America is God’s Hope

This week in history, May 31 – June 6:

• HSA is officially registered in Korea (May 31, 1963)
• The First Summit Council for World Peace is held (May 31, 1997)
• The Yankee Stadium Rally is held (June 1, 1976)
• The historic 72 Couples’ Holy Marriage Blessing held (June 4, 1962)
• True Father arrives in Pyeongyang, North Korea (June 6, 1946)
   

May 31, 1963

HSA Officially Registered in Korea

True Father and four disciples founded the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity (HSA-UWC) in May 1954. However, the church did not achieve legal recognition until May 31, 1963 when it was officially registered as a charitable organization (n. 261). Prior to that, the Unification Church was essentially an underground church. Widely vilified in Korean society, registration followed intensive pioneer witnessing in Korean villages. Legal recognition of the church in Korea followed the incorporation of HSA-UWC in the United States on September 18, 1961 and preceded legalization of the church in Japan in 1964.
 

May 31, 1997

First Summit Council for World Peace

True Father convened the First Summit Council for World Peace at the Lotte Hotel in Seoul, Korea on May 31, 1987. It was an outgrowth of the Summit Club which he established in 1981. The Council was conceived as a forum where world leaders, particularly former heads of state, prime ministers, and senior government officials, can utilize the best of their creative energies, knowledge, wisdom, experience, and statesmanship for the sake of world peace and development. In his Founder’s Address, “Challenges and Opportunities for World Peace,” True Father stated that the reason why it has been impossible to achieve world peace is that “the internal struggle that goes on within each individual has not yet been resolved.” World conflict, he said, “is nothing other than the manifestation of the inner conflict of individuals.” He argued it was necessary first to find peace with God, then peace with people through true love and on that foundation a world community of nations could be “substantially established” centered upon a common value system and eternal principles. Nine former Presidents, 9 former Prime Ministers, 12 former ministers of government, 17 nobility, 5 former ambassadors, 3 current ambassadors, one university president and 6 others attended the first Summit Council meeting. The Council played a significant role in True Parent’s meeting with Mikhail Gorbachev and relations with North Korea.
 

June 1, 1976

America Is God’s Hope: The Yankee Stadium Rally

Thirty-eight years ago, our beloved True Father gave a public speech at Yankee Stadium in New York. He gave an urgent appeal to America to turn back to God. Yankee Stadium was the first of two major rallies held in 1976 as part of the movement’s Bicentennial God Bless America Festival.  The second was held at Washington Monument on September 18. True Father compared himself at Yankee Stadium to a “doctor” or “firefighter” who came from the outside to help America meet its third great “test” as a nation, that of “God-denying” communism.

Unificationist share a brief anecdote about the day of the speech.

True Father takes the stage at Yankee Stadium.

A rainstorm with strong winds hit the stadium prior to the start of the rally, blowing away many of the decorations. Unificationists rose in their seats or danced on top of the Yankee Stadium dugouts, singing “You Are My Sunshine” until the storm subsided. Approximately 45,000 people attended.

At the time, True Father’s message was translated as “God’s Hope for America,” but recently the original text of the speech in Korean was located. The title that True Father himself chose was “America Is God’s Hope!” which adds even more meaning to this historic and providential message. A 25-minute video of historical footage at the Yankee Stadium Rally can be viewed here. True Father’s entire message is narrated. He declares his message in his own words in the video at around the 12:00 minute mark. To read the entire speech, click here.
 

June 4, 1962

72 Couples Holy Marriage Blessing Is Held

True Parents held the second major Holy Marriage Blessing Ceremony after the original 36 Couples Holy Marriage Blessing Ceremony on June 4, 1962. They blessed in marriage 72 couples. Providentially, these 72 couples are understood to represent Cain and Abel’s restored families in relationship to the 36 couples who represent the original ancestors. They also correspond to Jesus’ 72 disciples. According to True Father, “Through the unity of the 72 couples representing Cain and Abel with the 36 couples representing Adam and Eve, all providential requirements for the family have been met, and the restoration of the family has been completed.” The way was opened for expansion of the providence beyond the family.
 

June 6, 1946

True Father arrives in Pyeongyang, North Korea

True Father went to Pyeongyang, North Korea, in obedience to God’s revelation that he “Go across the 38th parallel! Find the people of God who are in the North” (As a Peace-Loving Global Citizen, p. 84). True Father, who was then 26, had set out to pick up rice and was concerned for his wife and his first son, who was born only a month earlier, when he received this revelation. True Father has said, “God’s commands are very serious, and they must be followed without reservation or hesitation.” He took nothing with him except his Bible. Christianity had set down its roots deeply in Pyeongyang, and it was known as “the Jerusalem of the East.” However, it was then under communist occupation and more than a million refugees already had fled to the South. Upon arrival, True Father began his ministry in the North.

This Week in History briefly lists significant events in the history of the Unification Church, the lives of the Founders, and world events that are momentous to Unificationists. Most items are marked according to the solar calendar. Items marked “H.C.” correspond to the Cheon-gi or Heavenly Calendar, which is based on the lunar calendar. This installment covers the week of May 31 – June 6.

Contributed by Dr. Michael Mickler, Professor of Church History at Unification Theological Seminary.

Our Common Content is True Love

This week in history, May 24-30:

• The Universal Ballet Company is established (May 24, 1984)
• A Middle Peace Initiative takes place (May 24, 2004)
• Interfaith clergy receive the Holy Marriage Blessing (May 27, 2001)
• The Rally to Globalize True Families takes place (May 29, 1999)
• The Rally for Religious Freedom takes place (May 30, 1984)
• PWPA rescues the University of Bridgeport (May 30, 1992)
   

MAY 24, 1984

Universal Ballet Company Established

The Universal Ballet was established by True Parents in May 1984 as the first private ballet company of Korea. It began in a practice room in the back of the Sunhwa (Little Angels) Arts School. At that time, male ballet dancers in Korea were so rare that the company had employees from the print shop dancing on stage. However, under the direction of Adrienne Dellas, Kirov Ballet Director Oleg Vinogradov and prima ballerina Julia (Hoon Sook) Moon, the company developed a national and international reputation. Julia Moon noted: “We pioneered ballet in Korea when it was very primitive. … We were the first to bring choreographers, teachers, costume and set designers and dancers from the West to Korea. We have been and still are a leader in the field of ballet in Korea.” True Father gave the motto Ye Cheon Mi Ji (Heavenly Art Creating a World of Beauty). He said, “Ballet is truly a heavenly art form. The dancers stretch themselves upward to the ultimate degree to reach God in heaven. Ballet uses the entire body as an instrument to express humans’ aspiration toward God. In this sense, it is the ultimate expression of artistic beauty.”
 

MAY 24, 2004

Middle East Peace Initiative

The Middle East Peace Initiative by woman leaders covered four days in Jerusalem, Israel, beginning from May 24, 2005. The Women’s Federation for World Peace International, and the Interreligious and International Peace Council co-hosted the programs, which included a seminar on religious harmony, followed by a ceremony to bring harmony and peace in the Middle East and a peace march. The participating women have maintained connections with one another through continuous meetings. 

MAY 27, 2001

Interfaith Clergy Blessing

The American Clergy Leadership Conference (ACLC) was born in May 2000 when 120 clergy from 17 denominations traveled to Korea for the inaugural meeting. With ACLC support, True Father undertook a 50-state “We Will Stand in Oneness” revival tour in early 2001. During that tour, which emphasized the sanctity of marriage, individual clergy began to seek True Parents’ blessing on their marriages. This snowballed and, in the end, more than 60 “ministers, imams, and clerics: Pentecostals and Baptists, Lutherans and Muslims, Native Americans, Sufis, and more” participated in an Interfaith Clergy Blessing in the Cotillion Room of the Hilton Hotel in New York City on May 27, 2001. The Blessing included a “providential participant,” Zambian Roman Catholic Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo, 71, who wed Maria Sung, 43, a Korean acupuncturist. While acknowledging that “the priestly vow of celibacy has a profound meaning in the providence of God,” he stated, “the sacrifice of celibate life has fulfilled its purpose.” He insisted he had not changed his faith but affirmed True Parents’ “special ministry to build loving, God-centered families amongst people of all faiths, in the capacity of True Parents.” This sparked worldwide publicity, surfacing the issue of clerical celibacy at the highest levels of the Vatican hierarchy.
 

