Sun Myung Moon
November 21, 2006
Seoul Korea
FFWPU International
Pledge Service
7 am, November 21, 2006: The pledge service for the 47th True Children's Day (October 1 on the lunar calendar) with True Parents was held at the Chung Pyung Heaven and Earth Training Center with the participation of the members of the True Family including Hyun-jin nim's family and Kook-jin nim's family, and some 3,5000 members from Korea and Japan.
The ceremony that day was led by Rev. Chung Hwan Kwak (International President, FFWPU and International Chairman, IIFWP). Members of the True Family and then representatives of blessed families worldwide offered a full bow to God and True Parents. The Family Pledge was recited and a prayer was offered by Rev. Kwak and his wife. True Parents then cut the Holy Day cake. Rev. Kwak then read some excerpts from the speech True Father gave on the 45th True Children's Day.
True Father first read aloud the title of the tenth peace message which was God's Model for Absoluteness, Peace and the Ideal Is the Family and Global Kingdom Upholding Absolute Sexual Morality. He then went on to speak for a full three hours that day on the value of absolute sexual morality in which he emphasized that husband and wife must become as one in true love to create an ideal family of God's desire.
Here are some excerpts from Father's speech:
"What God needs most is true love. True love requires a partner. The relationship between a subject partner and object partner is dictated by this heavenly principle. That is why unless you are aligned to that (True Love) you will disappear."
"What is the most precious thing to a son or daughter? Where were they born from? To them, their mother and father are the primary being. Without honoring the parents, the father and mother cannot form a four position foundation and engraft themselves to the center of operations of love. If three, four and thousands of generations continue their existence according to this principle, God's ideal will be manifest in any place of the world. You must live based on this principle."
True Father also spoke strongly that Japan, the mother nation, should fulfill is mission and responsibility.
After the pledge service, True Parents left Chung Pyung to go to KINTEX where an event to commemorate the 47th True Children's Day was to begin at 1 pm for 50,000 participants.
Commemorative Event for the 47th True Children's Day
"God's Model for Absoluteness, Peace and the Ideal Is the Family and Global Kingdom Upholding Absolute Sexual Morality" declared to 40,000 members from home and abroad.
The commemorative event for the 47th True Children's Day was held at 1 pm on November 21, 2006 (October 1 on the lunar calendar) at the KINTEX hall in Gyeonggi providence with over 40,000 blessed families, local ambassadors for peace and oversea members in participation.
During the pre-event, a singer from Japan sang to congratulate this day's event. There was also a performance by an native Indian group from America and Hyun-chul a popular Korean singer.
After the entertainment, Archbishop George A. Stallings from America gave a special presentation on the recent world peace tour by the Christian ministers. Dr. Chang Shik Yang, regional president of FFWPU USA, gave a Korean translation of the report.
The main event began with Rev. Sun Jo Hwang, president of FFWPU Korea, as the emcee. The Cheon Il Guk anthem was sung followed by a prayer report by Rev. Jung Og Yu, president of FFWPU Japan. Rev. Kwak, international chair of UPF, delivered the commemorative address.
In his address title, "God's Ideal Family and a World of Peace," Rev. Kwak emphasized that "the Cheon Il Guk blessed families are at a critical point in time where they must make a new beginning. We are gathered here with our True Parents to celebrate the 47th True Children's Day and have been given the blessing grace on behalf of all the blessed families worldwide." "Today, through True Parents' teachings, a new milestone in history has been established for realizing a world of peace which God and humanity has long waited for."
Rev. Kwak also summarized the responsibilities that all Cheon Il Guk blessed families should carry out into the following three points: First, we should maintain the purity and pure love of the lineage of the blessed family as we practice true love; second, we should become the progenitors of unity that overcome the conflict and confrontation between Cain and Abel through reconciliation and unification; third, we should substantially carry out a lifestyle of restoring God's rights of ownership by putting our life and being under God's possession.
