Couples Celebrate 40 Years of Love

“February 8, 1975, was my most unforgettable day,” said True Father at the first anniversary of the 1,800 Couples’ Holy Marriage Blessing. This year, on the East Coast, 25 couples gathered at East Garden to commemorate their 40th anniversary, a cause for great celebration for couples around the world.

Being surrounded by the legacy of True Parents at East Garden and by all the dedicated couples made for an inspiring and uplifting day, as they took the time to reflect on the Marriage Blessing, spend quality time together, celebrate and share stories of these past four decades together. The day began with the opportunity to take a tour of the grounds, including the Holy Ground at East Garden and many of the places where True Parents worked during their mission in America. The couples were reminded of True Parents’ legacy and True Mother’s current determination to fulfill it, and had wonderful moments of prayer and reflection before beginning their banquet celebration.

Dr. Ki Hoon Kim, Continental Chair of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (FFWPU) North America and a participant of the 1,800 Couples’ Marriage Blessing himself, sent a congratulatory video message from Hawaii, thanking the couples for their continued dedication and sharing True Mother’s message of gratitude to the 1800 couples for their support and worldwide missionary work. Then, Alexa Ward, Vice President of FFWPU USA and one of the organizers of this event, gave welcoming remarks and introduced the day’s program.

Dr. Michael Balcomb, President of FFWPU USA, read the speech that True Father gave on the first anniversary in 1976, which expressed the deep significance of this group and their marriages. “True Father stayed up all night matching couples because, according to him, ‘Marriage is very important in a person’s life and cannot be a game,’” said Dr. Balcomb. He paraphrased, “This Marriage Blessing was particularly important because you, as international couples, opened the way to intercultural, interracial and international marriage. Your faithfulness kept that door open so that today it’s commonplace. You have been the gatekeepers of international marriage.”

For the couples, looking back on that special day, 40 years ago, when they made their commitment to each other before God yielded profound memories. Several couples shared anecdotes and expressed their vision for a future generation that practices the Divine Principle. Grace Davin spoke of her gratitude toward God and True Parents for answering her prayers in marriage, while John and Nanette Doroski said they felt they had been brought together by God and commented on the deeply educational process overcoming their differences.

Many couples had vivid memories of the very day they received the Marriage Blessing. Paul Yasutake from Bridgeport, Connecticut, said, “It was a grand occasion. Can you imagine 1,800 couples in procession? We had to wait outside, in zero degree weather, for about an hour. When we finally got in, it was so hot inside; but that was just the physical temperature. Spiritually, it was very uplifting and I have only good thoughts about it. These 40 years it has continued to bring back good memories.”

Paul’s wife, Gertrud, remembered, “Behind us was a Korean couple, and as True Father prayed, the Korean brother behind us was just sobbing in prayer. I couldn’t understand anything because it was not my language, but because he was very moved, this also moved something in me. During True Father’s prayer, I felt the message that, ‘You are a Moon now.’ It was like I had become part of True Father’s family.”

“I was very grateful to True Parents, and when True Father brought us together, I felt an explosion of love,” said Kathleen Sato from New Jersey, describing the moment when True Father suggested her husband for her. “We walked forward and I felt this was a precious gift from Heaven,”

Gratitude was a major theme of the day, as the couples recorded and sent their best wishes to True Mother and thanked True Parents for the gift of the Marriage Blessing they received years ago as young adults. Upon looking back, many couples reflected on the profoundness of the foundation of their marriage.

The Yasutakes commented, “Because there’s a commitment, we’re able to work out any challenges that come up. For people in our society today, 40 years seems like a lot. And we’re looking forward to the 50th year.”

“Society has to be able to survive and thrive,” they said, “and it’s very clear that that has to be through marriage. A marriage that holds together, is solid and doesn’t play around with thoughts of ever separating—a marriage that is committed to work things out—combined with a philosophy or spiritual rootedness in God and a very clear goal to create a new society, is a very solid entity.”

The couples also took a moment to pass on words of wisdom to the younger generations of blessed couples.

“Don’t hesitate to ask for help—we are in this together,” said Gertrud. “God lets you meet people, angels in your life, that will help you along if you are willing.”

Sumiyo and Yasuko Kono from New Jersey had a heartfelt message:

“Marriage is so interesting. Because of True Parents, whenever something comes up in life, we are so lucky to know of a way to come back to understanding what our hearts really want to do, which is to love. Everything that happens in life is something God guiding or teaching us, so always trust in God and have faith in your spouse. We are so grateful we learned that way of life.”

It seems that as every year goes by, couples gain a deeper understanding and appreciation of the meaning of the Marriage Blessing and see that bear fruit in their lives. With True Parents setting the example and raising and nurturing thousands of couples in the course of their lifetime, the 1800 couples, now dispersed around the globe, are grateful for the opportunity to be the ones True Parents trusted to be exemplary international couples to the world.

The love of the 1,800 couples has become one of the deepest forms of perseverance, trust and commitment to True Parents’ legacy the world has seen. Congratulations again to all the 1,800 couples around the world!

Going Global: A Message of Peace

Going Global: A Message of Peace

This week in history, February 1-7:

• True Father is released from his first imprisonment (February 1, 1945)
• True Father meets with President Nixon (February 1, 1974)
• Segye Times published its first edition (February 1, 1989)
• True Father celebrates his 70th birthday (February 1, 1990)
• True Parents begin the Second World Tour (February 2, 1969)
• True Father receives a Lifetime Achievement Award (February 2, 2000)
• The Day of Hope tour begins (February 3, 1972)
• The Holy Marriage Blessing Ceremony for the Parents of Heaven and Earth opening the gate of Cheon Il Guk is held (February 6, 2003)
• 360 million couples receive the Holy Marriage Blessing (February 7, 1999)
   

“The Ideal World for God and Humankind”

Reading from: Pyeong Hwa Gyeong Title: The Ideal World for God and Humankind Date: February 4, 1972 Location: Lincoln Center, New York, USA Context: Seven-City Speaking tour in the United States Pages: 19-30 Audio Runtime: 28 min 41 sec

True Father spoke on February 4, 1972 at the Lincoln Center in New York City during the Seven-City Speaking tour in the United States.

FEBRUARY 1, 1945

True Father Released from His First Imprisonment

True Father had been a student leader in Korean independence activities while studying in Japan from 1941 to 1943. He was interrogated numerous times and placed on a watch list. On returning to Korea, True Father took employment at the Kyeongsung branch of the Kashima Gumi Construction Company in Seoul’s Yongsan District while continuing his religious and independence activities. In October 1944, Japanese police stormed into True Father’s lodgings because one of his friends who had been arrested for being a communist had mentioned his name to interrogators. Once arrested and incarcerated at the Gyeonggi Province Police Station, True Father was subjected to brutal torture in an unsuccessful effort to have him reveal names of people who had worked with him while in Japan. In A Peace-Loving Global Citizen, True Father details the several types of torture. Police broke all four legs of a table against his body, stomped on him “mercilessly with their spiked boots,” beat him while he was being hung from the ceiling, and forced water down his esophagus. With the war winding down and unable to obtain information, the police released True Father on February 1, 1945. True Father noted, “My body did not recover easily from the torture.”
 

FEBRUARY 1, 1974

True Father’s Meeting with President Nixon

The “Watergate Crisis” gripped the United States following exposure of White House involvement with a break-in at the Democratic Party’s campaign headquarters during the 1972 presidential election. True Father was concerned that the crisis was weakening America in the face of communist aggression and issued an “Answer to Watergate” statement on November 30, 1973, which called upon Americans to “Forgive, Love and Unite.” True Father then launched a forty-day National Prayer and Fast for the Watergate Crisis (NPFWC). Unificationists conducted vigils, rallies, letter-writing and leafleting in all fifty states. At the National Christmas Tree lighting in Washington, D.C., in 1973, 1,200 pennant-waving, banner-carrying Unificationists from all over the country demonstrated in support of the president and garnered national attention. President Richard Nixon emerged from the White House later that evening to personally thank the Unificationists who were holding a candlelight vigil across the street at Lafayette Square. True Father subsequently was invited to the annual Presidential Prayer Breakfast at the Washington Hilton Hotel on January 31, 1974. The next day, February 1, 1974, True Father had a twenty-minute meeting with President Nixon in the Oval Office of the White House. He reportedly told the president, “Don’t knuckle under to pressure. Stand up for your convictions.”
 

FEBRUARY 1, 1989

Segye Times Publishes Its First Edition

True Father founded the Segye (“universal”) Times to be the “window on the world” for the Korean people.

In 1988, following South Korean President Roh Tae-woo’s declaration of greater freedom and the Seoul Olympics, the number of newspapers in Korea doubled. True Father founded the Segye (“universal”) Times. He intended it to be the “window on the world” for the Korean people. According to True Father:

The last part of the 20th century is an age when the world is governed by the media. The power and responsibility of the media are becoming stronger than those of an atomic warhead or any military might. Accordingly, when the media put forward sound arguments based on a consistently true viewpoint about values, the media will become the standard-bearers of world peace. When they blind people with irresponsibility, wrong guidance and exhortations, the media will become a tool for the destruction of world peace.

Most of the established newspapers in South Korea increased their page numbers to make things difficult for the newly established papers. Due to the efforts of Unificationists, many from overseas, in newspaper distribution and the commitment of True Father, the Segye Times flourished. ROK President Kim Dae-jung participated in the paper’s 10th anniversary celebration in 1999, saying, “I set a high value on the Segye Times’ decade of efforts of capable journalism, and I hope it becomes prosperous as a worldwide newspaper, as its name implies.” It has since become one of Korea’s leading newspapers.
 

FEBRUARY 1, 1990

True Father’s 70th Birthday Celebration

True Father gives a speech about his 70 years of life.

True Father’s 70th birthday celebration was auspicious as it occurred when communism was crumbling. Ten years previously, in 1980, True Father refused to celebrate his 60thbirthday as communism was on the march, especially in Latin America. Instead, he founded CAUSA International and engaged in an all-out campaign during the 1980s to halt its spread. By 1990, the Berlin Wall was open and the Soviet Empire was collapsing. True Father commented:

I am well known around the world as a leader in the anticommunist and victory-over-communism movements. The purpose for which I conduct a movement for victory over communism is not to kill communists but to liberate them with truth and true love so that they may live. This is the reason I am working to help the communist world today and rescue it from its current distress. For that reason, I have been welcomed even in the Soviet Union and China. Even Kim Il Sung in North Korea cannot be my enemy.

True Father celebrated his 70th birthday in the context of the Second Summit Council for World Peace and the Eighth International Conference of AULA (Association for the Unity of Latin America) held in Seoul. Twelve former heads of state and prime ministers, and 56 dignitaries including ambassadors, legislators, royalty and nobility from 20 nations, took part in a congratulatory banquet attended by 2,000 VIPs in all. In his banquet speech True Father said, “Never during my life did I even dream that someday when I lived to be seventy, there would be such a large banquet and so many distinguished guests would gather to congratulate me.” Two months later, the 3rd Summit Council and the 9th AULA International Conference would convene in Moscow simultaneously with the 11th World Media Conference. There True Parents met Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. This paved the way for expanded activities of the Unification Church there and, as some contended, the re-establishment of diplomatic relations between the Soviet Union (later the Commonwealth of Independent States) and the Republic of Korea.
 

FEBRUARY 2, 1969

True Parents Begin the Second World Tour

True Parents began the Second World Tour on February 2, 1969. It would take them to 21 nations over a three-month period until May 2. The First World Tour in 1965 had the purpose of blessing Holy Grounds worldwide. The Second World Tour had as its major purpose giving the Holy Marriage Blessing to overseas members. This included 13 American couples, 8 couples in Germany and 22 couples in Japan, 43 couples in all. Their Blessing was connected with the 430 Couple Blessing in Korea the previous year. In addition to the Blessing, American Unificationists learned of “Victory over Communism” and CARP activities in Korea and Japan as well as economic enterprises. This had the effect of broadening the scope of activity in the United States. The tour also broadened the mindset of Unificationists in Korea. On March 15, just before departing the United States, True Father sent a widely circulated letter to members in Korea, conveying “something of what I have felt in America during the tour.” After detailing “many complicated problems” over which “America is in agony,” he wrote:

Contrasting American and Korean members, both have relative merits and demerits. I feel that Oriental customs are conservative, but that they do not break new ground, whereas the West is open, realistic and sociable.