MAY 29, 1999

Rally to Globalize True Families

On May 29, 1999, True Mother held the Rally to Globalize True Families at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China. Her speech that day was titled, “The Path of Life for All Humankind.” In it, she said, “There must be some common content that will be pleasing to God, to the angels, to the rest of creation and to human beings themselves.” She went on to say that this common content is “true love.” This was the final rally that True Mother held in her 32-nation speaking tour, which had begun on April 12. 
 

MAY 30, 1984

Rally for Religious Freedom

The U.S. Supreme Court’s refusal on May 14, 1984, to review True Father’s petition to overturn his conviction on tax evasion charges set off a series of “Rallies for Religious Freedom.” The first of these, in Washington, D.C., on May 30, 1984, brought together more than 300 clergy from over 60 denominations and some 200 laypersons, including civil liberties leaders and political figures, to denounce the threat to religious liberties posed by True Father’s conviction. The event was organized by the co-chairmen of the Ad Hoc Committee for Religious Freedom, Dr. Timothy LaHaye, chairman of the Moral Majority of California, and Dr. Joseph Lowery, chairman of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). The rally ended with Dr. La Haye challenging all present to stand with him and “say, as one individual, ‘I believe in religious freedom so much I am willing, if necessary and allowed, to spend one week of those eighteen months with Reverend Moon.’” Participants afterward signed a Religious Liberty Proclamation, and on the back of the document signed their commitment to go to prison with True Father. 

MAY 30, 1992

PWPA Rescues the University of Bridgeport

On May 30, 1992, the Board of Trustees of the University of Bridgeport reached an agreement with the Professors World Peace Academy (PWPA) whereby PWPA donated $50.5 million to the university, enabling it to stay open and maintain its accreditation. In exchange, PWPA had the right to nominate 60 percent of candidates for Board of Trustees vacancies and the university agreed to adopt an educational philosophy based on an international perspective. Including the initial loan, PWPA provided $110 million to the university over the next ten years. The UB-PWPA partnership was controversial because of PWPA’s ties to True Father and the Unification Church. However, the university prospered in subsequent years. In 2003, UB declared its financial independence and from that point on has been self-supporting, ending each year in the black, maintaining its accreditation and non-sectarian charter.
 

This Week in History briefly lists significant events in the history of the Unification Church, the lives of the Founders, and world events that are momentous to Unificationists. Most items are marked according to the solar calendar. Items marked “H.C.” correspond to the Cheon-gi or Heavenly Calendar, which is based on the lunar calendar. This installment covers the week of  May 24-30.

Contributed by the FFWPU History Compilation Committee and Dr. Michael Mickler, professor of church history at Unification Theological Seminary.

Dedication and Distinction

This week in history, May 17-23:

• The Washington Times celebrated its 25th anniversary (May 17, 2007)
• The U.S. Jury returns the guilty verdict against True Father (May 18, 1982)
• Clergy and Rabbis sign the Jerusalem Declaration (May 18, 2003)
• True Father enters Heungnam Prison (May 20, 1948)
• 118 couples receive the Holy Marriage Blessing (May 21, 1978)
• True Father concludes the 2011 World Peace Tour in Las Vegas (May 21, 2011)
• Peter Koch departs as the First Missionary to Europe (May 22, 1963)
   

May 17, 2007

The Washington Times’ 25th Anniversary

Under the theme “A Quarter Century of Dedication and Distinction,” The Washington Times observed its 25thanniversary with a gala event at the National Building Museum in Washington D.C. More than 1,100 leading figures in politics, culture, and journalism representing 82 nations took part in the celebration. U.S. President George W. Bush, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki Moon, Lady Margaret Thatcher, Polish Prime Minister Jarosaw Kaczynski, and Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa were among those who sent messages of congratulations. Former President George H.W. Bush delivered the keynote address complementing the Times for challenging “what many of us felt was a prevailing liberal bias” and thanked True Father “for his vision in launching this newspaper,” reminding the audience that “without him, there would be no Washington Times.” True Father delivered the Founder’s Address, “A Providential View of the Pacific Rim Era in Light of God’s Will,” which he had originally delivered in Hawaii and, now with True Mother, was delivering worldwide. He noted, “The development of human civilization has completed a circuit of the entire globe and has arrived at the Pacific sphere.” Human history, he declared, “has come to a point in time in the providence at which it should reach completion and fruition through the Pacific Rim region.”
 

May 18, 1982

U.S. Jury Returns Guilty Verdict against True Father

The cover of Inquisition, by Pulitzer prize-winning author Carlton Sherwood

The Unification Church won a series of court cases in 1982. After several years of struggle, it gained unambiguous legal recognition as a bona fide religion with full tax-emption privileges, public solicitation rights, and access to missionary visas. It also was able to extend civil rights protections to members and successfully press for damages against deprogrammers. However, the church lost the one case that was the most highly publicized, most costly, and that mattered to it the most; this was The United States v. Sun Myung Moon. Tax convictions have been a time-honored way to root out undesirables, and although the review process makes this more difficult to do within the American legal system, there has been a tendency for the politically ambitious to go after unpopular figures. In True Father case, a letter from U.S. Senator Robert Dole to the IRS Commissioner, which called for an audit of the church, led to what Carlton Sherwood termed “the most intensive and extensive criminal tax investigation of any religious figure in U.S. history.”

The odd thing about True Father’s case was that it continued to move forward in the face of so many obstacles. First, the audit of his tax returns for 1973–1975 showed a total liability of $7,300, less than the $2,500 per year required by IRS guidelines for criminal prosecution. Second, three career attorneys from the U.S. Justice Department questioned whether there was any liability at all and signed off on a written memorandum that prosecution was not warranted. Third, the prosecuting attorney had to convene three grand juries before gaining the necessary indictments. Fourth, jury members who, according to the trial judge, met the criteria of  being people who “don’t read much, don’t talk much, and don’t know much” had to sift through over 2,000 documentary exhibits and technical argumentation that glazed the eyes of even trained legal observers over. In the end, neither True Father nor the movement was able to stem the government’s determination to gain a conviction. The trial began on April 1, 1982m and lasted approximately six weeks. On May 18, 1982, the jury returned its verdict against True Father.
 

May 18, 2003

Clergy and Rabbis Sign the Jerusalem Declaration

May 18, 2003, was a momentous day of the first Middle East Peace Initiative (MEPI) Holy Land Peace Pilgrimage. U.S. clergy awoke early and left their hotel in busses at 5:30 a.m. to go to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. It was fortunate they left at this time because at 6:00 a.m. a suicide bomber set off a blast two blocks from the hotel, killing seven people and injuring 22. All traffic was stopped and had the clergy left any later, they would not have been able to pass. From there, they offered a 30-minute service at the site of Golgotha and then traveled a mile or so to the Potter’s Field, also referred to as the Field of Blood, which, according to Matthew 27, the chief priests purchased with the 30 pieces of silver Judas got for betraying Jesus. Pastors lifted a wooden cross, about six feet high, as they marched down a winding road to the Potter’s Field. At the site, ministers placed the cross in a hole previously dug to its exact dimensions by Israeli FFWPU members. They placed a FFWPU flag, “dated and signed by representative leaders,” on top. The ceremony concluded with participants putting “soil on the cross one-by-one, repenting for the false faith” that was “preventing Christianity and Judaism from achieving reconciliation.”

On that foundation, the 135 U.S. clergy met with a similar number of Israeli rabbis as well as ten imams for a day-long “Conference for Jewish and Christian Reconciliation and Harmony.” The highlight of this was the Jerusalem Declaration in which the clergy and rabbis repented “for the dark parts of our past” and sought “a bright future together.” In reality, it was not easy to obtain the signatures. According to one report, “the main rabbi strongly rejected…signing his name.” In addition, “Some rabbis were upset that the declaration would even be considered.” However, in an unscripted moment, a key rabbi stated, “I will sign it if my Moslem brother will sign it with me.” A leading sheik marched forward and “the three brothers collapsed into an embrace.” One observer recounted, “This opened the floodgates and everyone rushed to the front to sign.”
 