Rev. Kwak emphasized that "we must establish the realm of three generations in each blessed family by practicing these three points and establish a model ideal family." "Furthermore, we must expand this model, ideal family to our tribe, nation and the world. Let us bring inter-religious and international harmony between the realm of politics, which historically represented the Cain side, with the realm of religion, and elevate them into the Universal Peace Federation so that it may be established as a genuine institution for world peace and fulfill its providential mission."
After Rev. Kwak's speech there was a short video presentation. A flower bouquet was then presented to True Parents by an international couple. True Father, after taking the podium, started of his speech by reading aloud the title, "God's Model for Absoluteness, Peace and the Ideal Is the Family and Global Kingdom Upholding Absolute Sexual Morality."
Some excerpts from the speech:
"Today is a significant day in the history of God's providence; it begins the forty-seventh year since I declared Children's Day. There are four great milestones that must be reached and established in the providential course of restoration through indemnity, in order to fulfill God's purpose of creation that was lost through the Fall of Adam and Eve, our first ancestors. They are: God's Day, Parents' Day, Children's Day, and the Day of All Things. This is the first observance of True Children's Day, one of the four great providential milestones, following the victory of the Coronation for God's Kingship in 2001 and the beginning of the providence of Cheon Il Guk (God's Kingdom) that was proclaimed at the time of the Entrance Ceremony of the Cheon Jeong Gung Peace Palace and the coronation ceremony, in June this year."
"The main attributes of God's true love are that it is absolute, unique, unchanging and eternal, so whoever practices true love will live with God, share His happiness, and enjoy the right to participate as an equal in His work. Therefore, a life lived for the sake of others, a life of true love, is the absolute prerequisite for entering the kingdom of heaven."
"This means we need a movement to realize a society of interdependence, mutual prosperity and universally shared values. We need to make humanity one great family, by breaking down the walls in our hearts and eliminating even the boundaries between nations. This movement begins from one family. Therefore, each of us should bear in mind that it is our providential calling to form and establish a true family. It is the way we can advance the establishment of the cosmic peace kingdom on earth."
"You are now advancing into the era of liberation and complete inner freedom, which is the providential era of the realm of the heart of the fourth Adam. In other words, it is the Age after the Coming of Heaven. This is the time when, metaphorically speaking, the sun is directly overhead, such that no shadow is cast. This signifies that the era before heaven, including the Old, New and Completed Testament ages, has been surmounted. These eras have required immeasurable restitution and atonement in re-creating the ideal. The present time, however, corresponds to the era, prior to Adam's Fall, of building the original ideal world. It refers to the era of true love that is all-encompassing, all-powerful and has overall authority. It is the realm of heart in which the spirit world and the physical world are bound together as a unified realm centering on the True Parents, the King and Queen of Peace. In other words it is the era of the kingdom of peace and unity in heaven and on earth."
"By following God's commandment to uphold absolute sexual morality, let us establish exemplary families, inherit True Parents' victory of restoring through indemnity the realm of three generations, and perfect the world as it would have been without the Fall!"
The event that day ended with three powerful cheers of og-mansei led by Rev. Jong Gwan Yoo, chairman of the Citizen's Federation for the Reunification of North and South Korea. All those gathered there pledge again to fulfill their mission as the citizens of Cheon Il Guk.
Children's Day was declared on October 1st 1960 by lunar calendar (November 19th by solar) at the former headquarters church at Chungpa-dong, Yongsan-gu, Seoul. Later on, at the pledge ceremony of the 35th Parents' Day in 1994, True Parents decreed that the word "True" be placed before the names of the Four Great Church Holidays, and thenceforth the day has been observed as True Children's Day.
The first celebration for Children's Day, held under the title of Thanksgiving Day service, was personally carried out from beginning to end by True Parents, and in his words True Father stated: "This Thanksgiving Day we are celebrating is truly the festive day of heaven eagerly awaited by God for six thousand years since the creation and the onset of human history. Henceforth, March 1st and October 1st by lunar calendar will be celebrated every year as an important festive day. In particular, today marks the day of the children and the season of fruition."
On that day, twelve kinds of grains carefully prepared by the members were orderly displayed at the front of the room, and all members were given an envelope each for thanksgiving offering, which were dedicated with devotion.