From this, it is possible to say that the former is internal and passive, the latter, external and positive. There is no racial discrimination among Unification Church members. They are noticeably different from other groups. I think the intimate relationship that exists among members is unprecedented in history. It truly shows we are all brothers and sisters with one heart.

When we compare the American membership, comprising several different races, with the Korean membership consisting of one race, the former seem to have very promising prospects.

In saying that, I do not mean that only the West is good. I just think the reason is that America offers its citizens an environment through which they encounter many nations and cultures, and experience much more. Therefore, I hope that the Oriental members will go abroad and keep in frequent contact with other nations in the future.

True Mother was pregnant during the tour and gave birth to Hyun Jin Moon on May 10, 1969, eight days after returning.
 

FEBRUARY 2, 2000

American Century Awards

Under the auspices of The Washington Times, numerous dignitaries, including U.S. Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert and Congressmen Henry Hyde, Danny Davis and A.C. Watts joined 200 civic and political leaders to present True Father with a Lifetime Achievement Award for “Freedom, Faith and Family” on February 2, 2000. This followed the “America Honors Rev. Sun Myung Moon on his 80th Birthday” celebration on January 22, which was attended by numerous religious leaders. Unificationists understood that the two events “restored” the rejection and crucifixion of Jesus 2,000 years ago by religious and secular leaders. In his speech, “The Cosmos Is Our Hometown and Fatherland,” True Father said, “Our fatherland is wherever God can be found.” He further stated, “We no longer live in an age dominated by nationalism, or even in an age of globalism. These have already passed. National purpose and global concerns still exist, of course, but we now live in an age when the universe is to be united with one God.” Heaven and earth, he said, “should become a ‘house’ of true love.” Planet Earth, he concluded, “is the hometown of all humankind, and the spirit world is the eternal fatherland where all humanity will eventually arrive.”
 

FEBRUARY 3, 1972

Day of Hope Speaking Tour Begins at New York’s Lincoln Center

True Parents began their Third World Tour on December 5, 1971, visiting 15 countries in 156 days, returning to Korea on May 8, 1972. The main purpose of the Third World Tour was to initiate the public declaration of True Parents’ teachings. During a training program for American Unificationists from December 31, 1971, to January 3, 1972, True Father made known his intention of holding “revival meetings” in seven major cities: New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, San Francisco and Berkeley. Both East and West Coast centers were to select members, 72 in all, who were to come to New York for a two-week training session. From there, they would travel from city to city to hold the revival meetings.

True Father rented the Alice Tully Hall in New York City’s Lincoln Center for three nights (February 3, 4 and 6, 1972) and charged the local center with making plans for the first of the seven revival meetings. By January 8, the New York center had chosen its theme, “The Day of Hope: The Day of the True Family,” and designed what would be the tour’s official poster. On January 14, the 72 pioneers arrived. For nearly three weeks, they hit the mid-winter streets of New York, selling revival tickets at $6.00 each ($18.00 for three nights) to hear an unknown evangelist. True Father’s topics were “One God, One World Religion,” “Ideal World for God and Man” and “The New Messiah and the Formula of God in History.”

The tour was a constant battle against anonymity and, in the Eastern cities, against the elements. In New York City bitter weather limited attendance to between 350 and 450 people for the three nights, even though many more tickets had been sold. In Washington, a blizzard not only hindered the turnout but stranded pioneers in Frederick, Maryland. Nonetheless, by Berkeley, each night was a full house. The initial 7-city Day of Hope Tour was followed by 21-, 32- and 8-city tours, culminating in True Father’s New York speech in 1974 when as many as thirty-five thousand ticket-holders were turned away from the already filled-to-capacity Madison Square Garden. Barely thirty-two months after his initial Lincoln Center speeches, True Father had become a household name in America.
 

FEBRUARY 6, 2003

Holy Marriage Blessing Ceremony for the Parents of Heaven and Earth Opening the Gate of Cheon Il Guk

The Holy Marriage Blessing Ceremony for the Parents of Heaven and Earth Opening the Gate of Cheon Il Guk.

True Father proclaimed Cheon Il Guk (“the Nation of Cosmic Peace and Unity”) on November 15, 2001. This was the Unificationist equivalent of the Kingdom of Heaven and the culmination of his ministry. In 1993, he had announced the transition to the Completed Testament Era, which was understood to mark a 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. For the next twelve years, True Parents set numerous conditions for the establishment of Cheon Il Guk. One of the most important of these was the Holy Marriage Blessing Ceremony for the Parents of Heaven and Earth Opening the Gate of Cheon Il Guk on February 6, 2003. Its centerpiece was the marriage of True Parents on the foundation of Cheon Il Guk. Their Blessing was to supersede church-level and national-level Blessings. It was followed by the “Coronation of the King of the Blessed Families” to substantiate the original Heavenly Kingship. Both ceremonies were conducted at Cheongpyeong Heaven and Earth Training Center before more than 10,000 guests including 200 dignitaries from the World Summit on Leadership and Governance. Brazilian soccer legend Pele presented True Parents with a specially engraved plaque.
 

FEBRUARY 7, 1999

Holy Blessing of 360 Million Couples

True Parents Bless 360 million couples in marriage.

True Parents blessed couples on a mass level during the 1990s. This was referred to as the “globalization” of the Holy Marriage Blessing and focused largely on previously married couples. Unificationists worldwide conducted marriage rededications, which then were sanctified by True Parents at International Marriage Blessings broadcast globally by satellite. On February 7, 1999, True Parents conducted the largest Blessing to date for 360 million couples. The main venue was Seoul Olympic Stadium which was packed with 100,000 participants, many of whom had been brought by 3,000 buses. Although conducted in mid-winter, the weather cooperated and conditions on the day of the ceremony were quite good. What was known as “Blessing 99” penetrated Korean society more powerfully than previous ceremonies, in part due to Korean President Kim Dae-jung’s presence at the Segye Times’ 10th anniversary six days prior to the event. He shared the podium with True Parents and participated in an anniversary cake cutting. Gen. Alexander Haig, former U.S. secretary of state under Ronald Reagan and White House chief of staff under Richard Nixon, participated in a conference preceding the Blessing and provided another focal point. In an introduction to True Father, Gen. Haig described how their lives first intersected during the Korean War, praised True Father for his conciliatory approach to President Nixon during the Watergate Crisis, and again praised him for his role in the downfall of communism.  At a well-attended press briefing, Gen. Haig said opposing the values espoused at the conference “would be like being against motherhood.”

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 February 1–7.

The First World Tour

This week in history, January 25-31:

• True Father and Won Pil Kim arrive in Pusan (January 27, 1951)
• True Father conducts a World Peace Marriage Blessing Ceremony at the United Nations (January 27, 2001)
• True Father begins his first world tour (January 28, 1965)
• True Father celebrates his 90th birthday (January 31, 2009)
   

JANUARY 27, 1951

True Father and Won Pil Kim Arrive in Pusan

South Koreans flee south after the North Korean army invades.

After his release from Heungnam Labor Camp on October 14, 1950, True Father walked some 300 kilometers across the Korean Peninsula, arriving in Pyongyang ten days later. He spent 40 days in Pyongyang, searching for former members of his congregation, and finally departed for the South on December 2, 1950, in advance of the Red Chinese army. He was accompanied by his disciple Won Pil Kim and by Chong Hwa Pak, a follower from Heungnam Prison who was injured and had to be pushed on a bicycle. This began their nearly two-month trek to Pusan at the southernmost point of the peninsula. Abandoning refugee columns that were continually being bombed, they traveled alternate routes, sometimes were set upon by vigilantes and were subject to all manner of deprivations. Hearing that Pusan was overflowing with refugees, Chong Hwa Pak, who had mostly recovered, stayed behind at a carpenter’s house in the city of Gyeongju. True Father and Won Pil Kim bought train tickets from there to Pusan, some 50 kilometers away. As there was no room in the passenger coaches, they rode up front, clinging to the front of the engine, the warmth of the steam engine on their backs and a biting winter wind freezing their faces during the final two hours of their journey. They arrived at Choryung Station in Pusan, cold and hungry, on January 27, 1951. From there, True Father restarted his ministry.
 

JANUARY 27, 2001

World Peace Marriage Blessing held at the United Nations

True Parents conduct a World Peace Holy Marriage Blessing Ceremony at the UN.

At Assembly 2000, True Father called not only for the establishment of a religious assembly or interreligious council at the United Nations but also for an official commemorative day to uphold the ideal of the family. The following year, on January 27, 2001, as part of the 7th World Culture and Sports Festival held jointly at the New York Hilton and UN Headquarters, True Father reinforced his proposal by conducting a “World Peace Marriage Blessing Ceremony” for 210 couples from 135 countries. Each of them was dressed in traditional ethnic or national costumes in the UN assembly room. The couples took an oath to establish eternal families based on true love and pledged their commitment to world peace. Because the assembly room was totally filled, WCSF participants had to watch the event via closed-circuit TV in another room. At the Marriage Blessing’s conclusion, couples and conference participants received chocolate bars with the words “True Love” inscribed on them. Once the newly blessed couples left, the participants returned to the assembly room and the conference resumed. Unfortunately, UN officials objected to the Marriage Blessing as a religious event and considered it a serious breach of the rules for the use of UN facilities. This, among other factors, led True Father to consider the necessity of inaugurating a complementary “Abel UN.”
 

JANUARY 28, 1965

True Father Begins First World Tour

True Father at the Twin Peaks Holy Ground in San Francisco

By the mid-1960s, work in Korea had solidified to the point that the Unification Church was ready to give serious attention to the world mission. The clearest indication of this was True Father’s first world tour in 1965. The main purpose of the tour was to connect the foundation that had been established in Korea to the world. True Father commented:

In 1965, I embarked on my first trip around the world. My suitcase was filled with soil and stones from Korea. My plan was that, as I traveled around the world, I would plant Korea’s soil and stones in each country to signify Korea’s linkage to the world. For ten months, I toured forty countries, including Japan, the United States, and the nations of Europe. …  When I returned to Seoul, my suitcase was full of soil and stones from 120 locations in forty countries. … I connected Korea to these forty countries in this way to prepare for the day in the future when the world of peace would be realized.

After spending two weeks in Japan, True Father stayed in the United States for nearly five months, from February 12 until July 1. He set up 55 Holy Grounds in all 48 continental United States. After a short trip to Canada and several South American countries, True Father began the European portion of his tour. He then traveled to the more ancient lands of Egypt and the Middle East. While in Iran, True Father learned of the war between Pakistan and India. Avoiding Pakistan entirely, it was only after difficulty that his party got out of India and traveled to Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, which was full of American GIs. Then followed the Philippines, Hong Kong, Taiwan and finally Japan on September 29, where after 12 days, on October 10, True Father returned to Korea, 260 days after his departure.
 

JANUARY 31, 2009

True Father’s 90th Birthday

True Father celebrates his 90th birthday.

True Father demonstrated extraordinary dedication and endurance on the occasion of his 90th birthday (and True Mother’s 67th) on January 31, 2009, by conducting special Coronations for the Authority and Liberation of God, the King of Kings, both in Korea and the United States. Due to the time difference, True Father was able to deliver a birthday address, officiate at the Coronation ceremony, and be honored at a congratulatory banquet in Korea; then board a plane to New York to address world leaders at the 2009 World Summit on Peace, conduct the Coronation ceremony, and officiate at the Interreligious Cross Cultural Marriage Blessing Ceremony in New York, all on January 31. Congratulatory letters to True Father on his 90th birthday were sent by numerous former national leaders, including former U.K. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, former Japanese Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone, and former U.S. President George H.W. Bush.

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 January 25–31.

Freedom, Equality and Brotherhood

Thirty-nine years ago today, the Unification church center in Paris was bombed by a Communist group after several negative articles in the French liberal media. Several Unificationists were seriously injured, and other centers were also targeted all over France at this time. Klaus Schick, who lived in Lyon at the time, recounts the events on and after January 22, 1976.