May 20, 1948

True Father Enters Heungnam Prison

After being arrested for the second time in North Korea on February 22, 1948, True Father was charged with being a spy for the South and for disturbing the social order. Some 80 Christian ministers who had lost members to True Father’s group precipitated this action by writing letters to the police. True Father was once again tortured and wrote later, “My body still carries several scars that I received then.” He went on trial on April 7 and was convicted. He wrote in his autobiography, “Many of the most famous ministers in North Korea came to the courtroom and accused me of all manner of crimes.” That day he was taken to Pyongyang Prison where he remained until  he was transported to Heungnam on May 20, nearly three months following his arrest. True Father wrote, “I felt indignation and also shamed before heaven. I was tied to a thief so I could not escape. We were taken by a vehicle on a route that took 17 hours. As I looked out the window a powerful feeling of grief welled up inside me. It seemed incredible to me that I would have to travel this winding road along rivers and through valleys as a prisoner.”
 

May 21, 1978

Holy Marriage Blessing of 118 Couples

On May 21, 1978, in London, True Father with Ye Jin Moon (representing True Mother) blessed 118 couples in holy matrimony. Of the 118 couples, 106 were international; only 12 couples were matched with the same nationality. Most of the Germans present were matched with their age-old enemies, the French. The blessing served to launch International One World Crusade activities in Europe. More than 1200 members gathered in London and, soon after, were augmented by two classes of Unification Theological Seminary students who were pioneering Home Church.

May 21, 2011

True Father Concludes 2011 World Peace Tour in Las Vegas

True Father conducted his final world tour, a World Peace Tour of ten nations in 28 days, traveling 28,000 miles at age 91. He spoke in Seoul, Korea; Madrid, Spain; Rome, Italy; Oslo, Norway; Athens, Greece; Istanbul, Turkey; London, England; Geneva, Switzerland; and Berlin, Germany. His final and only U.S. stop was in Las Vegas on May 21. There, he told an international audience of over 3,000 in the Aria City Center that God had great expectations for the long-notorious gaming capital of the world, that it will soon gain a new reputation as a “city of giving.” In support of that, True Parents sponsored a charity slot tournament at the Aria Resort the morning of the event for 300 participants with proceeds from the $500 entry fee going to local charities. True Father envisioned each stop of the tour as an interreligious assembly and representatives of faith bodies were prominent participants.
 

May 22, 1963

Peter Koch Departs as the First Missionary to Europe

Peter Koch immigrated to the United States from Germany in 1957. In 1959, he began engineering studies in San Francisco where he met and joined the Unification Church in January 1962. He was concerned to reach other foreign students and spent much of September and October 1962 hand-signing letters to 1,900 foreign students at the University of California, Berkeley. He subsequently “felt responsible for my people at home” and determined “to bring the Principle to Europe.” He departed by ship on May 22, 1963, arrived in Holland on June 13, printed 80 copies of the Divine Principle in German, and decided to begin his mission work in Heidelberg, some 225 miles from where he had been staying. He determined to walk rather than take a train, as a condition. However, within 25 miles he developed severe blisters due to defective boots. By the fourth day, blisters extended to his ankles, and all the skin pulled off the flesh of his feet. Wrapping his feet and refusing to stop, he later wrote, “That was certainly my worst experience. I did a 40-day fast once, but it was nothing compared to that 21-day trip to Heidelberg on raw feet. I’ll never forget that. That was my foundation for starting the mission in Germany.” He was a successful missionary, leading the church in Germany until 1969, and in Austria after that. Starting in 1980, he dispatched missionaries to the Soviet Union, Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Romania, East Germany, and Albania—all communist countries—as chronicled in the book, Mission Butterfly.

This Week in History briefly lists significant events in the history of the Unification Church, the lives of the Founders, and world events that are momentous to Unificationists. Most items are marked according to the solar calendar. Items marked “H.C.” correspond to the Cheon-gi or Heavenly Calendar, which is based on the lunar calendar. This installment covers the week of  May 17 – 23.

Contributed by Dr. Michael Mickler, Professor of Church History at the Unification Theological Seminary.

A Divine Insight

This week in history, May 10-16:

• True Father completes the original text of the Divine Principle (May 10, 1952)
• True Father receives an honorary Doctorate from Shaw University Divinity School (May 11, 1985)
• The first MEPI Pilgrimage begins (May 12, 2003)
• The New Yorker Hotel is purchased (May 13, 1976)
• “True Parents and the Completed Testament Age” speaking tour begins (May 13, 1993)
• The U.S. Supreme Court declines True Father’s appeal (May 14, 1984)
• 33 Couples’ Holy Blessing Ceremony is held (May 15, 1961)
• The Sun Myung Moon Christian Crusade kicks off (May 15, 1974)
• Citizens Federation for the Unification of the Fatherland is inaugurated (May 15, 1987)
• True Father begins a 17-nation speaking tour in South America (May 16, 1995)
   

MAY 10, 1952

True Father Completes the Original Text of the Divine Principle

Front cover of the original Divine Principle manuscript

In his autobiography, As a Peace-Loving Global Citizen, True Father states that he began writing the original version of Divine Principle (Wolli Wonbon) in a shelter for laborers in Pusan. This was in late April or May 1951. He continued writing it after he moved in August with Won Pil Kim, his first disciple, to a small hut they constructed on a hillside overlooking Pusan Harbor.  True Father spent much of his time writing on top of a large rock. He would write several pages a day and have Won Pil Kim read them back to him at night. Sometimes True Father worked by the light of a lantern in their hut. Won Pil Kim recounts that True Father woke him once in the middle of the night and dictated an entire section which Won Pil Kim recorded non-stop. True Father noted that on the day he finished writing Wolli Wonbon, he put his pencil down and prayed, “The moment has come for me to evangelize. Please send me the saints to whom I may give witness.” That very day, Hyun Shil Kang, a young female theological student, visited the hut to evangelize and became a follower. Copies of Wolli Wonbon circulated as hand-written manuscripts for several years until superseded by Wolli Haesul (Explanation of Divine Principle) in 1957.
 

MAY 11, 1985

True Father Receives Honorary Doctorate from Shaw University Divinity School

True Mother accepts an honorary doctorate on True Father’s behalf from Shaw Divinity School in North Carolina.

On May 11, 1985, Shaw University Divinity School in Raleigh, North Carolina, awarded True Father an honorary doctorate of divinity. The award was especially meaningful in that Shaw made the award while True Father was incarcerated in the Federal Correctional Institution at Danbury, Connecticut. Dr. Joseph Paige, Shaw University’s executive vice president, later declared, “It was the first time that a major institution in America had been bold enough and honest enough and serious enough to honor this great leader.” He said True Father was being awarded for “his Christian leadership, his strong fight against communism and communist aggression, and his outstanding contribution in support of religious liberty, world peace, racial, economic and social justice, ecumenism and, more specifically, the unity of world Christianity.” True Mother accepted the award for True Father and delivered the acceptance speech. She stated that True Father shared with Shaw University and the Divinity School a commitment to international, interreligious and interracial harmony. 

MAY 12, 2003

The First MEPI Pilgrimage Tour Begins

At the height of the Second Intifada (2000-2005) and the beginning of the second Iraq War, True Parents launched what was to become the Middle East Peace Initiative (MEPI), a project initially of the Interreligious and International Federation for World Peace and later of its successor, the Universal Peace Federation (UPF). The MEPI concept was based upon True Father’s vision of interreligious peacemaking and his conviction that the resolution of conflict, particularly in Israel, was integral to world peace. This was especially true for the Middle East. True Father believed that Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders needed to resolve their differences as a condition for the cessation of violence. This lay behind his call for Christian clergy to “take down the cross” and undertake a pilgrimage to the Holy Land to be reconciled with their Jewish brethren. The first of the MEPI pilgrimages took place from May 12 to 19, 2003, and included 131 clergy. They traveled first to Rome, and then to Israel. They visited holy and historical sites at both locations. However, their main purposes were to bury the cross and reconcile, at least symbolically, with Jewish brethren, both of which they accomplished. Thousands of interreligious peacemakers traveled to the Holy Land under MEPI auspices between 2003 and 2014. MEPI events have included peace missions and fact-finding tours, service and youth activities, cultural programs, and conferences.
 

