November 

True Father issued a number of declarations during the late 1990s, several centered on New Hope Farms in Jardim, Brazil. These declarations were foundational in the globalization of the Blessing and the proclamation of the Nation of Cosmic Harmony (Cheon Il Guk). On November 1, 1996, in Uruguay, True Father declared the Elimination of Historical Indemnity. In his speech he declared, “An era of great transition has begun” and stated, “The settlement of the Family Federation for World Peace and the elimination of historical indemnity could be proclaimed in the name of True Parents.” He especially uplifted the role of True Mother in this process, stating:

On the blessed family foundation, individuals and families representing Cain and Abel must unite centering absolutely on the True Parents, first becoming as one with True Mother. Centering on her, the democratic and communist worlds, Catholics and Protestants, and the spiritual and physical worlds can be united. On this global foundation, everything could then be indemnified centered on Mother. Thus, it became possible to proclaim the settlement of the Family Federation for World Peace and the elimination of historical indemnity.

Sun Moon University along with the Korean Multicultural Peace Federation and the Multicultural General Welfare Center hosted a Multicultural Peace Festival in Korea, held in Asan on November 1, 2014.

About 10,000 people from Japan, the Philippines, Thailand and some 80 other nations gathered for the event. The festival spotlighted multicultural families and was intended to support the realization of a multicultural society for Korea. The event included a commemorative ceremony, multicultural performances, sports competitions, booths with international food, and a “Global Village One Family Parade” to Asan City Hall under banners of “Korea Welcoming Citizens of the World,” “Multicultural Couples Creating Happiness,” and “Korea as One Family.”

The festival also served to launch the True Love Peace Service Federation, which was intended to “realize love and service beyond the barriers of nations, religions, races and cultures.” Some 160 multicultural and service organizations participated. The 2014 festival was based on True Parents’ teachings of “One Family under God.” Organizers stated their intention to hold the Multicultural Peace Festival every other year.

True Father set up CAUSA, from the Latin word for “cause,” in 1980 following the fall of Nicaragua in 1979 to Marxist Sandinistas. The overwhelming success of CAUSA programs in Latin America in ideologically arming students, union leaders, teachers, government officials and police who previously had been exposed to Marxist theory led to CAUSA’s expansion to the United States.

In 1983, construction of CAUSA International Headquarters began in the Tiffany Building on Fifth Avenue in New York City. In addition to a main hall equipped with highly advanced multimedia equipment and seating for 200, renovated space included 22 offices. Among these were CAUSA libraries for research, the CAUSA Institute, and multimedia rooms for the preparation of lecture slides and diagrams. True Parents dedicated the facility, cutting a ceremonial ribbon and encouraging staff at a celebration banquet on November 2, 1983. The following year, CAUSA sponsored 34 major conferences and 290 local programs.

Around 3,000 CARP members took part in the First Global Assembly for CARP University Students, which was held in the Little Angels Performing Arts Center in Seoul under the theme “One World under God” from November 2 to 8, 1984. During the assembly, a symposium entitled “University Student Values Regarding World Peace,” a friendship ceremony between Korean and Japanese students and a sports festival to bring about harmony and unity among the global CARP membership were held. It was during this assembly that True Parents’ first son, Hyo Jin Moon, was appointed as the World CARP president. (Materials provided by the FFWPU History Compilation Committee)

On November 2, 1993, True Mother set off on her “True Parents and the Completed Testament Age” tour of forty nations. True Mother first spoke in Frankfurt, Germany. She called on women to take the lead in realizing God’s ideal. Her speaking tour ended in Taiwan on December 22, 1993. True Mother with True Father previously delivered the address in 33 U.S. cities, and True Mother gave it in the U.S. Capitol. She later delivered the address at the United Nations in New York on September 7, 1993, which served as a springboard to the world tour.

From September 11 to 30, True Mother conducted twenty-five rallies in Japan, the highlight being her speech before 50,000 people at the Tokyo Dome. In October 1993, she delivered the Completed Testament Age message before audiences at forty Korean universities, often speaking at two campuses on the same day. Having spoken in the United States, Japan and Korea, True Mother traveled the globe for the next fifty-three days. The tour covered Europe, Eurasia, the Middle East, Africa, South America and Asia.  

Scores of churches across Korea launched a Nationwide Divine Principle Revival Campaign on November 2, 2012. FFWPU Korea published advertisements for the campaign in 11 national newspapers under the headline “The Time That You Open Your Mind, New Life Will Begin.”

The revival was aimed at explaining who Rev. Moon was, what his mission was, and why Unificationists refer to him as “True Father,” the “Messiah,” and the “Second Coming.” Through the three-day lecture series which continued until November 4, it also was intended to answer fundamental questions about the life and destiny of humankind.

After the passing of True Father, True Mother called for a revival through witnessing to the Divine Principle, True Father’s seminal teaching. The nationwide advertisements focused on the revival of Divine Principle education for non-Unificationists and Unificationists alike. Prior to that, churches in Korea had focused on educating Unificationists and Unificationist-born youth.

True Mother’s mother, Soon Ae Hong (born February 14, 1914), ascended to the spirit world on November 3, 1989, at the age of 75. She had been ill for some time and True Mother was at her bedside when she passed.

Mrs. Hong, whom True Father gave the honorific title Dae Mo Nim or “Great Mother,” had the distinction of participating in several of the Korean spiritual groups that preceded the Unification Church, including the Holy Lord and Inside-Belly churches. However, her main contribution was raising True Mother. At her Seonghwa ceremony True Father prayed that she “may pave the road for all people to receive God’s blessings, from the lowest parts of hell and on every level.” True Mother said, “She will be able to travel between heaven and earth freely,” assisting “True Family and all of you in your work.” Their words were prophetic as attested by the dynamic ministry undertaken under Dae Mo Nim at Cheongpyeong Heaven and Earth Training Center.