On January 22, 1976, the Villa Aublet, a Unification church center in Paris, was bombed, leaving a young woman from Norway seriously injured. Persecution and bomb threats toward Unificationists in France began in 1975 and were fueled by the French media. During an intense time when France had signed the Schengen treaty that blocked True Parents from entering Europe for over three decades, the French media portrayed True Father satirically, as a monster and Nazi. This finally led to the bombing of the church center by a communist group. Other events followed, such as kidnappings and an increasing amount of bomb threats all across France, and the government did little to protect the persecuted Unificationists.

True Father gave Henri Blanchard, the national leader for the Unification church in France, instruction to organize a manifestation to protest the violence against the church. With the headline: “Accepterons–Nous la Violence et le Mensonge?” (“Are We Going to Accept Violence and Lies?”), Unificationists in France stood up for justice. The Paris City Hall was reluctant to give them a permit to protest, but in the end had no choice. The message of the protest was that the French people should not tolerate violence, and—as France prides itself in the words “freedom, equality and brotherhood”—these key values apply to Unificationists just like anyone else.

For more images of the history of Unificationists in France during this time, visit History Revealed.

Do you have a “This Day in History” story from your part of the world that you’d like to share? Submit a story using the form below!

The Birthplace of God’s Work

This week in history, January 18-24:

• True Father leaves North Korea with a loss of followers, and calls it “the saddest day” (January 18, 1951)
• The Cheongpyeong providence begins (January 19, 1995)
• The Barrytown property is purchased (January 21, 1974)
• America honors True Father on his 80th birthday (January 22, 2000)
   

JANUARY 18, 1951

The Saddest Day

Refugees from North Korea.

There have been many “saddest days” in God’s providence. During morning devotions in 2012, True Father referred to one of his early sermons, “Hometown We Miss,” in which he spoke about his life in Heungnam labor camp in North Korea and his subsequent journey to South Korea. He said then, “January 18 … is the saddest day for me.” He explained that he offered great devotion to his followers in North Korea “in front of Heaven … but all of them betrayed me.” True Father recalled that he “wrote a long letter expressing heavenly love and tried to get in contact with them three times” following his release, “but they returned my third letter to me.”

True Father left North Korea carrying that letter with him. He carried it until crossing a bridge in Yeongcheon city in North Gyeongsang Province in the southeast part of the Korean Peninsula. There, he tore up the letter after having read it again and proceeded to Pusan, where he began his mission again in the South.
 

JANUARY 19, 1995

The Cheongpyeong Providence Begins

The land on which the Cheongpyeong Heaven and Earth Training Center now stands was purchased in the late 1960s. On July 12 1971, Unificationists completed construction of the original service hall under True Father’s direction. True Father mapped out his plan for expansion to the west on mountainsides and other locales surrounding Cheongpyeong Lake. The land also served as a Holy Ground and workshop site.

What is termed the “Cheongpyeong Providence” or “Cheongpyeong Works” commenced on January 19, 1995, centered on the spirit world ministry of Soon Ae Hong (known as Dae Mo Nim or “Great Mother”), True Mother’s mother, who ascended in 1989, and Mrs. Hyo Nam Kim, who served as her earthly embodiment. On that day, Dae Mo Nim through Mrs. Hyo Nam Kim removed evil spirits from three Japanese members, marking the first of what would be hundreds of workshops that included not just “separation of spirits” but healing and the “liberation” of ancestors. Cheongpyeong today is the spiritual center of the Unification Church, residence of True Parents and capital of what Unificationists envision as Cheong Il Guk or the “nation of cosmic peace and unity.”
 

JANUARY 21, 1974

Barrytown Property Purchased

An aerial view of UTS.

The Unification Church purchased the former St. Joseph’s Normal Institute, a novitiate and high school run by the Christian Brothers, a Roman Catholic lay order, on January 21, 1974. The purchase included 250 wooded acres bordering the Hudson River 90 miles north of New York City and the historic Massena House, a Hudson Valley mansion originally constructed in 1796 and where 10-year-old Theodore Roosevelt spent the summer in 1868.

True Father had been searching up and down the Hudson River for locations suitable for educational purposes. The Barrytown site met one of his criteria, with mountains, water and woods all visible. True Father reportedly visited the site seventeen times before deciding on the purchase. The “Founder’s Rock” marks the place where he made his decision.

The property initially served as a site for 3-, 7- and 21-day workshops. It later hosted 40-day and 120-day workshops for overseas missionaries and “Barrytown pioneers.” Unification Theological Seminary (UTS), which now offers fully accredited bachelor, master and doctoral degree programs, opened its doors on September 20, 1975, and has graduated some 1,500 students. In recent years, the Barrytown facility has hosted parents’ matching convocations, a variety of educational workshops, and sports festivals.
 

JANUARY 22, 2000

America Honors True Father on His 80th Birthday

A celebration of True Father’s 80th birthday.

More than 3,000 people from across the United States and more than 100 nations packed the ballroom of the Hilton Towers Hotel in Washington, D.C., for America’s celebration of True Father’s 80th birthday on January 22, 2000. Participants included former U.K. Prime Minister Edward Heath, Zambia’s founding President Dr. Kenneth Kaunda, representatives from numerous U.S. universities, institutes and societies, state legislators, international scholars and government ministers as well as representatives from most of the world’s major faiths.

The program included birthday greetings from Washington, D.C., Mayor Anthony A. Williams and a City Council resolution detailing True Father’s contributions to the District of Columbia, the United States and the world, proclaiming “Live for the Sake of Others Day” in his honor. True Parents received large bouquets and cut a huge, 8-tiered cake, representing his 80 years and the eight stages of cosmic victory. True Father delivered a message, “The Path for America and Humanity in the Last Days,” in which he explained the meaning of living for others, God’s love and purpose for the United States, and challenged America to fulfill God’s Will. Afterward Sir Edward Heath and Dr. Kenneth Kaunda were joined by U.S. state legislators and representatives of world peace organizations that True Father founded to present him with the “Peacemaker of the Millennium Award.” Founding American Unificationists, together with current and former Unification Church presidents, honored True Father’s investment in America with the “Forty Years Foundation Award.”

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 January 18–24.

The Greatest Day of Celebration

This week in history, January 11-17: 

• 1,275 couples receive the Holy Marriage Blessing (January 12, 1989)
• True Parents hold the Coronation Ceremony for the Kingship of God (January 13, 2001)
• The global International One World Crusade team departs for Japan (January 14, 1975)
• Won Pak Choi ascends to the spirit world (January 15, 2006)
• The Unification Theological Seminary (UTS) obtains an absolute charter (January 17, 1990)
   

JANUARY 12, 1989

1,275 Couple Holy Blessing

1,275 couples received the Holy Marriage Blessing.

Happy 26th Blessing Anniversary to all 1275 couples and 72 couples!

True Parents blessed 1,275 couples from 87 nations in holy matrimony on January 12, 1989. The ceremony was conducted beginning at 2 p.m. in the Il Hwa Company compound in Yongin, Korea. It followed by one day True Parents’ Holy Marriage Blessing of 72 Unificationist-born couples at the Little Angels Performing Arts Center in Seoul. After the ceremony, representatives of the couples were mobilized into forty-three groups of ten each and spread out across Korea to support witnessing activities and, later, the distribution of the Segye Ilbo newspaper.
 

JANUARY 13, 2001

Coronation Ceremony for the Kingship of God

True Parents held the Coronation Ceremony for the Kingship of God.

There is nothing more fundamental to Unification tradition and central to True Parents’ and members’ core motivation than the desire to liberate the suffering heart of God. According to True Father, the Coronation Ceremony for the Kingship of God, conducted on January 13, 2001, “liberated God’s heart for the first time.” He described it as “the greatest day of celebration in all human history.” As a result, God “could start His new history based on the might and power of true love.” The Coronation Ceremony for the Kingship of God was a crucial building block for True Parents’ declaration of Cheon Il Guk (“the Nation of Cosmic Peace and Unity”) on November 15, 2001, and subsequent church activities.

Some 6,000 Unificationists witnessed the ceremony in the main hall of the Cheonseong Wanglim (“Palace of Heavenly Presence”) at Cheongpyeong Heaven and Earth Training Center in Korea. At the top of a tiered stage area, two white thrones were prepared for the “Royal Parents of Heaven and Earth.” At 7:00 a.m. True Parents entered, flanked by 120 attendant couples. The procession stopped twice, at which time True Father offered prayers. True Parents then placed silver crowns, royal gowns and a scepter on the chairs reserved for God. True Parents lit holy candles and offered bows. A lengthy succession of representatives approached and offered bows. True Father then offered a third prayer. This was followed by congratulatory telegrams, plaques and gifts; a flower presentation; cutting of a celebration cake; cheers of Mansei (“ten thousand years”); and sharing of food from the offering table.

True Father’s Coronation Ceremony Address concluded the three-hour event. In it, he outlined the three “immutable laws” or “articles” of the “constitution of the Kingdom of Heaven”: first, not to “stain the blood lineage,” that is, to maintain sexual purity; second, “not to violate human rights” through discrimination and not to change subordinates’ positions (hiring, firing or transferring them) according to one’s own desire; and third, “not to steal public money” or utilize public property for oneself.
 

JANUARY 14, 1975

Global IOWC Team Departs for Japan

True Father meets global missionaries before they depart to countries around the world.

True Parents long considered the United States to be the gateway to the world. In early 1975, the Church launched activities worldwide based upon its successes in America. The initial step was the creation of a global International One World Crusade (IOWC) team. On January 14, the first global team, which included some 340 American and European members, boarded a chartered jumbo jet in Los Angeles for Tokyo. There they joined forces with an even larger contingent of Japanese members to evangelize and hold Day of Hope rallies in Tokyo, Sendai, Osaka, Nagoya, Kyoto, Hiroshima and Fukuoka. After spending nearly 80 days in Japan, a 500 member-plus global team traveled by ferry to Pusan, South Korea, on March 27. There, from April 1 until May 17, they supported the massively attended Day of Hope festivals in Pusan, Taegu, Seoul, Inchon, Jeonju, Kwangju, Taejon, Cheongju and Chuncheon. These rallies culminated in the World Rally for Korean Freedom held at Yoido Island plaza in Seoul before an estimated crowd of more than a million on June 7, 1975.
 

JANUARY 15, 2006

Ascension of Mrs. Won Bok Choi

Mrs. Won Pak Choi.

Mrs. Won Bok Choi, who fulfilled multiple providential responsibilities in the early history of the Unification Church, ascended at age 91 on January 15, 2006. Mrs. Choi was an associate professor and dean of students at the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Ewha Womans University when she joined the church in 1954. She and four other professors were fired when they refused to leave the church. Prior to True Parents’ Holy Wedding in 1960, Mrs. Choi was assigned to prepare True Mother, and she continued to serve in a mother’s role afterward. She accompanied True Parents on their first three world tours and had major responsibility for the first official translation of Divine Principle into English in 1973. Mrs. Choi was director of the World Mission Department from 1972 to 1977 during the period when the Unification Church sent missionaries worldwide, and she handled all correspondence from them as True Father’s secretary. She also often translated for True Father during that period. She served as the principal of the Little Angels School after 1977 and the first president of the Women’s Federation for World Peace. In 1998, she was blessed to Buddha at Madison Square Garden in New York. At her ascension, True Father bestowed upon her the honorific title Shin Ae Choongmo: “Mother of faith, love and devotion.”

JANUARY 17, 1990

UTS Obtains Absolute Charter

An aerial view of UTS.

Unification Theological Seminary was granted its absolute charter by the New York State Board of Regents on January 17, 1990. This was the culmination of a fifteen-year struggle with the State of New York since the Seminary’s first application. Because of the controversy surrounding the church, the application process was prolonged and UTS 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. On November 21, 1986, the New York State Board of Regents approved by a 12-2 vote the Seminary’s provisional charter. UTS petitioned for its absolute charter in May 1989, and this was granted eight months later by a 14-0 vote. Since 1986, UTS was able to grant degrees to its graduates so long as the state approved. From 1990, UTS was able to grant degrees unconditionally.