MAY 13, 1976

The New Yorker Hotel Purchased

The Unification Church purchased the New Yorker Hotel at Eighth Avenue and 34th Street in the New York City borough of Manhattan on May 13, 1976. The 43-story, 1,083-room hotel, which first opened in 1930, is near Pennsylvania Station, Madison Square Garden, Times Square and the Empire State Building. Much like its contemporaries the Empire State Building (1931) and the Chrysler Building (1930), the New Yorker was designed in the Art Deco style popular at the time. When the 1 million-square-foot hotel opened, it contained 2,500 rooms, making it the city’s largest for many years and one of the most fashionable during the 1940s and 1950s. A pronounced decline in New York’s fortunes in the late 1960s and early 1970s, coupled with the construction of new, more modern hotels, caused the New Yorker to become unprofitable, and it was vacant for several years before being purchased by the church for a reported $5.6 million. It served as the Unification Church’s World Mission Center from 1976 to 1994. In 1994, the church converted a portion of the building to use as a hotel again. The New Yorker joined the Ramada chain in 2000 and the Wyndham chain in 2014. The New Yorker served as a staging area for the 1982 Holy Blessing of 2,075 Couples in Madison Square Garden and for many of True Parents’ speeches and providential activities.
 

MAY 13, 1993

“True Parents and the Completed Testament Age” Speaking Tour Begins

On January 10, 1993, True Father announced the transition that day “to the Completed Testament Era.” Three months later, on April 10, the Unification Church published a statement, “True Parents and the Completed Testament Age,” in the newspapers of 160 nations. The next month, on May 13, True Parents began a speaking tour of 33 U.S. cities under the same theme. True Father spoke in the first 12 cities from May 13 to 24. True Mother then covered 21 cities from May 26 to June 28. The tour was extended to include 23 additional cities during July, thereby covering all fifty states. True Mother delivered the address at the U.S. Capitol and the United Nations, which was a springboard to the world tour. She conducted 25 rallies in Japan, 40 in Korea, and another 40 in countries throughout the world.

The speech testified to “the establishment of the first True Family.” True Father declared: “My wife and I, together with our thirteen children and twenty-four grandchildren, are absolutely dedicated to serving God and humanity. With three generations in one family, we have achieved on the family level the central root, the central trunk and the central bud of the ‘Tree of Life’ mentioned in the Bible. It is our sincere hope that you will symbolically graft into this lineage by joining us in our efforts to create an ideal nation and world. This marks the beginning of the Completed Testament Age.”
 

MAY 14, 1984

U.S. Supreme Court Declines True Father’s Appeal

Harvard Law scholar Lawrence Tribe speaking on True Father’s court proceedings at the Federal Court House in New York.

In his book Inquisition, The Persecution and Prosecution of the Reverend Sun Myung Moon, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Carlton Sherwood argued that True Father’s 1981 conviction on tax evasion charges was the result of “the most intensive and expensive criminal tax investigation of any religious figure in U.S. history.” However, the conviction had the effect of generating broad-based public support for True Father.  By April 1984, forty groups and individuals representing more than 120 million Americans had filed amicus curiae briefs in support of his appeal, including the National Association of Evangelicals, the National Conference of Black Mayors, the National Bar Association, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the attorneys general of Hawaii, Oregon and Rhode Island, Eugene McCarthy and Clare Boothe Luce. The Supreme Court’s refusal on May 14, 1984, to review True Father’s petition, despite this groundswell of support, set off a series of “Rallies for Religious Freedom.” Even The Washington Post, no friend of the church or the competing Washington Times, editorialized that “the case deserves attention and full Supreme Court review.” Ironically, the church emerged from True Father’s conviction on more solid ground than it had been before.
 

MAY 15, 1961

33 Couples Holy Blessing Ceremony is Held

True Parents conducted the 33 Couple Holy Blessing in the Chungpa-Dong Church Headquarters on May 15, 1961. Together with the Three Couples whom True Parents blessed on April 16, 1960, they comprise the 36 Couple Blessing group. True Father called them the “ancestors” of all the blessed couples to come after them. He also regarded them as “the representatives of all types of people on earth” and viewed them as being needed to “pave the way to the Kingdom of Heaven and act as guides for others.” True Father explained that the 36 Couples consisted of three groups of 12, symbolizing the Old Testament, New Testament and Completed Testament ages. They also were wedded in three phases: the first at dawn, the second during the day, and the third at night. True Father recalled that the 33 Couple Blessing Ceremony was held “amid great confusion and chaos.” He noted, “The parents of the 33 Couples came swarming about the place, shouting all kinds of insults at us and creating a continuous uproar. Some went so far as to send dozens of anonymous letters to the court of justice, demanding I be sent to jail; as a result, I had to appear in court on several occasions.” According to True Father, the parents were upset that he “brought together other people’s children and married them at my own discretion, without discussing it with the parents at all.” He recalled, “We finally had to have someone stand guard at the door before we could go through with the ceremony.”
 

MAY 15, 1974

The Sun Myung Moon Christian Crusade Kicks Off

The Unification Church hoped to reap a harvest of new members as a result of True Father’s 7-City, 21-City and 32-City Day of Hope tours from 1972 to 1974. To facilitate this, the church launched a Sun Myung Moon Christian Crusade (SMCC) 10-city “Celebration of Life” tour that evangelized in each of the ten regions of the country. Beginning in the Bay Area, the itinerary included stops in Seattle; St. Paul, Minnesota; Austin, Texas; New Orleans; Miami; Columbus, Ohio; Louisville, Kentucky; Boston; and Rochester, New York. Billed as “A 21st Century Experience,” programs included an hour and fifteen minutes of entertainment—songs, solos, skits, dances and testimonials—followed by forty-five minutes of inspiration from “God’s Colonel” Bo Hi Pak, on key points of the Unification Principle. Weeklong stops in each city featured a Celebration of Life weekend workshop.

As a result of tour innovations, advance preparation and media coverage, the Celebration of Life drew substantial crowds. SMCC’s “World Premiere” on May 15 to 17, 1974, at the Paramount Theatre in Oakland, California, drew 2,600 guests and thirty-four participants for a weekend workshop in the Santa Cruz Mountains. By Boston, the three-day total was up to 7,562. Equally important was the emergence of the New Hope Singers International and the Korean Folk Ballet. Both would make signal contributions to the culminating 8-city Day of Hope tour, scheduled to begin in September 1974 at Madison Square Garden in New York City.
 

MAY 15, 1987

Citizens Federation for the Unification of the Fatherland Inaugurated

True Father inaugurated the Citizens Federation for the Unification of the Fatherland (CFUF) at the Little Angels Performing Arts Center in Seoul, Korea, on May 15, 1987. Its purpose was to facilitate the long-cherished hope and desire of the Korean people for the unification of their homeland. However, True Father viewed the re-unification of Korea in larger terms: “Korea’s problems are a smaller version of the world’s problems, and the solution of the world’s problems is essentially linked with Korea’s problems.” In particular, he saw the division of Korea as a manifestation of a global confrontation between theism and atheism. The solution to the problem was Godism and “Head-wing” thought which transcended the “ego-centered or power-oriented” thought of left- and right-wing movements.

True Father launched CFUF at a propitious time. He noted that the movement of international communism was “coming to its final phase” and that Korea was about to emerge on the world stage through the 1988 Seoul Olympics. This opened the way for the founding of the Segye Times newspaper, True Parents’ eventual meeting with North Korean President Kim Il Sung and activities promoting peaceful reunification that followed. CFUF, as a grassroots and high-level educational movement, played a significant role in these developments.
 