On November 3, 1989, it was announced that the South Korean Ministry of Education had given permission for Sung Hwa Theological Seminary to become a university. Located in the city of Cheonan, the seminary previously had been given permission to confer four-year degrees. With its elevation to university status, Sung Hwa entered an era of expansion which culminated in it becoming Sun Moon University in 1994 and moving onto a second campus in the city of Asan.

True Father founded Sung Hwa Theological Seminary under the auspices of the Sung Hwa Educational Foundation, which managed a number of affiliated schools including Kyung Bok Elementary School, Sun Hwa Arts Middle and High Schools, Sun Jung Women’s Middle School and Sun Jung High School. True Father established the foundation to realize his vision for holistic education under the motto of “Love Heaven, Love Humankind, Love Your Country.”

After the Washington Monument rally of September 1976, True Father “set the deadline” of December 31 for producing the first issue of a new daily newspaper in New York City. On December 31, “the presses rolled early in the morning … and the first issue of The News World hit the streets of New York.” With a color photograph on the front page and a motto that described it as “New York’s oldest daily color newspaper,” The News World was a 24-page general-interest daily with a staff of 200. During the New York City blackout of July 1977, it was the only newspaper to publish, with reporters working by candlelight to write and edit stories. Later, during a three-month newspaper strike that shut down the city’s other major dailies, The News World continued to publish, with its circulation soaring to nearly 400,000 daily.

Undoubtedly the paper’s boldest move was to predict a “Reagan Landslide” in a bold headline on November 4, 1980, the day of the U.S. presidential election. The next day, having been vindicated in its prediction that Ronald Reagan would “win by more than 350 electoral votes and carry New York as well,” the paper published another banner headline, which read, “Thank God! We Were Right!” and featured a UPI photo of President-elect Reagan holding the previous day’s News World.

On November 5, 2005, at about 11 a.m. an airplane carrying True Parents landed at a small airport, Biggin Hill, in the foxhunting countryside near the London suburb of Chislehurst. This was True Father’s first visit to the United Kingdom since the summer of 1978, when he came with Unification Theological Seminary students to pioneer home church. Since 1995, the British government had banned True Father from entering Britain. Germany subsequently banned True Father as “a threat to public order” and was followed by fourteen additional European Union nations who employed common immigration practices under the Schengen Agreement’s immigration system.

Schengen Agreement provisions were designed to prevent terrorists and drug dealers from abusing liberal European travel codes. Unificationists eventually would be successful in demonstrating that the ban on True Father was illegitimate and having it removed. Prior to that, in October 1995, British Home Secretary Charles Clark lifted the British ban and True Father delivered a public address, “True Family and I,” in London as part of the Universal Peace Federation’s Inaugural World Tour.

On disembarking the plane, True Father was reported to have said, “Hmm … harder to get into Britain than to enter the spiritual world.”

A ceremony marking the foundation of the Inter-Denominational Christian Association was held on November 7, 1966, at A-seo-won, in Jung district of Seoul. This was the result of the Christianity-based interdenominational activities that had been held since 1965. True Father said, “If a hundred members become people central to creating harmony, they can be remembered by Heaven. To bring about harmony, interdenominational activities must be carried out to a degree where one would even fall into debt for it.” When first established, it was launched under the name the Christian Inter-Denominational Movement Headquarters but was renamed the Inter-Denominational Christian Association eight years later in October 1974. (Materials provided by the FFWPU History Compilation Committee)

On March 10, 1997, there was a groundbreaking ceremony at Cheongpyeong Lake in Korea for what was to become a major sanctuary that could hold up to 10,000 workshop participants at a time. In design, it was understood to be a replica of a palace in heaven, a reality that was attested to in calligraphy provided for the occasion by True Father, which read, “The Heavenly Palace that came down from Heaven.” Essentially, a small mountain was leveled to construct a magnificent marble structure overlooking Cheongpyeong Lake. Named Cheonseong Wanglim Palace, the edifice was dedicated on November 7, 1999.

The “Soul of Russia,” a Unification Theological Seminary (UTS) student-based prayer and educational group concerned with ending religious persecution in communist countries, held a prayer walk with more than 250 participants at UTS on November 8, 1987. Titled a “Restorational Prayer Walk for Religious Freedom in the Soviet Union,” the candlelight walk was timed to follow the 70th anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution. The turnout generated extensive media coverage, including front-page photos in local newspapers.

The Unification movement dedicated itself to “Victory over Communism” for many years. In 1985, True Father sponsored a major conference in Geneva, Switzerland, titled The Fall of the Soviet Empire. At that time, few thought this was a realistic possibility. However, four years later, on November 9, 1989, East Germany officially announced freedom of travel and border guards opened the gates which had restricted travel since 1961. This major symbol of the Cold War and the Iron Curtain subsequently was demolished and the Soviet Union itself collapsed less than two years later.

In “The Creation of a New World,” the Founder’s Address at the 10th International Conference on the Unity of the Sciences (ICUS), held in Seoul, Korea, from November 9 to 13, 1981, True Father proposed the construction of a “Great Asian Highway” that eventually would link the world. This, he said, “would be a great international highway around which freedom is guaranteed.” He also envisioned the highway as a spur for economic development and cultural integration.

His call resulted in the establishment of the Japan-Korea Tunnel Research Institute and the International Highway Construction Corporation, which conducted extensive private research and public relations activities during the 1980s and 1990s. In 2005 at the Inaugural Convocation of the Universal Peace Federation (UPF), True Father renewed his call for an International Highway System, focusing on “a passage for transit across the Bering Strait.”

