, an Italian, an American, a Jew, a Christian, a black, a white, an Asian, look beyond those differences and see each other as members of that God centered human family?

Could we not then build within our hearts the ability to empathize and to love that brother? That sister? That father? That mother? That son or that daughter? Of even our enemy nations? It is a quest to build a culture of heart rooted in true love that allows us, on an individual level and eventually on the level of the family to look at humanity as our extended family, as our brothers and sisters, as our fathers and mothers, our sons and our daughters, under the eternal God.

We have to get out of our boxes. Too long have we relied on economic and political solutions as a pathway to peace, while UPF is offering an alternative, in which we go back to our spiritual center and our root because we are essentially human beings, we are essentially spiritual beings. That is where we find our moral compass and our sense of right and wrong, and that is where God is able to speak to us, in our conscience, in our hearts.

We believe that there has to be a great spiritual awakening that allows us to recognize that dream of God’s as not being just God’s dream but the dream of every single human being -- 6.5 billion people around the world. If we can do that, then we can plant the seed of peace that can bring eternal peace in our lifetime and set the legacy of peace in this 21st century.

We want you, as Ambassadors for Peace and members of this conference to open your hearts and minds to this dream, to this vision of building one family under God. Because this is not just the dream of one man, or one woman, or one family; it should be the dream of humanity. For it is the path way to peace that allows us to open up our hearts to our neighbors, to our brothers and sisters, to our parents, to our children, in building a community, a world, of everlasting peace.

I know, that from my background, a diverse background -- I do wear many hats, so many times, the discussions that come up when we talk about world peace touches on the peripheral issues and not the root issue.

I’ve been in that situation over and over again and I can’t tell you how refreshing it is, centered upon these ILC conferences, that we are able to bring people who are looking out of the box and looking to new pathways to peace and are inheriting this vision of building one family under God because they recognize that there must be another alternative to peace and that alternative is rooted in more root causes; causes that stem from violence and conflict of that first original family. In order to deal with this first cause we need to restore the family and the original relationships within the family.

So with that said, I commend you for your participation and I hope that you will enjoy this conference series. I can say on behalf of myself and the Moon family that we are grateful that you have come to participant in these conferences. I hope that you will have a truly fulfilling time here in Korea.

89. IPSF Closing Ceremony

Hyun Jin Moon
July 10, 2007

Excerpted from Hyun-jin nim's speech at Sun Moon University on July 10 to participants of the Inter-religious Peace Sports Festival

It is a distinct honor and pleasure as the chairman of WCSF to have welcomed you here to Korea. I hope you fought well, not in the name of war but in the name of peace, because those who play together live together in peace. This is what this is all about. The Inter-religious Peace Sports Festival is about building a sandbox, where human beings can strip down to the bare essence and become children again.

I believe it was said once that in order to enter the kingdom of heaven you need to be like a child. This is because a child does not know war, does not know conflict, does not know religious, racial, national or ethnic divisions, or whatever other divisions and barriers humanity has erected as we "grew up." The spirit of this sports festival is to rekindle the child within you before you put up those walls, so that we can bring the walls that divide humanity crumbling down...

Many years ago, I, too, was an avid sportsman. I competed in the 1988 Olympic Games here in Seoul and in Barcelona in 1992 as a member of the Korean equestrian team. I remember the sacrifices – personally -- that I had to make to be able to achieve those high goals. For the few minutes that I spent on that course, I'd had to prepare for a lifetime. So I know the amount of dedication that all of you have toward perfecting your skill so that you could be the sportsmen you are. However, true sportsmanship is not physical ability but understanding the spiritual component. I remember my coaches used to always tell me, "A champion is 30 percent physical excellence, 70 percent internal excellence." In other words, your game face has to be on; your mind has to be on; your spirit has to be on, if you want to be a true champion. I hope you learn the meaning of being true champions in this festival as you participate here in Seoul...

I want to commend all of you for your dedication and your hard work and your participation in these events. We hope that you can be ambassadors for this festival when you go back home to your respective countries, so that you can bring the message of peace and the culture of living for the sake of others that you've experienced in this festival to your homes, your neighborhoods, your communities and your nations, so that we can truly build one family under God.