MAY 16, 1995

True Father Begins a 17-Nation Speaking Tour in South America

True Father believed that the unity of North and South America was a providential necessity that would set a condition for the unification of North and South Korea. To that end, he launched CAUSA activities in Latin America during the 1980s and began investing directly in South America during the 1990s. Beginning on May 16, 1995, True Father undertook an ambitious speaking tour of 17 Latin American nations, which included audiences with eight heads of state. In these speeches and meetings he emphasized the region’s “stunning, and abundant, potential.” As he put it: “There are seemingly unlimited natural resources, and the human energies have hardly begun to be tapped. Latin America is a rich, peaceful, natural paradise of grandiose mountains and virgin lands. The mountains, rivers and jungles [hark] back to the original state of creation, the Garden of Eden.” Contemplating “the glory-filled days that await Latin America in the 21st century,” he counseled leaders to “not follow the footsteps of the developed nations,” blindly repeating “environmental errors” and falling into selfish materialism.

True Father hoped to persuade the governments of the Mercosur customs union (Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Bolivia and Chile) to donate contiguous lands for development “as a model for an ideal, international and interracial nation and world.” However, when they did not step forward sufficiently, Unificationists businesses began purchasing vast tracts of land in the South American interior. The assumption was that if the leaders of North and South America, or elsewhere, could not respond to True Father’s vision of unification, they would have to be shown a working model. Thus began the South American providence to which substantial resources were dedicated in the late 1990s.

This Week in History briefly lists significant events in the history of the Unification Church, the lives of the Founders, and world events that are momentous to Unificationists. Most items are marked according to the solar calendar. Items marked “H.C.” correspond to the Cheon-gi or Heavenly Calendar, which is based on the lunar calendar. This installment covers the week of  May 10 – 16.

Contributed by Dr. Michael Mickler, professor of church history at Unification Theological Seminary.

God is Our King and True Parent

Fourteen years ago today, on May 8, 2001, the Harlem Hoondok Rally was held in Canaan Baptist Church, Harlem, New York City. True Father had concluded the 50-State speaking tour, and wanted to have the final rally in New York. In his address, “God is our King and True Parent” True Father emphasized, “We refer to God as ‘Father,’ because He is our source of true love, true life and true lineage.” He delivered this message to American Christian clergy in a church that was packed with people. Below an excerpt of the speech given by True Father on this historic day.

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Respected ladies and gentlemen: I would like to express my sincerest gratitude for your participation in this rally despite your busy public and private schedules. Harlem is the heart of New York City, a city that is a capital of culture, of finance, and of diplomacy centered on the United Nations. It is also a multinational city, where immigrants from around the world have come and live together.

Between February 25 and April 17 of this first year of the new millennium, I successfully conducted a speaking tour covering all 50 states in the United States, speaking in 52 cities in 52 days. Today, I am able to meet you again, thanks to the invitation from the many ministers of the New York area. During my tour, I spoke to audiences comprised primarily of clergy about the path humankind and America, and even the heavenly world and earthly world, must take.

When I was sixteen years old I met Jesus early Easter morning, and set out on the path of Heaven’s Will to accomplish the Will of God. I suffered all manner of misunderstanding and persecution, but I never gave up. So I have devoted my life of more than eighty years to the effort of bringing about a world of peace based on the ideal of true families. In 1971, I came to America in obedience to God’s command, and for the past thirty years have invested my full spirit and energy to guide America so that it can fulfill the mission for which it was chosen, that is, the mission of the second Israel. Today, I would like to share with you some of my content from the recent speaking tour, as well as content regarding the Coronation Ceremony of God’s Kingship that was held on January 13 of this year.

One World Family

Ladies and gentlemen, with the opening of the new millennium we are moving quickly in the direction of a unified world. We are going beyond “one nation under God” and are moving toward “one universe under God.” The unified family of humankind that I prophesied many years ago is becoming a reality.

There are still formidable obstacles on the path, in particular racism and religious strife. These stand against the will of God. God is the first ancestor of humankind. The different skin colors among the races have no significance in terms of superiority or inferiority. It is simply a matter of our having adapted to different environments.

In fact, we know that the qualitative makeup of our bodies is 99.96% identical. From God’s standpoint, skin color has no qualitative significance whatsoever. In fact, the God of love is color blind. God did not create different races with differing skin colors. In the spirit world, the only color that exists there is the color of true love.

Strife among religious groups is a particularly serious obstacle blocking humanity’s effort to bring about world peace. God did not create denominations or religious groups. In fact, religion itself is a result of the fall. Satan fosters denominational schism and religious divisions. In the spirit world, there are no walls between nations, denominations, or religions. It is a world composed of one huge family.

Because I know these things well, I strongly encouraged all clergy during my recent fifty-state tour to transcend their denomination and unite as one. In fact, 144,000 churches are now leading this movement through the United Federation of Churches, centered on the American Clergy Leadership Conference. In the future, the home church format, centered on the family unit, gradually will become well established.

The Meaning of Our Age

Ladies and gentlemen, this year begins the seventh millennium of biblical history and the third millennium after Jesus. It is the time of completion for the Completed Testament Age, in which the promises of the Old and New Testaments are fulfilled and the Kingdom of Heaven is brought into reality on earth and in heaven in accordance with the completion of the spirit world.

I was victorious in setting all indemnity conditions necessary for the “Coronation Ceremony of God’s Kingship.” This January 13, I carried out this ceremony. This was the most joyous day in providential history, because it liberated our Parent in Heaven from the path of sorrow that He has endured since the fall of the first human ancestors. Now I would like to speak on the Coronation Ceremony of God’s Kingship.

We can hold this Coronation Ceremony for God’s Kingship for the first time because all the people on earth and in heaven were blessed and form a homogeneous nation. The Completed Testament is the era of the blessing for all. Because of the fall of the human ancestors, all things created by God could not stand in the realm of blessing. Therefore, God taught people by establishing numerous religions, leading them through the salvation providence and raising them step-by-step to the era of the Completed Testament.

Have No Fear

What are we supposed to do in this new millennium? Up until now, neither God nor the True Parents were liberated. But from this moment on, the Parents of Heaven and Earth are liberated and the children also are liberated. There is nothing to fear. Even if you are locked up, you should not be afraid. I am eager to join the spirit world at a young age. Should I fear going to the kingdom of heaven at a young age? The cosmos is in my hands. You should not deny that you have ultimate value as a child of God. You should not worry.

Today, by holding God’s kingship ceremony, we have changed the nation. It is the time to worry about how to follow the will of God. God has been pained with the history of resentment. We need to provide the supportive force so that God can do whatever He wants to do.

God is to have full authority based on this new kingship. We should be able to say to God, “Come out, I will guide your way. God, please wake me up and take me along.” You know how to guide, don’t you? Whether or not God can visit you, you should know how to guide Him. From now on things will change.

How Shall We Live?

What do we do next? What kind of life do you want to live? We all want to live well. Then, do you consider living alone to be a good life? No! We should live together. With what kind of people and following what rules and environment?

It is simple. There are three answers: the parent-child relationship, the conjugal relationship and the brother-sister relationship. This last one means brothers and sisters in the position of children to the parents; it refers to a relationship among children of the same parents. This is why one’s family has a mother and a father; from that couple came sons and daughters. You have the brother-sister relationship because you stand before the same mother and father. In my eyes, third cousins, the in-laws and all the cousins and so on including all people are related, sharing the brother-sister relationship. Once the parent-child relationship and conjugal relationship are connected, brothers and sisters will automatically come to exist. The relationships within this wide range of humankind may be called brother-sister relationships. They are created to live a good life in harmony.

To live a virtuous life, guidance is necessary. Each person has to be an example to others. That defines a virtuous way of life. If you cannot become a model for others, you are not leading a true life. If your life can serve as an example before the mother and the father, the husband and wife, and children, then you are living a virtuous life.

Goals for Your Life

I want you to remember this clearly. Keep it as a motto. In the motto of the third millennium, I mentioned pure lineage, the equality of human rights, and the preservation of national public assets. That means, do not be a thief. What is next? Be an example! Be an exemplary parent, exemplary spouse, exemplary child and exemplary sibling. If you form such a family, people in your neighborhood will say, “We should follow that person. I want to live with him.” That person is surely a citizen of kingdom of heaven, and heaven will remember that family forever.