David S.C. Kim, one of the five founding members of the Unification Church in 1954, the second missionary to the United States in 1959, and the founding president of Unification Theological Seminary (1975-1994), passed away on November 8, 2011, at age 96. On his passing, True Father stated that he had “entered the Garden of Heaven as a representative of filial piety and loyalty.”

True Mother began a U.S. 12-city speaking tour titled Providential View of the Pacific Rim Era in Light of God’s Will on November 11, 2007. She began the tour in Los Angeles and concluded it in New York on November 21. Wherever she spoke, many people came. Throughout the tour, True Father offered conditions on Geomun Island, Yeosu, Korea, and encouraged True Mother by telephone. (Materials provided by the FFWPU History Compilation Committee.)

At a time when tensions between North Korea, South Korea, Japan and the United States were at the breaking point due to North Korea’s nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile tests, True Mother conducted a Global Rally for the Peaceful Reunification of the Korean Peninsula at Seoul World Cup Stadium on November 11, 2017. The event drew 80,000 people, including international religious and political leaders from 70 countries. It culminated a series of “vision” and “marching forward” rallies the Family Federation held throughout Korea during 2017.

In her keynote address, “The Truth of History from the Viewpoint of Heaven’s Providence, and This Nation’s Mission,” True Mother stated that the rally was being conducted to “move Heaven at a time when this nation’s fate is at stake.” She noted, “We cannot find answers through human strength and effort alone” and that seventy-two years after the UN’s establishment, “we stand in a maze and are unable to unite.” She proceeded to boldly proclaim that God prepared the people of the Korean peninsula “so He could send the only daughter of God through them.” She declared, “In 1960, True Parents … came into being … to save the world’s 7.4 billion people.” She further declared that Christianity and all religions “must prepare to greet a new morning” which she defined as “the marriage Blessing through True Parents … the true family movement.” Heavenly Parent’s dream, she said, “begins from True Parents.” She concluded by calling on those present to “stand in God’s presence … receive the Blessing, resolve the past, unite in the present, and open the way to the future.”

The Global Rally for the Peaceful Reunification of the Korean Peninsula was reminiscent of the “World Rally for Korean Freedom” in which True Parents rallied more than 1 million Korean citizens and international participants at Yeouido Plaza on June 7, 1975. That rally was conducted after the fall of Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia, another time of national crisis when South Korea needed to stand united to ward off a potential invasion from the North. Less than four months after True Mother's Global Rally for the Peaceful Reunification of the Korean Peninsula address, North Korea sent representatives to the South Korea Winter Olympic Games, North and South held an Inter-Korean Summit, and U.S. President accepted an invitation to meet with North Korean Premier Kim Jong Il. The rally was an important, if yet not widely recognized stepping stone toward the peaceful reunification of the Korean peninsula.

Mr. Sang Ik “Papa-san” Choi, the first successful Unification Church missionary to Japan, began his mission in the United States on November 12, 1965. He was the fourth Korean missionary to pioneer the United States, following Miss Young Oon Kim, Mr. David S.C. Kim and Col. Bo Hi Pak.

Mr. Choi was joined by Daikon Ohnuki and Soo Lim (later known as “Onni” Durst). They, along with Mrs. Choi, the Chois’ infant son and three members from the church in Japan, developed what later became the International Re-Education Foundation in San Francisco. Mr. Choi adapted “Principles of Education” and a social movement rather than church profile to reach the secular Bay Area audience and hippie youth. The original community of eight doubled itself with eight new American members by the end of 1967. A pattern of doubling membership annually continued until 1971.

The Cheongshim Youth Center in Cheongpyeong, Gyeonggi Province, was dedicated on November 12, 2004. Around a thousand Cheongpyeong Heaven and Earth Training Center workshop participants came for the ceremonial dedication. True Parents planted a commemorative tree and cut a ribbon. True Father wrote a calligraphic message, “Cheon-ji Gae-byeok Cheon-jin-gyeok-dong Man-hwa-seong-chui.” The Cheongshim Youth Center began to play a key role in the education of Unificationist-born young people under the vision “Challenge to Achieve Dreams and Hopes.” (Materials provided by the FFWPU History Compilation Committee.)

Building on the “Peace Starts with Me” rally at Madison Square Garden in 2017, True Mother convened a major “Peace Starts with Me: Healing America” rally at Nassau Coliseum, Long Island, New York on November 12, 2018. Co-sponsored by the Family Federation and American Clergy Leadership Conference (ACLC), the rally drew more than 15,000 people, including many clergy and their congregations. It included performances by Grammy Award winners Hezekiah Walker and Yolanda Adams, a 5,000-voice choir, 500 praise dancers and an introduction of True Mother by Bishop Noel Jones of the City of Refuge Church in Los Angeles. In honor of Veteran’s Day, True Mother donated more than $50,000 to four veteran’s groups.

True Mother’s speech focused on Christianity and America’s mission from the perspective of Heaven’s providence. She stated, “Jesus’ true essence remained unknown” and had not been put into practice. She described the slave trade as “inconceivable” and said, “The only answer to solving all today’s problems is through receiving the Marriage Blessing through the True Parents.” She described “a world of one human family centered on God” as “Heavenly Parent’s dream and humankind’s hope.” She called on those present to “become central messianic figures “capable of building a hopeful future.” In a banquet for religious leaders following the rally, True Mother said, “The center of this nation is not the president. It is the ministers.” She called on them to “receive the Blessing and as a Blessed Family” to “Bless their congregations.”

Damien Dunkley, Vice President of Family Federation USA and executive producer of the rally, explained that the Nassau Rally was different from the previous “Peace Starts with Me” Rally at Madison Square Garden in that it was initiated by the Family Federation USA as a Hyojeong (filial) offering and because the movement had broken through into “public” space. Building on the momentum from Madison Square Garden, he noted that the Family Federation was “expanding our network into both the Christian and entertainment communities.”