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 January 11–17.

Proclaiming a New Age

This week in history, January 4-10:

• Miss Kim begins the American mission
• True Father proclaims the Completed Testament Age
   

JANUARY 4, 1959

Miss Kim Begins the American Mission

Dr. Young Oon Kim (right) with early missionaries.

Dr. Young Oon Kim was the first Unification Church missionary to America. A former professor at Ewha Womans University in Seoul, Miss Kim had done postgraduate work at the University of Toronto and attended international Christian conferences in Germany and Switzerland. She later wrote: “As soon as I discovered the universal value of the Divine Principles and the heavenly dispensation, I began to be concerned with the people of the Western world with whom I had established a cultural bond. Not only did I feel this, but in the rest of the membership there was no one else at that time who could undertake the job of bringing the Principle to the West.”

Miss Kim arrived in Eugene, Oregon, where she had been accepted as a student, in the midst of a raging snowstorm on January 4, 1959. She immediately began witnessing and took up residence in Oakhill, a rural settlement, with several of her most promising contacts. There she worked on an English translation of the Principle, raised members and established patterns of community life until late 1960, when she migrated, along with five Oakhill members, several hundred miles down the coast to San Francisco. In the Bay Area she completed her English translation of the Principle, incorporated the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity (HSA-UWC), and expanded her group, then known as the Unified Family. In 1965, she relocated to Washington, D.C., where she directed a fluctuating network of centers throughout the United States and Western Europe until 1972.
 

JANUARY 10, 1993

True Father Proclaims the Completed Testament Age

After proclaiming the Completed Testament Age on January 10, True Parents toured the nation and spoke on this theme.

On August 24, 1992, at the first World Culture and Sports Festival (WCSF) and on the foundation of the Cold War’s end, True Father declared that he and True Mother “are the True Parents of all humanity … the Savior, the Lord of the Second Advent, the Messiah.” It was hard to imagine how True Father could proclaim anything more dramatic than that. However, he may have succeeded in doing so by proclaiming the beginning of a whole new historical epoch. In a speech, “The Reappearance of the Second Coming and the Completed Testament Era,” delivered at Belvedere International Training Center, Tarrytown, New York, on January 10, 1993, True Father announced “the transition today to the Completed Testament Era.” Details as to the precise nature of the new epoch were as yet sketchy, but it was understood to involve a fundamental shift in the order of salvation. As one church leader explained, “Previously, religious organizations have always been centered upon the salvation of the individual, but we have now progressed to the salvation of the family.”

The implications of this were momentous. Essentially it signaled a radical new beginning for Unificationism and rendered all previous religious expressions, including that of the Unification Church, obsolete. Within a few years, the church began to reconfigure itself as a “Family Federation,” developed theological concepts and terminology reflective of the shift, and launched efforts to realize a restored and purified Garden of Eden. The gateway to the Completed Testament Age (CTA) was the Blessing, which extended far beyond the Unificationist community during the 1990s. The immediate concern was to proclaim the message of the new age. On April 10, 1993, the statement “True Parents and the Completed Testament Age” was published in the newspapers of 160 nations. Then, in May 1993, True Parents began a tour of thirty-three U.S. cities under the same theme. True Mother spoke on Capitol Hill and in the United Nations, which served as a springboard to proclaiming the CTA message worldwide.

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 January 4–10.

The Spirit and Physical World Are One96

This Week in History, December 28-January 3:

• The “Cloud of Witnesses” messages are collected from spirit world
• The News World begins publication
• God’s Day is established
• True Father declares the Day of Victory of Love
   

DECEMBER 28, 2001

Letter from God

True Father understood Cheon Il Guk to be the nation of “cosmic” peace and unity. As such, it encompassed not only the visible world but the totality of creation, both physical and spiritual. As he expressed it, “The world has entered an age in which the spirit world and physical world can become one and communicate freely with each other.” Communication with the spirit world was nothing new to the Unification Church. In fact, since 1935 when he encountered and experienced a divine call from Jesus, True Father had carried on a ministry to spirit world in parallel with his ministry on earth. For most of that time this was not a matter of public knowledge. With the proclamation of Cheon Il Guk this changed. True Father insisted that messages from the spirit world be disseminated as widely as possible.

The most prominent of these was “The Cloud of Witnesses,” a collection of messages which derived from “seminars” in the spirit world, initially for four religious founders (Jesus, Buddha, Confucius and Muhammad) and subsequently for leaders in their traditions as well as for famous communists. The “Cloud of Witnesses” messages culminated in a “Letter from God,” addressed to “My beloved True Parent” and dated December 28, 2001. If True Father’s lifelong goal was “to melt the block of ice frozen in the heart of God,” the letter indicated that he had succeeded.

God, who self-identified as “Jehovah, the God of all humankind,” stated: “My gratitude and appreciation for you is beyond words. The word ‘love’ is inadequate to express My feelings. … I want to embrace you in My bosom and never let you go! I would carry you on My back and never let your feet touch the ground! I would hold you, and we would talk together all night long.” Apart from this, God validated True Father’s position, stating, “You have been victorious on every level and have restored to its proper position everything that had fallen. … Hence, Jehovah, the God of all humankind, hereby bestows upon His beloved True Parent the title King of all kings.” The Unification Church subsequently published “The Cloud of Witnesses” and “Letter from God” in space purchased from leading newspapers in all fifty states.
 

DECEMBER 31, 1976

The News World Begins Publication

Creation of a media network was not originally part of True Father’s thinking or planning for the American mission. However, the print and electronic media increasingly vilified his work. This created a climate of extreme hostility and frustrated the Unification Church’s witnessing efforts. True Father, in turn, recognized the "awesome power" of the media "to create or to destroy."

Therefore, in October 1976, he assembled a dozen or so Unificationists with journalism degrees and "set the deadline" for producing the first issue of a new daily newspaper in New York City on December 31, the last day of the United States’ bicentennial year. The vision of ushering in the United States’ third century "with a new era of modern journalism" was compelling. Nevertheless, according to one account, "It seemed impossible to start a daily newspaper literally from scratch, using inexperienced people, in dilapidated offices, in less than three months." Still, "second-hand desks and typewriters were purchased," and in November "the few who had journalism degrees … gave the first staff of about sixty a crash course in journalism." On December 31, the presses rolled early in the morning and the first issue of The News World hit the streets of New York.

Replete with a color photograph featured each morning on the front page and a motto that described it as "New York’s oldest daily color newspaper," The News World was a twenty-four-page general-interest daily with a staff of 200, the bulk of whom were Unificationists. It was eventually housed in the former Tiffany Building on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, which Unificationists purchased. The News World was the only paper to publish during the New York City power blackout of 1977 and during a later three-month newspaper strike, when its circulation soared to 400,000 daily. The paper’s boldest move was to predict a "[Ronald] Reagan Landslide" in a banner headline on Election Day, November 4, 1980, followed by an equally large banner headline the following day which read, “Thank God! We Were Right!” The News World gave birth to several other New York papers, including Noticias Del Mundo, a Korean-language daily, a Harlem weekly, and a press service, Free Press International. It later changed its name to New York City Tribune and eventually gave way to the media network’s flagship newspaper, The Washington Times.
 

JANUARY 1, 1968

God’s Day Established

God’s Day was the last of the Unification Church’s original four Holy Days to be established after Parents Day (3.1.60 lunar), Children’s Day (10.1.60 lunar) and Day of All Things (5.1.63 lunar). It also was the only one of the original four Holy Days celebrated according to the Gregorian (solar) calendar, beginning January 1, 1968. True Father observed that if humankind’s original parents had not fallen and had achieved perfection, they would have received God’s blessing and that day would have been God’s Day. As it was, True Parents had to restore and install each of the original Holy Days, representative of God’s three blessings, over seven years following their Holy Wedding in 1960. In 1996, True Father added the word “True” to God’s Day and the other original Holy Days. In 2010, True Father established the “Heavenly Calendar,” which displaced the Gregorian calendar in Unificationist observances and corresponded in most respects with the lunar calendar. As a result, from 2011, True God’s Day was no longer observed on January 1 but on the first day of the first month of the Heavenly Calendar (February 3 of that year). On January 7, 2013, True Mother announced that Unificationists should address God as “Heavenly Parent.” Thereafter, True God’s Day became “True Heavenly Parent Day.”
 

JANUARY 2, 1984

The Day of Victory of Love

The Day of Victory of Love, observed on January 2, commemorates the passing of Heung Jin Moon, True Parents’ second son. He was critically injured in a car accident north of Poughkeepsie, New York, on December 22, 1983, while returning with two companions to East Garden in Tarrytown, New York from the Unification Theological Seminary in Redhook, New York. Though seriously injured, his two friends survived because, according to their testimony, Heung Jin Moon swerved the car at the last moment to take the brunt of the impact himself and save them. He suffered massive head injuries and lingered in a coma for ten days before ascending at 1:15 a.m. on January 2, 1984. He was seventeen. By all accounts, he was an exemplary son. True Father described him as “the most exemplary, obedient son, with the greatest piety … the most comforting son to Mother and me.”

True Parents were out of the country at the time of the accident, conducting a series of Victory over Communism rallies in Korea. A number of spiritualists had communicated to them that December 1983 was a “very dangerous time” and that True Father “must absolutely be careful.” True Father later testified that at the last rally in Kwangju, a left-leaning city with a reputation for rebelliousness, 36 terrorists were prepared to attack but were prevented from doing so because “the auditorium was already completely packed by the time they arrived.” During True Father’s speech in Kwangju, Heung Jin Moon’s accident occurred. According to True Father, “Satan lost his condition to attack me and then turned his attention to the next best, my second son.”

Having laid down his life for his friends and standing as a substitute for his father, Heung Jin Moon occupied what True Father described as “the position of the living Jesus in the Unification Church.” While Heung Jin Moon lay in a coma, True Parents conducted a ceremony in the hospital chapel in which, on the foundation of Heung Jin Moon’s “precious sacrifice,” they called for the unity of Judaism, Christianity and the Unification Church; the unity of Korea, Japan and the United States; the unification of True Parents and their family and the members of the Unification Church, as well as all races of the world. After Heung Jin Moon’s ascension, True Parents established the Day of Victory of Love.

The Day of Victory of Love found a permanent liturgical expression in the church’s tradition of Seonghwa (“ascension and harmony”) ceremonies, which True Parents established after Heung Jin Moon’s own ascension. Unlike traditional funerals, these ceremonies were not to be gloomy or sad but “beautiful, enlightening and joyful,” using bright or light colors. True Father explained:

“In the secular world, death signifies the end of life. However, in our world, death is like a rebirth or a new birth into another world. Particularly those who give their life for the purpose of the Kingdom of Heaven and for the sake of the movement are special heroes.

For that reason, we must not make those occasions gloomy or sad or feel discouraged. … If we here on earth become very mournful and gloomy, it is like pulling the person who is going up to the heavens down to the ground. This is a birth from the second universal mother’s womb into another world, just like when a baby emerges from its first mother’s womb.

A Seonghwa ceremony is actually comparable to a wedding, when men and women get married. It’s not a sorrowful occasion at all. It’s like an insect coming out of its cocoon, getting rid of a shackle and becoming a new body and a new existence, a new entity. That’s exactly the same kind of process.

In our way of life and tradition, spirit world and physical world are one, and by our living up to that kind of ideal, we bring the two worlds together into one.”
 

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 December 28 – January 3.

Angels We Have Heard on High

This week in history, December 21-27:

• True Parents organized the Peace King Coronation of Jesus
• Heung Jin Moon was in a fatal car accident
• The first God Conference was held
• The Little Angels performed at the United Nations
   

DECEMBER 22, 2003

Peace King Coronation of Jesus

A rally was held at Jerusalem’s Peace Park.