I explained to you on this historic day, the day of the Coronation Ceremony of God’s Kingship, the three most important things that humankind must uphold and by which you can be truly liberated in your family and in your nation. I hope you can remember these contents and keep them as the goals of your life.

In the Completed Testament era, we must understand about the spirit world. May you study about spirit world and God, and may you live for the sake of others. If you do so, you will receive the blessing and become a blessed family. Through living for others, you prepare for your eternal life. We all should try to gain this heavenly fortune, which surpasses the fruit of all earthly effort.

In front of the living God, with humility, let us be children of filial piety and loyalty. Let us become the sacred children of God. In light of God’s sovereignty, in this age of kingship, let us stand together to establish a world of peace, love and harmony.

A Legacy of Peace

This week in history, May 3-9:

• Unificationists clean Manhattan and the Bronx (May 3, 1976)
• True Father declares a New Sabbath and “The Era after the Coming of Heaven” (May 5, 2004)
• A joint worship service for the kickoff of Vision 2020 is held (May 5, 2013)
• The Professors World Peace Academy is founded (May 6, 1973)
• The New York State Court of Appeals declares the Unification Church a bona fide religion (May 6, 1982)
• A tribute to True Parents’ Golden Wedding Anniversary and “Legacy of Peace” honorees is held(May 9, 2010)

14 YEARS AGO TODAY:

MAY 8, 2001

Harlem Hoondok Rally, Harlem, New York, City

The Harlem Hoondok Rally was held in Canaan Baptist Church, Harlem, New York City, on May 8, 2001. In his address, “God is our King and True Parent” True Father emphasized, “We refer to God as “Father,” because He is our source of true love, true life and true lineage.” He delivered this message to American Christian clergy in a church that was packed with people.
 

MAY 3, 1976

U.S. Members Clean Manhattan and the Bronx

True Father launched an “America the Beautiful” project on May 3, 1976, as part of the “God Bless America” campaign on the occasion of the United States’ 200th anniversary. More than 1,000 Unificationists from across the nation took up brooms and dustpans to clean the New York City boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx. Dressed in white jumpsuits with the God Bless America Festival logo on the back, they cleaned in their witnessing area every morning from 7 to 8. The cleanup project was intended to raise awareness for the upcoming “God Bless America Festival” at Yankee Stadium on June 1 at which True Father would deliver an address on “God’s Hope for America.” The Unificationist folk-rock band Sunburst provided free lunch-hour concerts, and hundreds of additional Unificationists arrived for the final push, spearheading street rallies and massive ticket distribution efforts.

MAY 5, 2004

Declaration of a New Sabbath and “The Era after the Coming of Heaven”

On May 1, 2004, the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity (HSA-UWC), or Unification Church, observed the 50th anniversary of its founding. In connection with this observance, True Father made two bold announcements—first, that the Sabbath had been fulfilled and that he was proclaiming Ahn Shi Il, the Day of Attendance of Safe Settlement, to be observed by Unificationists every eighth day. The first Ahn Shi Il was conducted on May 5. On that day, True Father made the second announcement: that a great transition from “the era before the coming of heaven” to “the era after the coming of heaven” had taken place. The key implication of this providential announcement was that world peace, which had been impossible to achieve during “the era before the coming of heaven,” was now possible. This, in particular, was understood to be the reason why the United Nations, born prior to “the era after the coming of heaven,” had not been able to fulfill its mission. True Father’s proclamation of a new Sabbath and “the era after the coming of heaven” culminated trends in his thought and practice that he had introduced previously, including his declaration that the “providence of salvation” was “over,” that “blessed families” should pray in their own names, that humankind had entered an era “beyond the realm of the Fall,” that a time of “high noon” with “no shadows” had arrived, that the time of “indirect dominion” had passed and that “God is now directly teaching and instructing us.”
 

MAY 5, 2013

Joint Worship Service for the Kickoff of Vision 2020

Prior to Foundation Day 2013, True Mother declared, “Foundation Day is not the end. Until we liberate all humanity and bring back all 6.5 billion people to Heaven, we have to offer our utmost effort.” In line with this commitment, True Mother announced the “2020 Vision,” which launched Unificationists on a new seven-year trajectory. True Mother’s stated intention was to “substantiate” Cheon Il Guk and, in particular, offer Korea “to Heaven” on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of True Father’s birthday in 2020. The “Joint Worship Service for Victory of Vision 2020” was held at the Cheongshim Peace World Center on May 5. Forty-three students from the Universal Peace Academy entered the stadium holding the flags of the 43 strategic and providential nations which would take the lead this effort.  True Mother asked that all families who had received the Holy Marriage Blessing and all young people born into the Unificationist faith carry on True Parents’ tradition of absolute faith in fulfilling their mission as tribal messiahs and expand the scope of our responsibilities beyond the tribe to the society, nation and world, so that all humankind can become citizens of Cheon Il Guk.
 

MAY 6, 1973

The Professors World Peace Academy Founded

The Professors World Peace Academy (PWPA) was founded by True Father during an assembly of 168 Japanese and Korean professors, to “contribute to the solutions of urgent problems facing our modern civilization and to help resolve the cultural divide between East and West.” The organization held discussions such as healing historical tensions, first only in Korea and Japan, then spreading around the world to more than a hundred countries. PWPA sponsored a providentially significant conference on “The Fall of the Soviet Empire” in 1985. PWPA-related scholars have written important works through Paragon House and publish the International Journal on World Peace four times annually. PWPA is a major supporter of the University of Bridgeport.
 

MAY 6, 1982

New York State Court of Appeals Declares the Unification Church a Bona Fide Religion

The Unification Church was embroiled in near-constant litigation from 1975 to 1985. Though this was costly and time consuming, several decisions, won on appeal, gained the Church gradual recognition as a bona fide religion with tax exemption privileges, public solicitation rights and access to missionary visas. In addition, the Church was able to extend constitutional protections to its adherents and successfully press for action against deprogrammers. By unanimously overturning lower court decisions which had refused to recognize the Unification Church’s religious purposes, the New York Court of Appeals in HSA-UWC v. Tax Commission of New York City [1772], decided on May 6, 1982, held as a matter of law that the Unification Church was a bona fide religion entitled to tax exemption privileges.
 

MAY 9, 2010

A Tribute to True Parents’ Golden Wedding Anniversary and “Legacy of Peace” Honorees

Twelve hundred guests gathered in the Aria Hotel in Las Vegas to pay tribute to the 50th wedding anniversary of True Parents and participate in the final “Legacy of Peace” program in a series that began at the United Nations in March. Organized by the Universal Peace Federation, the event focused on True Parents’ lifelong vision to establish a global community of nations and religions—an “Abel UN”—guided by the ideal of “one family under God.” It was held during the year of True Father’s 90th birthday and the publication of his autobiography. The “Legacy of Peace” program honored those recently deceased persons who had contributed to the cause of world peace during their lifetime. Highlights of the program included interfaith prayer by religious leaders, congratulatory remarks by Neil Bush, and True Father’s three-hour speech on “The Establishment of the Abel UN and the Completion of God’s Kingdom of Cheon Il Guk in Korea.”

This Week in History briefly lists significant events in the history of the Unification Church, the lives of the Founders, and world events that are momentous to Unificationists. Most items are marked according to the solar calendar. Items marked “H.C.” correspond to the Cheon-gi or Heavenly Calendar, which is based on the lunar calendar. This installment covers the week of  May 3 – 9.

Contributed by Dr. Michael Mickler, professor of church history at Unification Theological Seminary.

Humble Beginnings

Sixty-one years ago today, our True Father, together with a handful of close disciples, raised the sign of the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity for the first time. That momentous event in God’s providence did not take place in one of the great cathedrals of Christendom, as perhaps it should have. Instead, the small group of believers gathered outside a very modest house in a very unremarkable Seoul neighborhood. Korea itself was barely beginning to recover from the devastation of the Korean War, which had ended in armistice less than ten months earlier.

In his autobiography As a Peace Loving Global Citizen, True Father reflected on the ironies of those days:

“People in the neighborhood laughed at our sign. They made fun of us, asking what kind of world unification we dreamt of in that tiny little house that ‘you have to crawl to get into.’ They didn’t try to find out why we had chosen that name. They simply looked at us as if we were crazy.”