The Unification movement in Japan won a major victory on November 13, 2014, when Tokyo’s High Court ruled in favor of Mr. Toru Goto in his civil suit against family members and “deprogrammers” who had held him captive for 12 years and five months (September 11, 1995 to February 10, 2008) in order to force him to abandon the Unification faith. The court ruled that this amounted to kidnapping and “an unlawful suppression of freedom of action.” It ordered three family members to pay compensation of 22 million yen (2.2 million US$). The lead deprogrammer was ordered to pay 11 million yen (1.1 million US$) in compensation.

Over the past 45 years, more than 4,300 persons, mostly Unificationists and 80 percent of them women, have been kidnapped for the purpose of breaking their faith. The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom and the U.S. State Department previously filed reports critical of Japan for inaction on this human rights abuse. Mr. Goto’s initial effort to press criminal charges was denied in 2009 by the Tokyo Prosecutors Office, which cited “insufficient evidence.” He subsequently filed a civil lawsuit, which resulted in the 2014 decision. Japan’s Supreme Court dismissed appeals by the defendants in the case and upheld the verdict by the Tokyo High Court on September 29, 2015. This concluded Mr. Goto’s seven-year legal battle and put an end to kidnapping and deprogramming as a legal option in Japan.

More than 500 people filled the United Nations Delegates’ Dining Room on November 15, 1984, when True Father and Dr. Bo Hi Pak were awarded honorary degrees of Doctor Honoris Causa from the Catholic University of La Plata, Argentina. True Mother received the degree on behalf of True Father, who at the time was incarcerated at the Federal Correctional Institution at Danbury, Connecticut. Monsignor Antonio Jose Plaza, archbishop of La Plata and chancellor of the university, traveled to New York to bestow the award despite objections from the Vatican. True Mother thanked the chancellor and university for their “courageous stand … in recognizing and honoring my husband at this difficult time.”

True Father previously had received an honorary doctorate in law from Ricker College, Maine, in 1975. During his time in Danbury, he received four additional honorary doctorates. The first was awarded by La Plata University, also in Argentina. The second, on May 11, 1985, was conferred by the Shaw University Divinity School, affiliated with the Methodist Church. The third, on May 28, 1985, was from the Bible Theological Seminary of the State of Florida, and the final one was awarded by Vennard College on August 15, 1985.

More than 600 spiritual leaders, clergy, professors, artists, students and professionals from 85 nations gathered at the Americana Great Gorge resort, in McAfee, New Jersey, for the first Assembly of the World’s Religions from November 15 to 21, 1985. Sponsored by the International Religious Foundation (IRF), it was envisioned as the first of three assemblies commemorating the 100th anniversary of the World Parliament of Religions held in Chicago in 1893.

The theme of Assembly One was “Recovering the Classical Heritage.” Stylistic banners representing the world faith traditions were created for the occasion by the famed banner-maker Norman Laliberte. Participants gathered daily for meditations, plenary talks, discussion groups, and informal presentations of song and storytelling. A practical outcome of the assembly was the launch of the Religious Youth Service (RYS).

In his Founder’s Address, titled “Dialogue and Alliance,” True Father memorably stated, “As far as I know, God is not sectarian. He is not obsessed with minor details of doctrine. We should quickly liberate ourselves from theological conflict, which results from blind attachment to doctrines and rituals, and instead focus on living communication with God.” He contended, “Only through a religious and spiritual revolution bringing great harmony, love and compassion will we finally realize the ideal world of peace.” He also expressed three goals for the assembly:

First, that the world’s religious traditions respect each other and at least work to keep in check any inter-religious conflicts and wars. Second, that the assembly serve the world by becoming a cooperative community of religions … calling religious people to practical action, encouraging all people to live by God-centered values, and fostering the development of human minds and spirits. Third, that the assembly develop into an organization in which the major leadership of all religions participate.

True Father proclaimed Cheonju Pyeonghwa Tongil Guk (the Nation of Cosmic Peace and Unity), abbreviated as Cheon Il Guk (CIG), on November 15, 2001. Cheon Il Guk is the Unification equivalent of the Kingdom of Heaven and the culmination of True Father’s ministry. Previously True Father declared a fundamental shift in the order of salvation from the individual to the family. Cheon Il Guk advanced beyond the family to the creation of a heavenly nation. True Father defined the Cheon Il Guk “era” as the period during which the foundation of Cheon Il Guk was to be established. He said the movement was on a “tight schedule” of twelve years, extending until 2013. True Father’s proclamation of Cheon Il Guk energized the Unification movement and marked a new stage in its development.

Mrs. Shin Wook “Lady Dr.” Kim ascended on November 16, 2004, at age 90. She converted to the Holy Spirit Association from the Seventh-day Adventist Church in 1956 and was an obstetrician and gynecologist, having delivered more than 5,000 babies, including five of True Parents’ children. She also was a “spiritual doctor,” and that was the title and mission True Father assigned to her in America. She immigrated in 1971 and was well known among early American members for her wise and warm counsel. Prior to the Cheongpyeong providence, she also played a major role on issues related to ancestors and the spiritual world. During the Washington Monument campaign, she conducted an important ceremony to sanctify the grounds and protect True Father’s life.

On November 16, 2009, 173 Unificationist-born couples from 28 nations took part in a Holy Marriage Blessing Ceremony before 1,200 parents and others at the Cheongpyeong Heaven and Earth Training Center. All participants met the Cheon Il Guk matching standard of purity, never having kissed, dated, had any physical relationship or made any exclusive romantic commitment. They also met the standard of openness to form an international or intercultural couple. On that foundation, True Parents matched the couples individually.

