This Week in History briefly lists significant events in the history of the Unification Church, the lives of the Founders, and world events that are momentous to Unificationists. Most items are marked according to the solar calendar. Items marked “H.C.” correspond to the Cheon-gi or Heavenly Calendar, which is based on the lunar calendar. This installment covers the week of May 4-10.
MAY 6, 1973
PROFESSORS WORLD PEACE ACADEMY ESTABLISHED
The Professors World Peace Academy (PWPA) was founded by True Father during an assembly of 168 Japanese and Korean professors, to “contribute to the solutions of urgent problems facing our modern civilization and to help resolve the cultural divide between East and West.” The organization held discussions such as healing historical tensions, first only in Korea and Japan, then spreading around the world to more than a hundred countries.
MAY 7-10, 1981
RESEARCH CONFERENCE FOR THE STUDY OF ALTERNATIVE RELIGIONS
The Unification Theological Seminary sponsored a conference entitled Alternative Religions: Research and Study. The conference was held at Loyola University in Chicago, where scholars from all over the U.S., Canada and Great Britain presented their research of alternative religions from a variety of viewpoints and disciplines. They discussed topics such as the impact upon a person’s faith after initially being introduced to a new belief system.
MAY 6, 1982
NEW YORK STATE COURT OF APPEALS DECLARES UNIFICATION CHURCH A LEGITIMATE RELIGIOUS ORGANIZATION
This unanimous court decision entitled the Unification Church to tax exemption privileges granted to all religious groups. The case generated interest in mainstream religious circles, and organizations in support of the Unification Church were the American Jewish Congress, The Catholic League for Religion and Civil Rights, The National Association of Evangelicals, and the National Council of Churches. Also, the United States District Court for the District of Columbia recognized the rights of the church’s foreign members to enter the country as missionaries on the same basis as members of other churches. Clearly, the church had vindicated most of its claims in the eyes of the law.