Some of us may also have entertained similar doubts at one time or another, but here we are in 2015, and we are still moving on. True Mother has made it abundantly clear that we cannot miss a step, but advance together in faith and conviction in the love and grace of our Heavenly Parent. We are secure in the knowledge that our Heavenly Parent’s providential Will does not change. In the words of the prophet which still resound over the millennia, our God declares “I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass. I have purposed, and I will do it.” (Is. 46:11)

This new month of May is going to be very exciting. Spring is here at last and the flowers and the blossoms are out, the birds are singing, a gentle breeze is blowing and…True Mother is coming back home to the America!

For the next three weeks, let’s pray for True Mother as she travels in Europe. After her arrival in Vienna, Austria, she will meet with over a thousand European Unificationists for a family reunion. Some of our most senior missionary and pioneer families will be honored there for their long service. True Mother will also speak publicly at the United Nations Headquarters offices in Vienna. Additional events are planned in Berlin, Paris and London. Finally, on the weekend of May 23 and May 24 we will have a chance to welcome True Mother for a victory celebration in New York, and again the following weekend in Las Vegas.

Our FFWPU USA media team is following True Mother’s speaking tour every step of the way and we plan to bring you the latest news and photos as they happen. Stay tuned for the latest exciting updates as True Mother brings the love of our Heavenly Parent and True Parents to our European family.

Dr. Ki Hoon Kim

Continental Director

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Dr. Michael Balcomb

President

Centered on True Love

This week in history, April 26-May 2:

• 144,000 interfaith clergy receive the Marriage Blessing (April 27, 2002)
• Soviet officials visit the United States and hear CAUSA lectures (April 30-May 2, 1991)
• HSA-UWC is founded (May 1, 1954)
• The Exposition of the Divine Principle is published (May 1, 1966)
• 22 Japanese couples receive the Holy Marriage Blessing (May 1, 1969)
• True Father introduces the Family Pledge (May 1, 1994)
   

April 27, 2002

144,000 Clergy Interfaith Marriage Blessing

Based on the Interfaith Marriage Blessing of 60 clergy couples on May 27, 2001 (which included Archbishops Emmanuel Milingo and George A. Stallings, among others), True Father called for a 12,000 Couple Clergy Blessing at New York’s Madison Square Garden in September 2001. That was postponed due to the terrorist attacks of 9/11. Instead, True Father announced a Marriage Blessing for 144,000 clergy couples around the world on April 27, 2002. The main venue was the Sheraton National Hotel in Arlington, Virginia, for some 700 representative clergy couples. Thousands of other couples participated in all 50 U.S. states and 196 nations via satellite connection. Commendations for the Blessing came from four U.S. governors and 25 members of Congress, including several U.S. senators. United Press International, Associated Press, ABC National, CBS local, The Washington Times and many Spanish-language and African-American newspapers covered the event. Religious leaders from every faith tradition offered prayers. Thirty couples came from the Nation of Islam, directly sent by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan. Twenty-one Buddhist couples came from Korea. More than 21 Sikh leaders came from the Washington area. True Parents declared that the interreligious and international ceremony was a “total victory.” Pastor T.L. Barrett Jr. from Chicago, who helped organize the event, declared, “Father [Moon] is a marrying man! He wants everything to be married. He would like a desk and chair or even the two light bulbs to be married, if possible.”

April 30-May 2, 1991

Soviet Officials Visit the United States, Hear CAUSA Lectures

The demise of Marxism as a viable ideology created a serious void for the USSR. True Parents’ meeting with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev on April 11, 1990, opened the way for the Unification Church to sponsor seminars for Soviet officials and eventually Divine Principle workshops for thousands of Soviet university students and professors. In December 1990 and February 1991, the church sponsored seminars for 80 deputies of the Supreme Soviet (federal, republic and city levels) in which they received lectures on Victory over Communism (VOC) theory as well as briefings on the underpinnings of U.S. democracy. Then, from April 30 to May 2, 1991, the church sponsored an unprecedented seminar and fact-finding tour in Washington, D.C., for approximately 200 high-ranking Soviet officials and political leaders who were introduced to True Father’s thought and achievements. Dr. Thomas Ward, who lectured, noted, “This was the only time during the final years of the Soviet Union that any person, government or private organization brought together representatives from all 15 Soviet republics.”
 

May 1, 1954

The Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity (HSA-UWC) Is Founded

True Father established the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity (HSA-UWC, or Unification Church) on May 1, 1954. The armistice agreement ending the Korean War was signed in July 1953, and in September True Father moved from Pusan to Seoul. There, with four early followers, True Father established the new association. According to Dr. David S.C. Kim, who was present, True Father submitted three possible names, two of which “were so complicated that we could not even comprehend the meaning of the Chinese characters.” True Father stated in his autobiography that the group chose HSA-UWC “to signify that we belonged to no denomination, and … had no plans to create a new one.” He said: “I did not want to place ourselves in this separatist type of category. My hope was for the rise of a church without a denomination. True religion tries to save the nation, even if it has to sacrifice its own religious body to do so. … It was necessary to hang out a church sign, but in my heart I was ready to take it down at any time.”

 

May 1, 1966

Wolli Kangron (Exposition of the Divine Principle) Is Published

Following his encounter with Jesus on April 17, 1935, True Father dedicated himself to solving the fundamental problems of God, humankind, nature and history. The fruit of his investigation is the Divine Principle. According to Won Pil Kim, True Father kept a notebook with notes about the Divine Principle, which he carried with him into North Korea in 1946. Unfortunately, it was lost during his incarceration in Heungnam Prison. Afterward, on arriving in Pusan, True Father began writing Wolli Wonbon (Original Text of the Divine Principle), which he finished on May 10, 1952. It circulated as a hand-written manuscript for several years until superseded by Wolli Haesul (Explanation of Divine Principle) in 1957. Wolli Haesul was prepared by Hyo Won Eu, based on Wolli Wonbonand guidance from True Father. In the early 1960s, True Father directed Rev. Eu to prepare a new text with a more systematic structure and additional content. It was published as Wolli Kangron (Exposition of the Divine Principle) on May 1, 1966. It has served as the authorized version of Divine Principle to the present. Wolli Kangron was translated into English in two official versions, Divine Principle (1973) and Exposition of the Divine Principle (1996). It is one of the “Eight Great Textbooks” that True Father designated as his “last words to humankind.”
 

May 1, 1969

Holy Blessing of 22 Japanese Couples

True Parents’ Blessing of 22 Japanese couples in holy matrimony on May 1, 1969, in Tokyo was the third of three Blessings that comprise what is known as the 43 Couples Blessing. The first was the Holy Blessing of 13 American couples on February 28, 1969, at Upshur House in Washington, D.C. The second was the Holy Blessing of eight European couples in Essen, Germany, on March 28, 1969. These were all conducted during True Parents’ Second World Tour and came on the foundation of the 430 Couple Holy Blessing conducted in Korea in 1968. They were the first Holy Blessings conducted outside Korea and signified the Unification Church’s expansion to the worldwide level.
 

May 1, 1994

True Father Introduces Family Pledge

On January 10, 1993, True Father announced “the transition today to the Completed Testament Era.” The new epoch 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 the church and rendered all previous religious expressions, including that of the Unification Church, obsolete. On HSA-UWC’s 40th anniversary, May 1, 1994, True Father introduced the “Family Pledge.” It displaced “My Pledge,” which had expressed Unification Church members’ standard of attendance since 1961.  According to Rev. Joong Hyun Pak, continental director of the church in North America at that time, My Pledge represented the individual’s pledge. Family Pledge signified the transition to the family era. True Father stated that reciting Family Pledge “means we have crossed over the barriers and are now on God’s side.” He noted that the fullest exemplification of this was that “all paragraphs of Family Pledge begin with the phrase ‘centered on true love.’”
 

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 April 26 – May 2.

Contributed by Dr. Michael Mickler, professor of church history at Unification Theological Seminary.