In a sign of things to come, True Father granted his first interview in 13 years to Za Rubezhom (“Abroad”), a Soviet newsweekly with a circulation of over 1 million that was read by intellectuals and policy leaders throughout the Soviet Union. Za Rubezhom titled the interview “A Spiritual Revolution Is Needed” and published it the week of November 17-25 in its “Religion and Society” section. The interview was translated into English and published in advertisements in major newspapers around the United States under the banner head “Rev. Moon Breaks His Silence.”

True Father spoke about his daughter-in-law Hoon Sook (Julia) Moon’s dance performance on the stage of the Kirov Theatre and his respect for Russian artistic traditions; President Gorbachev’s efforts to launch glasnost (“openness”) and perestroika (“restructuring”); and the need for the Soviet Union to support religious freedom and develop “a wider-based individual incentive system” for its commerce. He said that he welcomed the “lessening of tensions among the nations of the world” but that lasting peace would come only when we “settle our peace with God.” “What our world most needs,” True Father stated, is “a spiritual revolution. Then we can successfully solve our economic and social problems.”

True Father’s interview with Za Rubezhom culminated a decade of groundwork by the World Media Association in cultivating contacts among Soviet journalists and was a steppingstone to the 11th World Media Conference in Moscow and True Parents’ meeting with President Gorbachev in April 1990.

True Father established Children’s Day at the former headquarters church at Cheongpa-dong in Seoul on November 19, 1960. It was the second major Holy Day established by the church, following Parents’ Day, which had been declared on March 1, 1960 (lunar).

Children’s Day signified the restoration of God’s direct lineage and opened the way for humanity to be engrafted into that lineage as God’s sons and daughters. Children’s Day continued to be celebrated annually according to the lunar calendar. At the 35th Parents’ Day in 1994, True Parents directed that the word “True” be placed before the names of the four major Holy Days (God’s Day, Parents’ Day, Children’s Day and Day of All Things). Thenceforth, the day has been observed as True Children’s Day.

On November 19, 2007, at 6:47 pm, the 1,000th Cheongshim baby was born in the Obstetrics and Gynecology Department of Cheongshim International Medical Center. The newborn was the eldest son (2.98 kg) of Yeong-cheol Pak and Mayumi Okawa (a 360,000 blessed couple, South Korea).

The obstetrics and gynecology department of Cheongshim International Medical Center reportedly had the highest percentages for natural delivery and breastfeeding in all Korea, combining Western and Oriental approaches to medicine.

On November 20, 1991, True Mother spoke before a gathering of 15,000 Women’s Federation for Peace in Asia members at Seoul’s Jamsil Stadium. At the event she stated, “In history, the ‘logic of power’ has been dominant,” but said that the present age demanded the “feminine ‘logic of love’ to solve … problems and lead history in a proper way.” True Mother’s admonition was taken up by the Women’s Federation for World Peace (WFWP), which was founded the following year.
 

True Father undertook mission work in North Korea beginning in June 1946. Some two months later, on August 11, 1946, he was arrested by police in Taedong, a district of Pyongyang. In jail, he met members of the “Inside-Belly” Church whose leader also had been arrested. That church had been preparing clothes and food for the Lord’s Second Coming. On September 18, 1946, True Father passed a message to its leader, Mrs. Hyo Bin Heo, which stated. “The writer of this note has a mission from heaven. Pray to find out who he is. … ” The note was discovered and True Father was subjected to severe torture which included sleep deprivation and savage beatings.

On November 21, a Soviet interrogator determined that True Father was not a spy from the South, and authorities notified followers that they should come and get him. According to one account, True Father was thrown out into the yard, half dead from the beatings, his clothes stuck to his body by clotted blood. He vomited blood, and those helping him thought he might die. However, after three weeks he began to improve. True Father wrote in his autobiography, “Once I recovered, I resumed my evangelical work.” Mrs. Hyo Bin Heo perished in prison.

Young Oon Kim, “Miss Kim” to early American members, was the first Unification Church missionary to the United States. A former professor at Ehwa University in Seoul, she came to Eugene, Oregon, as an exchange student at the University of Oregon in January 1959. There she witnessed and gathered a small community who resided in Oakhill, a rural settlement outside Eugene. The group dedicated themselves to outreach and production of Miss Kim’s English translation of the Divine Principle text.

In September 1960, two female members fled Oakhill due to persecution from their husbands. They went first to Fresno, California, then to San Francisco. In part, because their husbands continued to harass the group, mainly by target shooting in the field across from where Miss Kim lived, she and three of her core members decided to relocate. Miss Kim wrote:

Eugene was a small, conservative city, where I went not by choice, but to follow my scholarship. Next I went to Oakhill, which was only a small settlement in the countryside. There I spent time raising those who had accepted and deepening their understanding of the Principle, as well as teaching the Principle in Lebanon, Salem, Albany, and Portland. … I found Oregon quite provincial on the whole, though, and was not reluctant to leave. I yearned to launch my work in a cosmopolitan city. I now had a textbook for wider work. … It seemed like this was where Father was leading me.

Miss Kim’s group severed ties irrevocably with the Northwest and began a new chapter of Unification Church history in the San Francisco Bay Area.
 

Unification Theological Seminary obtained a “provisional charter” to grant academic degrees on November 21, 1986. By a 12-2 vote, the New York State Board of Regents approved the Seminary’s provisional charter and master plan. UTS graduates would now receive master’s degrees in either Religious Education (M.R.E.) or Divinity (M.Div.).

This action marked the end of a 10-year battle to attain recognition. A previous attempt to gain a provisional charter, submitted in 1976, was denied in 1978. UTS took the matter to court, claiming discrimination and unfair treatment, narrowly losing a 4-3 decision of the New York State Court of Appeals in 1981. Reapplication for the charter was made in April 1984. Some 450 students who had attended UTS prior to 1986 graduated with “certificates” rather than degrees. It would be another four years before the State of New York granted UTS its “Absolute Charter,” some 15 years after its initial application.