True Parents set important conditions, centered on the American Clergy Leadership Conference (ACLC), for the reconciliation of the Abrahamic faith traditions of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. In 2003, True Father called upon Christian clergy to “exchange the cross for a crown” as a foundation for traveling to the Holy Land and reconciling with their Jewish brethren. Some 131 members of the clergy did so and went to Jerusalem, where they met a like number of Israeli rabbis and jointly signed the Jerusalem Declaration, which repented for “dark parts of our past” and sought a “bright future” together.

Dozens of subsequent pilgrimages were conducted as part of the “Middle East Peace Initiative” (MEPI). True Father called for a “major providential mobilization” centering on December 22 as an Interreligious and International Day of Prayer for Peace in the Middle East. The day’s centerpiece was a rally at Jerusalem’s Peace Park which included a coronation of Jesus.

For Unificationists, this was a condition that “the chosen people of Israel embraced and welcomed Jesus and crowned him as the King of Peace,” an action that “reversed all that occurred 2,000 years ago.” Two Muslims presented a Jewish professor with a golden menorah as a symbol of reconciliation with the Jews. After that, Christian leaders presented a robe to a Muslim representative, symbolizing the confirmation that Muhammad is God’s prophet. Michael Jenkins, the rally’s master of ceremonies, proclaimed, “Jesus, Moses and Muhammad are one. The era of conversion is over, and the Era of the Peace Kingdom is now realized.”
 

DECEMBER 22, 1983

Heung Jin Moon in Car Accident

Heung Jin Moon ascended at age seventeen.

Heung Jin Moon, True Parents’ second son, was critically injured in a car accident on Route 9 just north of Poughkeepsie, New York, on December 22, 1983. He was traveling south from Unification Theological Seminary in Barrytown with two companions when a tractor-trailer jackknifed on an icy stretch of road and collided with the Honda Civic that Heung Jin was driving. Though seriously injured, his two friends survived because, as they testified, Heung Jin swerved the car at the last moment to take the brunt of the impact himself and save them. Heung Jin suffered massive head injuries and lingered in a coma for ten days before expiring at 1:18 a.m. on January 2, 1984. He was seventeen. By all accounts, he was an exemplary son. Rev. Moon described him as “the most exemplary, obedient son, with the greatest piety … the most comforting son to Mother and me.”

True Parents were out of the country at the time of the accident, conducting a series of Victory over Communism rallies in Korea. A number of spiritualists had communicated to them that December 1983 was a “very dangerous time” and that True Father “must absolutely be careful.” True Father later testified that at the last rally in Kwangju, a left-leaning city with a reputation for rebelliousness, 36 terrorists were prepared to attack but were prevented from doing so because “the auditorium was already completely packed by the time they arrived.” With another 5,000 people outside, they “had absolutely no way to enter.” During True Father’s speech in Kwangju, Heung Jin Nim’s accident occurred. According to True Father, “Satan lost his condition to attack me and then turned his attention to the next best, my second son.”
 

DECEMBER 26, 1981

The First God Conference

The first God Conference, entitled “God: The Contemporary Discussion,” was held from December 22 to 31, 1981 on the island of Maui, Hawaii. Dr. Frederick Sontag, distinguished professor of philosophy at the University of Pomona and author of Sun Myung Moon and the Unification Church (Abingdon, 1977), suggested the conference as an “internal” equivalent of the annual International Conference on the Unity of the Sciences (ICUS). The conference attracted 170 participants from 33 countries and all major religions traditions. Seventy-five papers were presented, twenty-two of which were selected for inclusion in a resulting book, God: The Contemporary Discussion (1982).

The Youth Seminar on World Religions (YSWR) emerged out of the first God Conference. From 1982 to 1984 it sponsored annual seven-week around-the-world pilgrimages to sites associated with the religious traditions of Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism and Unificationism for 150 students and professors. This expanded the movement’s ecumenical and inter-religious network and involved religious scholars of the highest rank, including Huston Smith, author of The World’s Religions and one of the country’s foremost authorities on world faiths, who with his wife co-chaired the first two Youth Seminars and served as chair of the fourth God Conference.

DECEMBER 27, 1973

Little Angels Benefit Performance at the United Nations

True Father conceived the idea of forming a Korean children’s dance troupe “as a means of promoting world peace and sharing the Korean culture throughout the world.” He asked Dr. Bo Hi Pak to take responsibility for assembling the group. Dr. Pak agreed, and he traveled back and forth between the United States and Korea in developing the “Little Angels” from 1962 to 1964. The Little Angels’ inaugural tour of the United States in 1965 was difficult, and in many cases “the performers outnumbered the audience.” However, their tours were increasingly successful, and by 1971 they had performed on national television, at the 1968 Summer Olympic Games at Mexico City, and before numerous heads of state including U.S. President Richard Nixon and President Park Chung-hee of the Republic of Korea, as well as at a Royal Command Performance before Queen Elizabeth II, who broke with protocol by receiving the performers and greeting each of them, escorted by Dr. Pak. On December 27, 1973, the United Nations opened its General Assembly Hall for the first time for a cultural performance, a gala benefit for UNICEF by the Little Angels. The New York Times reviewer wrote, “Judging from the standing ovation the children received, their performance of sometimes exotic national dance to music played on replicas of ancient Korean instruments has a universal appeal.” True Parents also received a standing ovation when they were introduced as The Little Angels’ founders.
 

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 December 21 – 27.

Ringing in the Holidays with Interfaith Dialogue

This week in history, December 14-20:

• Unificationists gather at President Nixon’s National Christmas Tree Lighting, December 14, 1973
• True Father launches CAUSA International, December 15, 1980
• True Parents arrive in Washington, D.C., December 18, 1971
• The Inter-Religious Federation for World Peace sponsors an interfaith conference, December 18, 1998
• A World Summit of Muslim leaders is held, December 20, 2001
   

DECEMBER 14, 1973

National Christmas Tree Lighting

A flyer for the national prayer on December 19, 1973.

True Father issued his “Answer to Watergate” on November 30, 1973. He then organized the  National Prayer and Fast for the Watergate Crisis Committee (NPFWC), which organized vigils, rallies, letter-writing and leafleting in all 50 states in accordance with its “Forgive, Love, Unite” theme. A highlight was the December 1973 National Christmas Tree Lighting at which President Richard Nixon turned on the lights of a new permanent national Christmas tree near the White House. According to one press account, the president “was greeted by several thousand wildly cheering young supporters who carried signs that read ‘God Loves America. God Loves Nixon. Support the President.’” Unificationists gathered later that evening at Lafayette Park across from the White House for a candlelight rally during which President Nixon emerged from the White House and crossed over to the park with a security escort to greet and thank them. NPFWC President Neil Salonen presented the president with a poster-size Christmas card and a huge candle which he told the president was big enough to burn for the duration of his term.
 

DECEMBER 15, 1980

The CAUSA Providence Begins

Shortly after its launch, CAUSA holds a workshop for students in Bolivia.

True Father launched CAUSA International in 1980, when he asked Dr. Bo Hi Pak to visit political leaders of countries in South America and offer a unique form of assistance both in the defense against communism and in bringing about a renaissance of morality and virtue. At the same time, True Father selected a group of graduates of the Unification Theological Seminary—including Thomas Ward, William Selig, Beatriz Gonzalez, Juan Sanchis, Jean Jonet and Paul Perry—to study intensively with Dr. Sang Hun Lee in preparation for offering programs patterned after Dr. Lee’s Victory over Communism presentations. The threat of further communist inroads into the Americas, following the fall of Nicaragua to the Sandinistas in 1979, was a driving force behind the development of CAUSA. True Father took this situation seriously enough to cancel his 60th birthday celebration—normally an important occasion in Oriental tradition—in favor of CAUSA preparation.

The first country to request onsite CAUSA training was Bolivia. On December 15, 1980, U.S.-based CAUSA lecturers traveled to a tiny hamlet in the mountains of Bolivia to lecture to 45 students who previously had been indoctrinated in Marxist theory. Prior to their departure, True Father guided the lecturers, telling them:

The CAUSA movement is an ideological movement, not an academic one. If you don’t bring about a revolution in people’s heart and character, you will have failed. To bring the revolution, you have to move their hearts. Don’t just lecture but revive people’s souls. Prepare for a two-hour talk by praying for six hours. What I’m saying is, use spiritual power to bring about a reformation in the people. You should take leftist sympathizers and make brave VOC fighters out of them.

The overwhelming success of the 10-day program led to seminars in Paraguay, Uruguay, Chile, Argentina and Brazil. The CAUSA providence greatly expanded in the years ahead to the remainder of South America, Central America and the United States.
 

DECEMBER 18, 1971

True Parents Arrive in Washington, D.C.

The Kennedy Center is where the Little Angels played the day they greeted True Father in Washington, D.C.

Having been denied visas on arriving in Los Angeles on December 11, 1971, because of alleged “communist affiliations,” True Parents traveled to Toronto, Canada. There, due to the intervention of U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond (R-SC), who was familiar with True Father’s Victory over Communism work, their situation was clarified and they arrived in Washington, D.C., on December 18. Dr. Bo Hi Pak, who welcomed True Parents, stated that it “pained” him that he and others had not made “the necessary social and political preparations” for True Parents. However, it comforted him that the Little Angels were scheduled to perform that very night at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and they were all at the airport to greet True Parents. True Father, he said, “was extremely pleased with this unexpected welcome.”

That night, True Parents’ party sat in the VIP section of the balcony at the Kennedy Center. Dr. Pak noted, “More than a hundred senators, congressmen and other notables were there with their families, including Sen. J.W. Fulbright [D-Ark], Secretary of Defense Melvin R. Laird, and several other Cabinet-level officials.” There were ambassadors from around a hundred countries, he said, with more than 2,200 people in the sold-out crowd. Dr. Pak commented, “In a symbolic sense, the Little Angels’ invitational performance was a welcoming banquet held in celebration of Reverend Moon’s arrival in America that day. … It could also be said that Reverend Moon was the real host of that performance.” At the conclusion, Dr. Pak introduced True Father as the Little Angels’ founder and invited everyone to welcome him with a round of applause. According to Dr. Pak, “the leading figures from all walks of life in the United States were receiving the Lord for the first time and, symbolically, were giving him an enthusiastic welcome.”
 

DECEMBER 18, 1998

Realizing the Interfaith Ideal: Action beyond Dialogue

True Father speaks at the IRFWP conference.

The Inter-Religious Federation for World Peace (IRFWP) sponsored an important conference, “Realizing the Interfaith Ideal: Action beyond Dialogue,” in Washington, D.C., from December 18 to 20, 1998. The “concept for the conference,” according to its coordinator, Dr. Frank Kaufmann, “revolved around an initiative for religious leaders to work formally with the United Nations.” Dr. Kaufmann described the response of UN representatives present as “gratifying” in that they acknowledged the conference initiative to be “inspired, timely, necessary and doable.” True Father’s banquet address at The Washington Times expanded on the UN theme. He stated, “The path to world peace will be incomplete if we rely merely on the political, economic and military functions of the United Nations. … The more internal and spiritual aspects can be reached only through religious teaching and through the unity and united actions of the world’s religions.” The conference was significant in that it planted the seed for True Father’s call for “a religious assembly, or council of religious representatives, within the structure of the United Nations” less than two years later at Assembly 2000.

DECEMBER 20, 2001

World Summit of Muslim Leaders

Former President of Indonesia, Abdurrahman Wahid, met with True Father at the World Summit of Muslim Leaders.

A little more than a month after the tragic events of 9/11, True Father hosted Assembly 2001, “Global Violence: Crisis and Hope,” in New York City from October 19 to 22, 2001. It convened 380 political and religious leaders from 101 nations. During the conference, True Father met with Abdurrahman Wahid, the former president of Indonesia and longtime head of the Nahdlatul Ulama, the largest independent Muslim organization in the world. True Father also met with Nation of Islam leader Minister Louis Farrakhan and urged the two to work together. A month later at a breakfast meeting with Unificationist leaders, True Father suddenly insisted, “Muslims should hold a peace meeting before the end of the year. Ask H.E. Wahid and Minister Farrakhan if they will convene such a conference. I will help if needed.” Dr. Frank Kaufmann reported, “Within 22 days, 180 Muslim leaders from 51 countries sat in the ballroom of the newly opened JW Marriott Jakarta to welcome speakers for the opening plenary of the World Summit of Muslim Leaders discussing Islam and a future world of peace.” Minister Farrakhan and H.E. Wahid acted as co-conveners ably supported by IRFWP staff. Amid the confusion and retaliatory “war on terror,” True Father was constant in his emphasis on interreligious and international cooperation. This was evident in the Middle East Peace Initiative (MEPI) organized by the Universal Peace Federation and associated peace efforts in the post 9/11 era.
 