The first national level Peace and Family Festival was convened at the National Sports Stadium in Harare, Zimbabwe on November 21, 2018. Building on the foundation of African Summit and Leadership Conferences in Dakar, Senegal and Johannesburg, South Africa, True Mother was welcomed by the President of Zimbabwe, Emmerson Mnangagwa, at his home palace. The Peace and Family Festival was unique because it included a national-level Hyo Jeong Cosmic Blessing.

Prior to the event, the pre-blessing reached 61,723 couples. Archbishop Johannes Ndanga, chairman of the Apostolic Christian Council of Zimbabwe (ACCZ), who conducted several pre-Blessing events, introduced True Mother. In her speech, “To New Citizens of Cheon Il Guk,” True Mother stated, “The Blessing event today becomes the path to a united world. Humanity must discard all customs practiced up to the present time and find the path heading to a unified world centered on God.” She likened this to rivers converging to form a waterfall which leads to the ocean. She said, “The ones who can guide all religions to that great ocean are the True Parents.”

On November 22, 1989, in Seoul, Han Sook Kim, the wife of President Sang Hun Lee of the Unification Thought Institute of Korea and America, passed on to the spirit world. In 1956 Mrs. Lee, together with her husband, joined the Unification Church. Mrs. Lee was a pioneer missionary and in 1970 took part in the mobilization campaign for blessed wives, going out on a three-year witnessing mission.

After her passing, Mrs. Lee communicated to her husband thorough Mrs. Young Soon Kim. This was the beginning of Dr. Lee’s efforts to explain the reality of the spirit world. He wrote: “While I give Unification Thought lectures, the audience asks many kinds of questions to me. About the earthly things I gave all the answers with True Father’s teachings, but about spiritual things I couldn’t give an answer, so I was very frustrated.” After his passing in 1997, Dr. Lee authored a number of works about the spirit world, notably Life in the Spirit World and on Earth.

A special World Assembly, “The Era of Universal Peace: God’s Providence and the ‘Abel UN,’” was held on November 22, 2010, at the Manhattan Center in the heart of New York City. According to unofficial notes taken at the time, True Father said that the assembly was providentially important because it took place on November 22 (10.17 H.C.), the day after the three-day period (10.14, 10.15, 10.16 H.C.) centered on 10.14 H.C. in 2010, which was the 60th anniversary of True Father’s liberation from the Heungnam labor camp in North Korea.

True Father said that especially through these three assemblies, the proclamation of True Parents must reach perfection, conclusion, and completion. He said that it is proclaimed that Korea, which is where True Parents were born, became God’s homeland. True Father said that the internal meaning of these assemblies was that all the leaders of the Group of Twenty major economies and other countries should join the assemblies and attend the victorious True Parents of Heaven, Earth and Humankind.

On November 22-24, 2018, the Universal Peace Federation (UPF) and the Royal House of Mandela jointly sponsored an African Summit on “Peace and Human Development in Africa: Honoring the Legacy of Nelson Mandela.” On the centennial celebration year of former South African President Nelson Mandele (1918-2018), Chief Zwelivelile Mandela, grandson of Nelson Mandela and a member of the South African Parliament, extended a "warm welcome to Mother Moon to the mother city.” The Summit included 700 participants from throughout Africa, former heads of state, government ministers, speakers and deputy speakers of parliaments, members of parliament, well-known religious leaders and prominent traditional rulers.

In her keynote address, True Mother described the long historical process to restore the original ideal for humankind and concluded, “We must transcend race; we must transcend religion, and we must know that God, our Creator, the Heavenly Parent is our parent…. The True Family Movement is the only shortcut to a world of peace.” She expressed hope that those present will “create an Africa that is the light and the lamp in front of the world as a nation and a continent that has received the blessing and has been reborn through True Parents.”

Representatives from 20 nations, including the 13 countries that had signed agreements for the “Heavenly Africa project,” accompanied True Mother in launching the African portion of the International Peace Highway intended to start from the Cape of Good Hope in South Africa. After the summit concluded, an Interfaith Peace Blessing Ceremony was held for 3,000 interreligious couples. Dr. Prophet Samuel Radebe, founder and leader of the Revelation Church of God, one of the largest traditional churches in South Africa, offered testimony to True Mother, saying, “This is the work of True Mother, putting all religions together. This day will be remembered. It will not be erased.”

The First International Conference on Unified Science (later renamed the International Conference on the Unity of the Sciences, or ICUS) was held at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York City from November 23-26, 1972. It convened twenty scientists from seven nations to discuss “Moral Orientation of the Sciences.” The previous January, True Father had suggested the idea to Edward Haskell, a lecturer at Southern Connecticut State College who dedicated his life’s work to the unification of human knowledge into a single discipline. Haskell, who had been contacted by the New Haven center, was enthusiastic about the proposal and helped draw up plans for the conference.

The conference itself included an opening banquet and three working days of lectures, responses, panels and open discussions. In his closing address, True Father called for “a unified system of thought” and “a new standard of value” that will establish “the unified world of prosperity, happiness and goodness.” The conference was successful both in the quality of participants, presentations and as a building block for future conferences. The movement published the proceedings and held the Second International Conference on Unified Science the following November in Tokyo. Expanded guest lists and formats would characterize annual ICUS meetings.

True Parents unveiled Tiempos del Mundo, the first inter-American Spanish-language newspaper at the Buenos Aires Sheraton on November 23, 1996. With publication beginning as a weekly in Buenos Aires, plans called for the newspaper to come out on Sundays at first, but go daily very quickly via satellite transmission to editorial centers in 17 countries (10 in South America, five in Central America and one in the Caribbean and the United States).