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 December 14 – 20.

With a Mission to Unite

This week in history, December 7-13:

• True Parents conducted an “Interreligious and International World Peace Blessing and Marriage Rededication Ceremony”, December 7, 2002
• True Parents arrived in America, December 11, 1971
• True Father returned to Korea after Danbury, December 11, 1985
   

December 7, 2002

A National Blessing for Reconciliation

The Interreligious and International World Peace Blessing and Marriage Rededication Ceremony.

True Parents conducted an “Interreligious and International World Peace Blessing and Marriage Rededication Ceremony” on December 7, 2002. It was the fourth in a series of clergy and interreligious blessings conducted during that year. This Holy Marriage Blessing, also referred to as the “National Blessing for Reconciliation,” marked the 61st anniversary of the Japanese bombing raid on Pearl Harbor. It included some 300 Japanese leaders who expressed their wish for reconciliation among former enemy nations. More than 1,200 couples filled the Marriott Crystal Gateway in Arlington, Virginia, which was the main Blessing venue. The Rev. Dr. E.V. Hill, a nationally famous pastor and friend of presidents, participated and said in his public remarks, “God meant for me to be with you. All races and religions are here. I am meant to be with you and know you and become your brother.” There was a reconciliation ceremony for three representatives of the Abrahamic faiths and others for representatives of the communist and democratic worlds, white and black pastors, and for Native Americans. It was noteworthy that American Clergy Leadership Conference (ACLC) pastors formed a highly effective outreach team in supporting the Holy Marriage Blessing.
 

December 11, 1971

True Parents Arrive in America

True Parents at the Los Angeles airport.

Accompanied by Mrs. Won Bok Choi, Rev.. Young Hwi Kim (president, HSA-UWC Korea) and Mr. Mitsuharu Ishii (director, HSA-UWC Business Enterprises, Japan), True Parents arrived in Los Angeles, California, on December 11, 1971, to begin a new phase in their global ministry. However, things did not go smoothly: They were denied visas, ironically, because of alleged communist affiliations. As a consequence, the group flew to Toronto, Canada, the next day. This problem was straightened out over the following week, thanks to high-level contacts that U.S. Unificationists had cultivated through the Freedom Leadership Foundation (FLF). Cleared to enter the United States, True Parents arrived in Washington, D.C., on December 18. It was there that True Father announced his plan to hold revival meetings in major U.S. cities. As the Unification Church in America to this point consisted of disparate missionary groups, it is appropriate to date the birth of the church in America from True Parents’ arrival. And since True Father had not spoken publicly either in Korea or Japan, the birth of the U.S. church coincided with the beginning of a new phase in his public ministry.
 

December 11, 1985

True Father Returns to Korea after Danbury

True Father delivers the Citizens’ Federation Founder’s Address.

The “Danbury Course” was decisive in sparking widespread grassroots support for True Father across the United States from minority communities and those concerned about religious and civil liberties. In fact, a broad spectrum of 1,600 clergy and prominent laypeople welcomed True Father back from prison at a “God and Freedom” banquet held in his honor at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, D.C. A similar event occurred in Korea on December 11, 1985, when some 2,300 dignitaries from a diversity of fields, including a former prime minister of the Republic of Korea, attended a welcoming banquet at the Hilton Hotel Convention Center to pay tribute to the conclusion of True Father’s 40-year ministry and to welcome him back to his homeland. Prime Minister Yasuhiro Nakasone of Japan and five former presidents of Latin American countries presented gifts and plaques of appreciation. From this point, True Parents initiated activities in Korea through the Korean Root-Finding Association, the Citizens’ Federation for the Unification of the Fatherland, the Segye Ilbo newspaper, business investments and cultural work that would culminate in his meeting with North Korean President Kim Il Sung in 1991.
 

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 December 7 – 13.

“Forgive, Love, Unite!”

This week in history, November 30-December 6:

• True Father’s “Answer to Watergate” statement appears in newspapers in 21 cities, November 30, 1973
• Over 1000 women who had received the Holy Marriage Blessing go to live in the Korean Peninsula for three years, December 1, 1970
• True Father leaves Pyongyang and goes to South Korea, December 2, 1950
• The first 40-Day Inter-Religious Leadership Seminar for Muslims is held, December 2, 1990
• True Parents meet Kim Il Sung, December 6, 1991
   

  NOVEMBER 30, 1973

  True Father’s “Answer to Watergate: Forgive, Love, Unite!”

True Father’s “Answer to Watergate” statement appeared in newspapers in 21 cities.

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.
 

DECEMBER 1, 1970

Korean Blessed Wives Depart for Three-Year Condition

It had been a tradition of the Korean church for Unificationists to take part in summer and winter 40-day evangelical campaigns, later termed “pioneer witnessing” in Japan. However, on December 1, 1970, one hundred twenty teams consisting of 1,200 women who had received the Holy Marriage Blessing of the Unification Church went to 120 locations throughout the Korean Peninsula for three years. This necessitated a great deal of sacrifice, and in some instances, mothers placed their children with relatives or even in orphanages. The purpose of the mobilization was to consolidate the church’s foundation in Korea as a basis for True Parents to launch their global ministry. There was a good deal of public negativity at first, but according to True Father, “After two years passed, public opinion was unanimous that if all the Korean people loved their country as much as [Unificationists], then indeed the nation would be saved.” He noted that Korean Unificationists had “successfully fulfilled their course” and “I could come out of Korea for the worldwide dispensation.”
 

DECEMBER 2, 1950

True Father Departs Pyongyang for the South

The North-South Korean border during the Korean War.

True Father’s ministry to North Korea, which began in June 1946, ended on December 2, 1950, when he left Pyongyang for the South in advance of the invading Chinese army. He departed with Won Pil Kim, his “first disciple,” and Jung Hwa Park, a follower from Heungnam prison camp who had a broken leg and whom True Father alternately carried and pushed on a bicycle on the route south. True Father had been released from Heungnam on October 14, spent ten days walking to Pyongyang and forty days there seeking former followers, most of whom he didn’t find. Won Pil Kim testified, “As we left Pyongyang … the city seemed to be totally on fire because of the many secret, confidential documents being burned. As Father looked around, he cried to see the condition of Pyongyang.” True Father previously had told them, “I came to make Pyongyang the second Jerusalem, but it rejected me and sent me to prison.”
 

DECEMBER 2, 1990

The First 40-Day Inter-Religious Leadership Seminar for Muslims

True Parents and the Grand Mufti of Syria.

Unknown to most, Unificationists had cultivated contacts within the Muslim world since the early 1980s. While conventional mission work was exceedingly difficult, the Middle East Times gave the movement a presence in the region. In addition, the Professors World Peace Academy (PWPA) held a series of six highly successful conferences that brought together Arabs, Israelis, Greeks and Turks on a variety of topics. On the foundation of these meetings, the Council for the World’s Religions convened several conferences of high-level Muslim religious leaders, including the grand muftis of Syria and Yemen.

As a result of several audiences with True Parents, the grand mufti of Syria agreed to send forty core followers to New York for a forty-day Inter-Religious Leadership Seminar (IRLS) that included three cycles of the Unification Principle, beginning December 2, 1990. The grand mufti of Yemen with forty participants from his country took part in the second IRLS from April 21 to May 31, 1991. They were followed by separate Egyptian, Jordanian, Turkish and Sudanese groups. These activities culminated on April 10, 1992, when forty-two Muslim couples took part in a Holy Marriage Blessing of the Unification Church in Seoul, Korea. True Father termed the participation of Muslims in the wedding “a miracle.” In effect, it broke an interreligious barrier, enabling True Parents to extend the Blessing to people other than Unificationists.

DECEMBER 6, 1991

True Parents Meet Kim Il Sung

After much preparation, True Parents have a successful meeting with Kim Il Sung.

True Parents met North Korean President Kim Il Sung on December 6, 1991. Their meeting was the high point of a week-long visit to North Korea that had begun on November 30. It also culminated more than four decades of True Father’s public work as he returned to the land of his birth, upbringing and call to ministry. More than that, it encapsulated and vindicated True Parents’ life course as they turned a former enemy into a friend. True Father stated on his return:

“No one can claim more justification than I for harboring feelings of ill will against North Korea. I received severe persecution from the current government of North Korea because of my position as a religious leader and my unswerving anticommunist principles. I was tortured harshly and then imprisoned for nearly three years in a labor camp. There I witnessed the deaths of many who also had been imprisoned without cause. …

Now I have visited North Korea in the spirit of true love. True love is love that loves even that which cannot be loved. …

As I set foot in Pyongyang, my heart was as clear as the autumn sky. I did not feel that I was entering the house of my enemy, but rather that I was returning to my hometown to visit the house of my brother. I carried with me to North Korea the principle that I have always lived by: that is, to forgive, love and unite.”

Still, it wasn’t easy. North Koreans were shocked by the manner and extent to which True Father criticized their ideology. Besides saying, “Juche ideology is not going to work. … The world is not this small. … You people are in … [a] cave,” True Father made several staggering proposals. In one meeting he asked the government officials in the audience to persuade Kim Il Sung to place a large announcement in the North Korean newspaper instructing that the 30,000 to 40,000 spies and agents in the South surrender to Rev. Moon and be instructed in his headwing ideology. In another session, True Father stated that he had to be the initiator and leader of reunification efforts, with Kim Il Sung and South Korean President Roh Tae-woo working as deputies under him.

North Korean officials who had dealt with True Father were fearful of a disastrous encounter with their leader. However, their fears were misplaced. Kim Il Sung directed that True Father’s speech at an opening banquet be published in North Korea’s only newspaper, Rodong Shinmun, and it was, word for word, including all references to God. He also overruled his subordinates and insisted that he wanted not only to meet Rev. Moon but also “to have lunch with him as well.” According to Dr. Bo Hi Pak, “The big man recognized the big man.” Significantly Kim Il Sung chose to meet True Parents at his Hamheung palace, about one hundred and fifty miles from Pyongyang, near Heungnam. In fact, the route from the state guesthouse to Kim Il Sung’s residence passed right by the Heungnam prison and fertilizer plant where True Father had been imprisoned for two years and eight months from 1948 to 1950. Dr. Pak speculated that this was a symbolic apology for earlier mistreatment.

On meeting, True Father and Kin Il Sung gave one another “a big bear hug.” Their private 90-minute conference went exceedingly well, with True Father cordially presenting his ideas for Korean reunification and Kim Il Sung reportedly initiating applause and saying “thank you” three times. They exchanged hunting and fishing stories during the two-and-a-half-hour luncheon and afterward strolled hand in hand down a long hallway for official pictures. The Pyongyang newspaper carried a large front-page photo of them holding hands with big smiles on their faces, something that North Korea experts regarded as extraordinary. Later, the Segye Ilbo carried the same photograph. Kim Il Sung reportedly requested True Father to arrange a meeting with U.S. President George H.W. Bush. He also offered True Father first rights to develop North Korea’s Diamond Mountains as a tourist area. They both agreed to cooperate in establishing a place where members of separated families could meet and in facilitating the exchange of mail. Kim Il Sung told True Father that he would preserve his birthplace as a shrine and that he was welcome to return any time.

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 November 30 – December 6.

The Heart of a Parent

This week in history, November 23-29:

• The first ICUS conference is held, November 23, 1972
• Tiempos Del Mundo is launched, November 23, 1986
• True Parents visit Oceania for the first time, November 26, 1992
• True Parents prepare to meet with Kim Il Sung, November 28, 1991
• True Parents bless 3.6 million couples in Holy Marriage, November 29, 1997

November 23, 1972

First ICUS Conference

A session from the first ICUS conference.

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.
 

November 23, 1986

Launch of Tiempos Del Mundo

President Bush holding a copy of Tiempos Del Mundo at its inauguration.

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 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.”
 

November 26, 1992

True Parents First Visit to Oceania

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.”

November 28, 1991

True Parents Prepare for Meeting with Kim Il Sung

True Father and Kim Il Sung.

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.”
 

November 29, 1997

Holy Marriage Blessing of 3.6 Million Couples

An aerial view of the 3.6 Million Couple Holy Marriage Blessing.

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.
 

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 November 23-29.

What Our World Needs Most

This week in history, November 16-22:

• A Soviet journalist interviews True Father
• True Father is released from Pyongyang Jail
• Young Oon Kim relocates to San Francisco
• UTS is granted a “provisional charter” by the State of New York
   

November 17, 1989

Soviet Journalist Interviews True Father

The Soviet interview with True Father was reprinted in major U.S. newspapers.

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 Mikhail 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.
 

November 21, 1946

True Father Released from Pyongyang Jail

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.

 
November 21, 1960

Young Oon Kim Relocates to San Francisco

Young Oon Kim with early members gathered at Oak Hill.

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.
 

November 21, 1986

UTS Granted “Provisional Charter” by the State of New York

An aerial view of UTS.

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.

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 November 16-22.

Connecting Nations and Religions

This week in history, November 9-16:

• True Father proposes an international highway
• David S.C. Kim’s Seonghwa (ascension) ceremony is held
• Sang Ik “Papa-san” Choi arrives in San Francisco
• True Father is awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the University of La Plata
• The first Assembly of the World’s Religions is held
   

NOVEMBER 10, 1981

True Father Proposes International Highway

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” which 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.”
 

NOVEMBER 10, 2011

David S.C. Kim’s Seonghwa Ceremony

David S.C. Kim working with the One World Crusade.

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.”

The Seonghwa Ceremony for David S.C. Kim was held at the Unification Theological Seminary.

NOVEMBER 12, 1965

Mr. Sang Ik “Papa-san” Choi Arrives in San Francisco

True Father with Mr. Sang Ik “Papa-san” Choi prior to his departure as a missionary

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.
 

NOVEMBER 15, 1984

True Father Awarded Honorary Doctorate by the University of La Plata

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.
 

NOVEMBER 15, 1985

The First Assembly of the World’s Religions

Dr. Huston Smith, author on world religions, greets True Father at the assembly.

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.

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 November 9-15.

Breakthroughs of Peace

This week in history: November 2-8

• The CAUSA International Headquarters building has its grand opening
• True Mother’s mother, Soon Ae Hong, ascends into the spirit world
• Sung Hwa University is established
• The News World predicts a Reagan landslide
• True Father is admitted to the United Kingdom after 27 years
   

November 2, 1983

Dedication of CAUSA International Headquarters

True Parents dedicate the CAUSA International Headquarters.

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.
 

November 3, 1989

Ascension of Mother Soon Ae Hong

True Father’s calligraphy for Soon Ae Hong at her Seonghwa (ascension) ceremony.

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.
 

November 3, 1989

Sung Hwa University Established

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.”
 

November 4, 1980

The News World Predicts “Reagan Landslide”

Ronald Reagan holding a copy of the News World, which predicted Reagan’s landslide victory on Election Day morning, November 4, 1980.

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 Worldwas a twenty-four 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.

November 5, 2005

True Father Admitted to the United Kingdom after 27 Years

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.”

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 November 2-8.

Women Make Strides in History

This Week in History, October 26-November 1

• True Mother Addresses WFWP USA at the 20th Anniversary Convention
• The Inaugural Peace Queen Cup Tournament is held
• The Groundbreaking Ceremony for the Cheongshim Peace World Center is held
• 6,500-Couple’s Holy Marriage Blessing Unites Korean and Japanese in Marriage
• A WFWP Conference is held in North Korea
   

October 27, 2012

True Mother Addresses 1,200 attendees at the WFWP USA 20th Anniversary Convention. Sun Jin Moon, our current Director General for Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (FFWPU) International, delivered True Mother’s keynote address, “Women as the Turning Point for Peace.”

True Mother Addresses WFWP USA 20th Anniversary Convention

In her first public appearance in the United States after True Father’s Seonghwa, True Mother attended the Women’s Federation for World Peace (WFWP) USA’s 20th Anniversary Convention in Las Vegas. Sun Jin Moon, our current Director General for Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (FFWPU) International, delivered True Mother’s keynote address, “Women as the Turning Point for Peace,” before 1,200 attendees. In her speech, True Mother called upon those present to “carry the heavy responsibility to complete the providential mission of the ‘Abel Women UN,’ which is the final organization that True Father and I created together.” She noted, “Until now we have depended on government organizations created by men to bring about global peace.” However, she said, “To surmount the limitations of their efforts … a peace movement … guided by women should take root as the cornerstone of a new system.” After the convention True Mother announced that she would go from there to the eastern United States, visiting places where she had accompanied True Father “years ago,” exploring places on the way “where he would like to visit.”
 

October 28, 2006

Inaugural Peace Queen Cup Tournament

The Inaugural Peace Queen Cup Tournament.

Following the 2002 World Cup soccer tournament jointly sponsored by Korea and Japan, True Father established the Sun Moon Peace Football Foundation. It sponsored a Peace Cup invitational soccer tournament for some of the world’s best men’s club teams every two years beginning in 2003. In 2006, the foundation sponsored the first Peace Queen Cup tournament for women’s soccer teams. It was held from October 28 to November 4, 2006, in six South Korean cities. The tournament brought together national women’s teams from Brazil, Italy, Canada, Australia, Denmark, South Korea, the Netherlands and the United States. The U.S. national women’s team defeated Canada 1-0 to win the first championship.
 

October 28, 2008

Groundbreaking for Cheongshim Peace World Center Stadium

Cheongshim Peace World Center under Construction.

Three thousand people attended the groundbreaking ceremonies for the Cheongshim Peace World Center on October 28, 2008. Designed to hold 25,000 people, it was created to be the largest and most sophisticated multipurpose cultural center in South Korea, eight times larger than the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts and twice as large as the Olympic Gymnastics Hall, both located in Seoul. With three floors underground and four floors above, it was designed to be the first Korean arena with folding chairs, a state-of-the-art moving stage and an audiovisual system to host an array of events including concerts, business conventions, corporate events, indoor sports competitions, educational events, expositions and television commercials. The arena would take three years to complete and addressed True Father’s long-held desire to see an iconic center for global culture near Cheongpyeong Lake.
 

October 30, 1988

6,500 Couple’s Holy Marriage Blessing Unites Korean and Japanese in Marriage

The 6,500 Couple’s Holy Marriage Blessing Ceremony, October 30, 1988.

On October 30, 1988, True Parents blessed in marriage 6, 516 couples in a Holy Marriage Blessing Ceremony conducted in the complex of Ilhwa Pharmaceutical’s McCol soft drink factory in Yong-in, Korea. This Marriage Blessing was significant in that it brought together some 2,500 Korean/Japanese couples. As True Father noted, “Korea and Japan have been enemies for a long time, and their animosity has never been healed. Through this matching … emotional strains and hurt will be removed … the fortunes of these two nations will begin to take root on earth.” True Parents conducted the Marriage Blessing on the foundation of the recently completed Seoul Olympics and declaration of “The Nation of the Unified World.” It was the ninth providential Marriage Blessing following True Parents’ Holy Wedding and the Marriage Blessings of 3, 36, 72, 124, 430, 777, 1,800 and 8,000 couples.
 

October 30, 2007

WFWP Conference in North Korea

WFWP Korea had been working for some time to re-establish inter-Korean sisterhood, initiating, among other things, a “One Percent Love-offering” which encouraged people in South Korea to donate 1 percent of their income to the North. WFWP Leaders also met with their counterparts from the North on a number of occasions. Their interaction came to fruition in a WFWP convention on “Women’s Leadership in Building North-South Unification and World Peace” held at the Mount Kumgang Resort in the North. Ten female leaders from Pyongyang participated in the conference in addition to 700 international delegates. There were some sensitive issues, such as use of the term “leader,” as North Koreans used the word “leader” only for Kim Jong Il and preferred the designation “worker” or “laborer” for signage. They also resisted religious words such as “God” (changed to “Creator”) and religious ceremonies. Nevertheless, the head of the North Korean delegation referred respectfully to True Parents’ visit with Kim Il Sung sixteen years earlier, acknowledging that “They  … so love this nation and its people.”
 

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 October 26-November 1.

A Global Vision

This week in history: October 19-26

• Children’s Day is established
• The first World Media Conference is held
• True Father begins a journey on the Amazon River
• The 777-Couple Holy Marriage Blessing is held
• Unificationists fast for seven days at the United Nations
• The Middle East Peace Summit is held
• True Father speaks at Foley Square
   

October 19, 1960

Children’s Day Established

True Parents celebrate the 48th Children’s Day and cheer with their grandson.

True Father established Children’s Day at the former headquarters church at Cheongpa-dong in Seoul on October 19, 1960 (October 1 lunar). 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.
 

October 20, 1978

First World Media Conference

In its sixth year, the World Media Conference, held in Cartagena, Colombia, was the largest and most successful gathering in its history.

Having experienced the “awesome power” of the media “to create or to destroy,” True Father established the World Media Association to advance the cause of world peace by championing freedom and moral responsibility in the press. The association convened the first World Media Conference in October 1978 at the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York, under the theme “The Future of the Free Press.” Thirty-eight journalists from sixteen countries participated. The association continued to sponsor World Media Conferences and associated “fact-finding” tours for journalists throughout the 1980s. The sixth conference, held in Cartagena, Colombia, in September 1983, brought together six hundred media representatives from ninety-two countries. The conferences culminated in the 11thWorld Media Conference, which was held from April 9 to 13, 1990, in Moscow. The conference, jointly sponsored with the Soviet Union’s Novosti news agency, resulted in True Parents’ private audience with Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev.
 

October 20, 1997

True Father Begins Journey on Amazon River

True Parents made South America a focal point of their work during the mid- and late 1990s. During a speaking tour of twenty-three Latin American nations in 1995 True Father emphasized the region’s “stunning and abundant potential,” noting that its “mountains, rivers and jungles hark back to the original state of creation.” Having purchased land in the Brazilian outback that would become New Hope Farms, True Father began exploring the Paraguay and Amazon Rivers in 1997. He pointed out that the Paraguay River divides the continent east and west and the Amazon divides it north and south, but that their sources were only four kilometers apart. He envisioned that area being preserved as a “place of encounter where God, people and all things meet in a New Eden.” He also envisioned representatives of the nations settling along the banks of the two rivers. In pursuit of this, True Father set out by boat on the Paraguay River in mid-summer. According to a travel companion: “Every 50 kilometers we set out a sign numbered on a stick. … It was not easy to do that, because it is swampy ground covered with growth, and we had to clear the area; walking through the water and getting bitten by bees and ants. We set 63 signposts along the Paraguay River.”

True Father speaks at New Hope Farm in Uruguay.

True Father did the same along the Amazon, beginning October 20, although given the vast stretches of river to be covered, he adopted a different strategy: flying to different sites and then renting boats in which to explore the river. True Father expressed admiration for the small villages and villagers whom he viewed as “pristine Adamic families.” The same companion noted that it was so hot and steamy” and “we all got blisters on our mouths” but that despite his exhaustion and the unbearable heat, True Father “continued to push us, saying that this is where we can build the Garden of Eden.” Following the stake-setting expeditions, the church began purchasing property along the Paraguay River for future development.
 

October 21, 1970

777 Couples Holy Marriage Blessing Ceremony

Rehearsal of the International Wedding Ceremony of 777 couples at Sutaek-Ri.