At the gala evening inauguration attended by 300 leaders from 33 Latin American nations plus more than 600 local VIPs, former U.S. President George Bush stated,

“I want to salute Rev. Moon, who is the founder of The Washington Times and also of Tiempos del Mundo. … A lot of my friends in South America don’t know about The Washington Times, but it is an independent voice. The editors of The Washington Times tell me that never once has the man with the vision interfered with the running of the paper, a paper that in my view brings sanity to Washington, D.C. I am convinced that Tiempos del Mundo is going to do the same thing.”

In a preamble to his speech, “In Search of the Origin of the Universe,” True Father said that the “guideline” for the newspaper will be to provide “edifying reports,” to offer “constructive information, promoting harmony” and to reverse “the tendency toward disbelief.”  He stated that he was “especially interested in emphasizing family ethics and in guiding youth in the right direction.”

From November 23 to 30, 1997, the third World Culture and Sports Festival (WCSF) was held in Washington, D.C., taking place for the first time in the United States. True Parents envisioned the WCSF as an event that would gather thousands of participants from many fields for the purpose of establishing a foundation for world peace. Each gathering brought together many of the projects which represented True Parents’ lifelong efforts around the world. The Unification movement organized the first World Culture and Sports Festival in 1992 and the second in 1995, both of which took place at Jamsil Olympic Stadium in Seoul, Korea.

True Parents inaugurated a new annex tower and a newly remodeled Victoria Plaza Hotel in Montevideo, Uruguay, on November 24, 1996. A modern five-star hotel with state-of-the-art conference facilities, the Victoria Plaza prominently stood out as a premier landmark for Uruguay and the Southern Cone region of South America.

True Parents visited Australia and New Zealand for the first time on the occasion of True Mother’s Women’s Federation for World Peace (WFWP) 1992 world speaking tour. They had visited Hawaii on several occasions and True Father had established a Holy Ground in the Philippines during his first World Tour in 1965. However, this was their first visit to the South Pacific.

Following their arrival at Cairns in northeastern Australia on November 26, True Father tested the black marlin fishing grounds for three days. True Mother then delivered her address, “Women’s Role in World Peace,” before an audience of 500 in Sydney on November 29. The next day, True Father spoke to Unificationists on “The Liberation of Women” for seven hours and wrote a calligraphy, “Unification World is from Oceania.” True Mother spoke before 400 people in Auckland, New Zealand on December 2. Afterwards, they visited the South Island deer farm which had won first prize in a 1991 nationwide deer velvet competition.

Observing the countryside and beautiful clear running water, True Mother was heard to say, “I have always dreamed there was a country like this.”

Prior to True Parent’s epoch-making visit with North Korean leader Kim Il Sung in December 1991, they stopped in Hawaii to make their final internal preparations. He also wrote a speech he intended to share with Kim Il Sung alone.

True Father later stated, “I … visited Hawaii and prayed here at a critical moment when I was on my way to meet Kim Il Sung of North Korea in 1991 with the purpose of bringing an end to the cold war era.”

According to Mrs. Gil Ja Sa Eu, True Father “went to Hawaii to offer Heaven the last prayer so he could overcome his hatred for Kim.” His attitude was “even if the whole world hates him and accuses him of being a murderer, if I hate him, too, he cannot be saved.” True Father concluded that he would go with the heart of a parent. Mrs. Eu said that the “trust created” at True Father and Kim Il Sung’s meeting “was possible only because Kim could feel Father’s sincere love.”

True Parents conducted the 3.6 Million Couple Holy Marriage Blessing at Washington, D.C.’s Robert F. Kennedy (RFK) Stadium on November 29, 1997. This was the first major Blessing in the United States since 1982 and was an exponential leap beyond the Holy Blessing of 360,000 Couples at Seoul Olympic Stadium in 1995. The ‘97 Blessing was conducted within the context of the third World Culture and Sports Festival (WCSF) from November 23-30.

Under the theme, “Rebuilding the Family, Restoring the Community, Renewing Washington,” WCSF III featured an array of conferences, sports competitions, concerts, recitals and service projects all of which culminated with the Blessing, billed as “True Love Day at RFK.” Couples bussed in from as far away as Chicago. The Washington Post set attendance at 40,000, CNN at 45,000 and the Associated Press at 56,000. Other couples took part by “satellite Blessing” at locations throughout the world.

More than 300 corporate executives from the top 50 companies in Korea gathered on November 22, 2011, for a vision seminar for financial leaders titled “God’s Fatherland and the Abel Peace UN.” Participants at this seminar, sponsored by the Segye Ilbo (Segye Times) newspaper and held at the Cheongshim International Youth Training Center, included heads of companies and executive staff members.

True Father spoke to the participants for more than three hours, educating with true love. He asked the participants, who were sitting at round banquet-style tables, to pick up their chairs and come forward and huddle at the front of the room. True Father told the financial leaders: “Humankind must now humbly submit before heaven’s commands. … The time of destiny has come, when we must go all out and make a life-or-death determination, following the teachings of true love.” He emphasized to the executives the urgency of heaven’s current providence.

More than 100 Unificationists gathered in an assembly room in the Cheon Jeong Gung, Gapyeong, South Korea, for an unprecedented sermon contest organized by the FFWPU Korean Headquarters called “Evangelize for Cheon Il Guk” on November 29, 2012. The purpose of the event was to “resurrect the heart for evangelism” within the Unification movement, reflecting the words of True Mother during a nationwide worship service: “We need to revive the church and become engines of growth by becoming great preachers.”

A total of 22 persons competed, including 15 district pastors, metropolitan-area pastors and the director of the Universal Peace Academy. Each of the contestants was instructed to give a sermon about the heart and mission of True Parents for a total of 10 minutes. Contestants put all their effort into presenting their sermons strongly. Pastor Seung Bae Ma from the Song Buk Church won first prize, Mu Sang Im from the Cheon An Church won second, and In Young Song from the Dae Gu Church won third. True Mother said: “I was moved by your sermons. When you go back to your respective churches, I think it would be good to extend [them]. … We need these sermons to have an impact on members throughout the week. … Then we will have a living, breathing and vibrant church.”

The “Watergate Crisis,” which implicated the White House in a break-in of the Democratic Party’s National Headquarters in 1972, embroiled the United States in controversy and weakened it in the face of communist aggression in Vietnam. True Father viewed this as “more than a political, social and economic crisis.” He viewed it as “a crisis of the human soul” and, because of America’s position in the world, as “a crisis for God.” As a consequence, he took two weeks off from his 21-City Day of Hope speaking tour in late 1973 and returned to Korea “in a desperate search for an answer and new hope for America.” His conclusion was that “God’s command at this crossroads in American history is Forgive, Love and Unite!”

True Father’s “Answer to Watergate” statement appeared in full-page advertisements purchased in newspapers in each of the twenty-one cities of the Day of Hope itinerary, including The New York Times and The Washington Post, beginning November 30, 1973. Over the next two months, it was published in one newspaper in every state except Hawaii. In addition, the National Prayer and Fast for the Watergate Crisis Committee (NPFWC) organized vigils, rallies, letter-writing and leafleting in all fifty states to publicize its theme and to obtain signatures of people promising to pray and fast for the Watergate crisis. At least eight U.S. senators and fifty-three U.S. congressmen either signed the statement or responded with messages of support. Congressman Guy Vander Jagt (R-Michigan) read True Father’s Watergate statement into the Congressional Record of December 21, 1973.

True Parents arrived in Pyongyang on November 30, 1991, to begin a visit at the invitation of the North Korean government. They visited Kumgang Mountain on December 3 and True Father’s hometown, Jeongju, on December 5. Then they had a historic meeting with North Korean leader Kim Il Sung on December 6 at Jusuk Palace in Majeon, Hamheung.

They exchanged a letter of agreement for peaceful unification based on a joint statement that contained ten articles regarding such promises as the hosting of a North Korean–South Korean summit meeting, a peaceful resolution to the issue of North Korea’s nuclear armament and the hosting of reunions between the ten million separated Korean family members.

In his statement True Father said, “I am not going to the house of my enemy but rather that of my homeland and that of my brother.” He also emphasized that he was visiting North Korea as a messenger of peace and that the homogenous “Korean people should never again engage in a war against each other.” (Courtesy of the History Compilation Committee.)

True Mother delivered the keynote address launching the International Association of Parliamentarians for Peace (IAPP) in the United States on November 30, 2016 in the Kennedy Caucus Room, Russell Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C. This event was the culmination of International Leadership Conferences (ILS) held worldwide during 2016 in South Korea, Nepal, Burkina Faso, the United Kingdom, Costa Rica, Paraguay, Zambia, and Japan. Under the theme, “Addressing the Critical Challenges of Our Time: The Role of Government, Civil Society and Faith-Based Organizations,” the U.S. event was jointly organized by the Universal Peace Federation (UPF) and The Washington Times Foundation. More than 200 leaders from 54 nations participated.

True Mother was introduced by Sen. Orrin Hatch, president pro tempore of the U.S. Senate. “Dr. Moon is truly an amazing woman, and one that I deeply respect,” Sen. Hatch said. “She is a champion of peace and someone who I hope will have a lasting impact for years to come.”

In her address, True Mother spoke of the responsibility of global leaders to work together to create peace and called for a new and international commitment to unselfish good governance. She spoke of the challenges that have stood in the way of world peace throughout human history, and introduced the proposal for an International Association of Parliamentarians for Peace (IAPP). “We look at this world and see unspeakable, inarticulate misery happening all around the globe,” she said. “This is impossible to solve with mere human power.” True Mother concluded, “All of you esteemed leaders, beloved leaders who have gathered here, members of parliament from all over the world, your responsibility is great. You are extremely important, especially in this era when a new providence is unfolding. More than just one person, you who represent the people, you are the mediator. God needs each one of you.”

The Universal Peace Federation (UPF) sponsored an Asia-Pacific Summit in Kathmandu, Nepal from November 30-December 3, 2018. It was the concluding meeting of a 2018 “summit series” that began on January 18-19 in Dakar, Senegal. More than 1,500 participants attended the Nepal summit, among whom were 500 international delegates from 45 nations. The prime minister of Nepal, H.E. KP Sharma Oli, welcomed five other heads of state: H.E. Hun Sen, prime minister of the Kingdom of Cambodia; H.E. Aung San Suu Kyi, state counsellor of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar; H.E. Baron Waqa, president of the Republic of Nauru; His Highness Vaaleto’a Sualauvi II Tuimalealiifano, head of state of Samoa; and H.E. Sir Iakoba Taeia Italeli, governor-general of Tuvalu. Other high-level delegates consisted of five current first ladies, ten former heads of state and government, one current deputy prime minister, seven government ministers, and five current speakers of parliament and national assemblies.

The theme of the summit was, “Addressing the Critical Challenges of Our Time: Interdependence, Mutual Prosperity and Universal Values.” Nepal was selected as the Summit venue to highlight the successfully concluded peace process and the promulgation of the new constitution as an example of peaceful and democratic transformation. In her keynote address, True Mother noted, “Conflicts between races, religion, and ideology, territorial disputes, war, and tribal conflicts have kept the world from becoming peaceful even for one day.” She stated the “providence” had “moved to Asia” and proclaimed the "era of the Heavenly Asia Pacific Civilization that attends God!” She declared, “There will be no walls between races and cultures. There will be no ideological walls.” True Mother concluded, “By sharing Heavenly Parent’s blessings here in Nepal, the closest point to Heaven, you all become blessed as leaders who are like bright beacons and lights for the world.”