True Parents presided over the first truly international Holy Marriage Blessing when they blessed 777 couples on October 21, 1970. As part of the 430 Couples Holy Marriage Blessing in 1968, True Parents blessed 43 non-Korean couples overseas in 1969. For the 777 Couples Holy Marriage Blessing, participants came from 10 nations to Korea. The Marriage Blessing was conducted at Seoul’s Changchung (Metropolitan) Gymnasium in the presence of over 15,000. True Father stated that this was the last Marriage Blessing that he would conduct “before globalizing my mission.” He noted that the 777 Couples Holy Marriage Blessing was the seventh following True Parents’ Holy Wedding. This Marriage Blessing lay the foundation for the Unification Church to work on the worldwide level. “What belongs to Korea,” he said, “can now belong to the world and vice versa.”
 

October 21, 1974

7-Day Fast for Japanese Wives of North Korean Repatriates

Protestors hold a 7-day fast on behalf of wives in North Korea.

True Father speaks at the conclusion of the 7-day fast.

Seven hundred Unificationists fasted for seven days in front of the United Nations in New York from October 21 to 27, 1974, to protest the treatment of Japanese wives of North Korean repatriates. True Father initiated the fast for humanitarian and providential reasons. He noted that Korean men living in Japan who married Japanese women and then repatriated to North Korea had “cheated” the wives who were “now ill-treated and persecuted under the regime.” In this connection, the Unification Church published a volume of testimonies from these women, If I Had Wings Like a Bird, I Would Fly Across the Sea, which publicized their plight. Apart from the humanitarian issue, Unificationists undertook the fast within the context of a North Korean proposal, which had gained traction in the UN General Assembly, that called for UN forces to be removed from South Korea. True Father stated that the fast’s purpose was to “make naked the evil reality of what they are doing in North Korea and in all the communist regimes.” Unificationists’ efforts continued after the fast, and on December 9, 1974, the UN General Assembly approved a U.S.-sponsored resolution providing for maintenance of the United Nations Command in South Korea.

October 21, 1990

Middle East Peace Summit

On August 2, 1990, forces under the command of Iraqi President Sadaam Hussein invaded and annexed the neighboring country of Kuwait. This was met with international condemnation, international sanctions and a coalition of the largest military alliance since World War II. All this was deeply troubling to True Father. Unknown to most, Unificationist organizations had cultivated contacts within the Muslim world since the early 1980s. The Professors World Peace Academy (PWPA) and the Council for the World’s Religions (CWR) had convened several conferences of high-level Muslim religious leaders, including the grand muftis of Syria and Yemen.

True Parents meet the Grand Mufti of Syria during the Middle East Peace Summit.

In response to the Gulf Crisis, True Father was confident enough of his contacts in the region to call a Middle East Peace Summit in Cairo, Egypt, at short notice, beginning on October 21, 1990. In a “Message to Islam” read to participants, he stated, “The greatest imaginable tragedy would be for war to erupt between Christians and Muslims in the Middle East.” He urged all present to “live only for one goal, and that is, to protect and safeguard this situation against the possibility of a religious war.” Unificationists were not successful in averting the first Gulf War. However, Muslim leaders were impressed with True Father’s message. The grand muftis of Syria and Yemen agreed to send core followers to New York for a 40-day Inter-Religious Leadership Seminar (IRLS), and in 1992, 42 Muslim couples took part in a Holy Marriage Blessing officiated by True Parents. True Father termed the participation of Muslims “a miracle.” In effect, it broke the tribal barrier, enabling True Parents to extend the Blessing to persons other than Unificationists.
 

October 22, 1981

Foley Square Address

True Father speaks at the Foley Square Rally.

Following his indictment on tax evasion charges, which later were shown to be riddled with irregularities, True Father returned to the United States from Korea for his initial court appearance on October 22, 1981. At a large public post-arraignment rally before supporters in a park across the street from Foley Square Courthouse in Manhattan, True Father said: “I came back to America not just for my own vindication. I came back to America as a representative of all those who suffer governmental injustice, racial prejudice or religious bigotry. … Today I declare war against these enemies.” He spoke under a massive “We Shall Overcome” banner that exhorted those present to “Protect Religious Liberties and Minority Rights.” In a memorable turn of phrase, True Father stated: “I would not be standing here today if my skin were white and my religion Presbyterian. I am here today only because my skin is yellow and my religion is Unification Church.” The church subsequently published the text of True Father’s Foley Square Address in The New York Times. It also provided an initial endowment of $2 million for the creation of a Minorities Alliance International (MAI).
 

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 October 19-26.

The Road From Injustice to Blessings

This week in history: October 12-18

• True Father is released from the Heungnam Labor Camp.
• The 6,000-Couple Holy Marriage Blessing is held in Seoul.
• The first Cosmic Blessing Ceremony is held.
• True Father is unjustly indicted in America.
• True Parents visit the Marshall Islands.
• The Million Family March for interfaith peace is held.
   

October 14, 1950

True Father Released from Heungnam Labor Camp

The work and storage room at the Heungnam Labor Camp.

True Father’s ministry in Pyongyang ended on February 22, 1948, when he was arrested for a second time by North Korean officials. He was tried on April 7 and sentenced to five years of hard labor. On May 20, True Father was transferred from prison in Pyongyang to a labor camp in Heungnam, an industrial city on the east coast of North Korea. There he endured a hellish existence until liberated by advancing UN forces on October 14, 1950.

Men working at the Heungnam Labor Camp.

True Father’s liberation by UN forces was by no means assured. As bombing of the Heungnam industrial complex became more intense, guards began executing prisoners, calling out their numbers starting with those having the longest sentences. In his autobiography, True Father notes, “The night before my scheduled execution the bombs fell like rain in the monsoon season … so intense that it seemed all of Heungnam had been turned into a sea of fire. The high walls around the prison began to fall and the guards ran for their lives. Finally, the gate of the prison that had kept us in that place opened. At around two o’clock in the morning of the next day, I walked calmly out of Heungnam Prison with dignity.”

October 14, 1982

6,000-Couple Holy Marriage Blessing Ceremony

True Parents sprinkle holy water over the couples at the 6000-couple Holy Marriage Blessing.

True Parents blessed 6,000 couples in Chamshil Gymnasium in Seoul on October 14, 1982. Read more about the significance of this Marriage Blessing.
 

October 14, 2009

Cosmic Holy Marriage Blessing Ceremony

The first “Cosmic Holy Marriage Blessing Ceremony” was held magnificently at the open space in front of the main building of Sun Moon University in Asan in Korea’s Chungnam province, with True Parents as the officiators on October 14, 2009. Read more here.

October 15, 1981

True Father Indicted in America

In 1976, Senator Robert Dole (R-Kansas) wrote a letter to the Internal Revenue Service commissioner requesting an audit of the Unification Church. Within days, the IRS began what journalist Carlton Sherwood, in his book Inquisition: The Persecution and Prosecution of the Reverend Sun Myung Moon (Regnery Gateway, 1991), termed “the most intensive and expensive criminal tax investigation of any religious figure in U.S. history.” A squad of IRS agents took up permanent offices in the Unification Church’s New York headquarters, while a team of field agents began round-the-clock surveillance of selected church members and their telephones. In 1978, after two years of investigations, the IRS was unable to find anything that compromised the church’s tax exempt status but turned over to the New York District Attorney’s Office “certain anomalies” in Rev. Moon’s tax returns for the years 1973-75.

The Office of the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York pursued the matter aggressively despite the unanimous recommendation in writing from attorneys in the Criminal Section of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Tax Division that prosecution was not advisable. Two grand juries refused to indict True Father. It was highly unusual that a prosecuting attorney would convene a second grand jury once an initial grand jury had determined there was no case. However, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York took the almost unprecedented step of convening a third grand jury to get the necessary indictment on October 15, 1981. True Father was in Korea when the indictment was handed down. There was no extradition treaty between the Republic of Korea and the United States, so as long as he was in Korea, he would never have to appear in a U.S. courtroom. Some suggested that prosecutors intentionally announced the indictment when True Father was away, hoping he would not return. Yet, as soon as he heard of the indictment, True Father booked a flight back to America to face the charges and his accusers.

October 15, 2000

True Parents Visit the Marshall Islands

True Parents visited the Marshall Islands at the invitation of the Honorable Kessai H. Note, president of the Republic of the Marshall Islands, beginning on October 15, 2000. The president accorded True Parents a state-level welcome. President Note and his wife previously had attended several conferences and events held by the Universal Peace Federation (UPF). In fact, President Note, alone among the Marshall Island candidates for the presidency, attended an International Leadership Conference in Washington, D.C., at the very time elections were being held. He found out he had been elected during the conference. Those who had declined the Washington invitation all lost! During their visit, True Father discussed his vision for establishing a school to educate youth from throughout Oceania. True Parents also spent a day fishing with the president. Their visit was a stepping stone toward what later would be declared as the Ocean Providence.

October 16, 2000

The Million Family March

Based on mutual contacts, Unificationists in Chicago had been interacting on a cordial basis with the Nation of Islam (NOI) since 1995. That year Minister Louis Farrakhan attended a FFWPU-sponsored True Family Values Ministry awards banquet. Unificationists reciprocated by attending several NOI events. In 1997, Minister Farrakhan attended “Blessing ’97” at RFK Stadium in Washington, D.C., where he offered congratulatory remarks and a prayer of blessing on behalf of the Muslim world. In 1998, Minister Farrakhan visited Korea, where he met True Parents and toured church-owned facilities. Later that year, he announced his intention to hold a Million Family March on October 16, 2000, five years to the day after the 1995 Million Man March. Significantly, he asked his directors “to work together with the leadership of the Family Federation.” This met resistance among some within NOI and FFWPU. However, three months prior to the march, True Father invited Minister Farrakhan to his residence, advising him that the event should be non-political, interreligious and interracial. A month prior to the march, True Father expressed hope that it would be “a turning point for racial reconciliation in America.”

The march went off smoothly. Thousands of families crowded the U.S. Capitol plaza and the National Mall, and there were no incidents. Minister Farrakhan preached family, ecumenism and brotherhood, at one point proclaiming, “I am a Christian. I am a Jew. I am a Muslim.” In his keynote address he offered “special recognition and thanks” to True Parents and conducted a Unification-inspired “Blessing” for several dozen international, intercultural and interracial couples immediately afterward. Dr. Chang Shik Yang, FFWPU continental director at the time, reported that FFWPU “mobilized about 2,000 members of the American Clergy Leadership Conference for this event,” including “a number of mainline denominational leaders.”

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 October 12-18.

Happy Blessing Anniversary!

1982 was a significant year for the Holy Marriage Blessing, with the 6,000-Couple Blessing held in Seoul, Korea and the 2,075-Couple Blessing held in Madison Square Garden. This video was created two years ago for the 30th anniversary of these Marriage Blessing Ceremonies. It features testimonies and precious stories of the participants.

October 14, 1982

6,000-Couple Holy Marriage Blessing Ceremony

True Parents sprinkle holy water over the couples at the 6000-couple Holy Marriage Blessing.

True Parents blessed 6,000 couples in Chamshil Gymnasium in Seoul on October 14, 1982. The precise number of couples blessed was 5,837, as True Father noted in his Blessing prayer. The 6,000-Couple Blessing is linked with the 2,075-Couple Blessing conducted by True Parents on July 1, 1982, at Madison Square Garden in New York City. They are referred to jointly as the 8,000-Couple Holy Blessing. Both included significant numbers of international couples. The 6,000-Couple Holy Blessing, convened on 20 days’ notice, included participants from 84 nations. True Father noted that the Blessing surmounted the 6,000 years of providential history and signified an “advance into the realm of liberation.”

October 14, 2009

Cosmic Holy Marriage Blessing Ceremony

The first “Cosmic Holy Marriage Blessing Ceremony” was held magnificently at the open space in front of the main building of Sun Moon University in Asan in Korea’s Chungnam province, with True Parents as the officiators on October 14, 2009. Some 25,000 participants gathered as representatives of Korea and the world. For those who could not come there, the ceremony was broadcast simultaneously to 192 nations via satellite and the Internet. The ceremony was unique in that it was the first time that new couples and already established blessed couples received the Blessing together. Previously couples had received the Blessing on the church and worldwide levels. True Father explained that this was the third and final cosmic-level Blessing. The Blessing was also significant as it included large numbers of young Unificationists in a public venue. The participation of attractive young people attracted substantial media coverage that continued in subsequent Blessings.