The Path for America and Humanity

This week in history, April 19-25:

• True Mother completes her 12-city US tour (April 19, 2000)
• Young Hwi Kim joins the church (April 20, 1955)
• Hirokazu Ota is released by Paraguayan kidnappers (April 21, 2007)
• Noticias del Mundo is established (April 22, 1980)
   

APRIL 19, 2000

True Mother Completes 12-City US Tour

Giving a public speech every day for 12 days in a row, True Mother crisscrossed the country, completing the 12-city United States leg of her 2000 World Speaking Tour from April 8 to 19. The tour had been undertaken following Phase One of the 400 Million Couple Holy Blessing and True Father’s 80th birthday. True Mother spoke on “The Path for America and Humanity in the Last Days” to capacity audiences throughout the country. She challenged the United States to fulfill its providential destiny in living for the sake of others.

For the tour finale in New York City, approximately 3,000 people squeezed into Avery Fisher Hall, a concert hall that is part of Manhattan’s famous Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. True Mother received awards and gifts from the Nation of Islam, the True Family Values Clergy Coalition, and the Family Federation. She then selected from a basket the number which would indicate the lucky recipients of 24-carat “Pure Love” rings. At the end of the program, True Mother presented the Living for the Sake of Others Award to persons and organizations who had demonstrated the spirit of living for the sake of others.
 

APRIL 20, 1955

Rev. Young Hwi Kim Joins the Church

Young Hwi Kim and Dae Hwa Chung receive the Holy Marriage Blessing.

Rev. Young Hwi Kim (b. 1928), who with his wife were one of the original three couples engaged by True Parents prior to their own Holy Wedding, joined the Unification Church on  April 20, 1955. He had studied electrical engineering at Seoul National University and joined the first class of Korea’s Special Air Force Academy in 1953. He subsequently served the Unification Church in various leadership positions over the last sixty years.  Following Rev. Hyo Won Eu’s passing in 1970, he became the second president of the Korean Unification Church. He was the lecturer at the first Divine Principle workshop in the United States overseen by True Parents and author of The Divine Principle Study Guide, Part 1. He served as a regional leader representing True Parents in several European countries and as their envoy to the United Kingdom. In 2013, Rev. Kim represented True Mother in a five-city U.S. revival tour. He also served as director of the Cheon Seong Gyeong project in Korea.

 

APRIL 21, 2007

Hirokazu Ota Released by Paraguayan Kidnappers

Hirokazu Ota, a longtime Japanese Unification Church leader, Japanese national messiah to Paraguay, and president of the Unificationist-affiliated land management company in Paraguay, was kidnapped at gunpoint, along with his secretary, on April 1, 2007. Asian people there (Koreans, Japanese, Chinese) are thought to be rich and are frequently targeted by criminals. Mr. Ota, his secretary and two bystanders, one of whom was a police officer, were abducted while traveling by car. The kidnapping gang, which was thought to involve as many as 25 people, raised the initial ransom demand from $25,000 to $300,000. Negotiations were difficult, with Mr. Ota and his companions being relocated numerous times as the kidnappers attempted to stay ahead of Paraguayan authorities. In the end, through the efforts of the Paraguayan police, the Japanese Embassy, the Church and company officials, a reported $138,000 ransom was paid and Mr. Ota was released in Ciudad del Este, a city on the eastern border with Brazil. Mr. Ota recounted his harrowing experience in several news conferences and testimonies. The following year, the Brazilian kidnapping ringleader was shot to death by Paraguayan police in a gunfight.

APRIL 22, 1980

Noticias del Mundo Established

True Father founded the Spanish-language newspaper Noticias del Mundo on April 22, 1980, as an effort to begin a relationship with the Hispanic community in the United States and Latin America that would help turn the tide against communist infiltration of the Western Hemisphere. Earlier, True Father set up the anti-communist educational organization CAUSA and sent Dr. Bo Hi Pak to meet officials in Latin America. In his remarks at its inauguration, Dr. Pak, the paper’s founding president and publisher, expressed True Father’s desire for Spanish-speaking Americans to help shape the nation’s future and to correct misunderstandings and misrepresentations in the North American press. Leadership of Noticias Del Mundo later passed to Phillip V. Sanchez, the former U.S. ambassador to Honduras and Colombia.

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 April 19 – 25.

Contributed by Dr. Michael Mickler, professor of church history at Unification Theological Seminary.

The New Historical Vanguard

This week in history, April 12-18:

• 36 Unificationist-born young adult couples receive the Holy Marriage Blessing (April 12, 1986)
• Three couples receive the Holy Marriage Blessing (April 16, 1960)
• True Father declares the end of the first 21-year course (April 16, 1980)
• True Father encounters Jesus on Easter morning (April 17, 1935)
• Clergy takes down crosses (April 18, 2003)
   

APRIL 12, 1986

36 Couple Unificationist-born Young Adult Holy Marriage Blessing

A new era began for the Unification Church on April 12, 1986, at the Little Angels Performing Arts Center in Seoul when True Parents gave the Holy Marriage Blessing to 36 Unificationist-born couples. This was the first Holy Marriage Blessing of Unificationist-born young adults apart from the Marriage Blessings of four of True Parents’ own children. On April 8, True Father called candidates in Korea to assemble and began the matching engagement, which continued into the following day. Unificationist-born candidates outside Korea were matched by photograph. Those participating were the sons and daughters of Unificationists who had participated in the 36-, 72-, and 124-Couple Blessings. Through the marriage of their children these early Unificationists became relatives.

In his message to the newly engaged couples, “The New Historical Vanguard,” True Father described the occasion as “an amazing providential event.” He called upon the young couples to “renew the true tradition of the Unification family” by being “standard-bearers … for the sake of all the people of the world.” He also asked them to “learn the historical lesson” from the Israelites who perished after returning to Canaan “by aiming at worldly goals requiring knowledge, money and power.” Finally, he called upon them to be “victorious over the entire world” by going “through suffering that no one else in the world can handle.” He advised them to “find the abandoned path that the people of this world would consider worthless. That is the path God is asking you to walk.”
 

APRIL 16, 1960

Three Couples Holy Marriage Blessing

On April 16, 1960, the fifth day following True Parents’ Holy Wedding, True Parents blessed three couples in Holy Matrimony. They were Kim Won-pil and Chung Dal-ok; Eu Hyo-won and Sa Gil-ja; and Kim Young-hwi and Chung Dae-hwa. There were a number of providential conditions connected to these couples. True Father noted that they represented the families of Adam, Noah and Abraham. They also were chosen as the resurrected figures of Cain, Abel and Seth in Adam’s family. In addition, they were in the position of Jesus’ three main disciples and restored archangels. True Father stated that he required “three disciples” in the position of spiritual children “who will be loyal to him and follow him through persecution, even at the risk of their lives” as a condition for his Holy Wedding. True Father, thereby, engaged the three couples ahead of his wedding. One of the couples had been previously married, one had been previously engaged, and one was “matched” immediately before their engagement. In this way, they were intended to represent all marital situations. The three couples joined 33 additional couples who were blessed in marriage the following year as the Unification Church’s original 36 couples.
 

APRIL 16, 1980

True Father Declares the End of the First 21-Year Course

Unification theology teaches that the course of creation and restoration unfolds according to the three stages of formation, growth and perfection. True Father applied that principle in conducting his ministry. He initially applied it to his individual course upon embarking on his public ministry after World War II.  The 21-year course with which Unificationists were most familiar followed True Parents’ Holy Wedding in 1960. True Father described how True Parents walked a family-level course for seven years, followed by a national-level course in which the Unification tradition stabilized itself within Korea, and then a worldwide course during which True Parents planted Unificationism globally. True Father declared that 21-year course to be completed on Parents Day, April 16, 1980. He said that it was to be followed by another 21-year course centered on Unification blessed families. This course, he noted, would be centered first upon deterring the advance of communists and then liberating them. To do so, he said Unificationists must “be superior in God-centered character and in strength of knowledge, experience and organization.” The new 21-year course would be centered upon “Home Church,” which True Father described as the methodology to “liberate the entire world centered on the true love of God.”
 

APRIL 17, 1935

True Father’s Easter Revelation

In his autobiography, As a Peace-Loving Global Citizen, True Father traces circumstances that led to his profound encounter with Jesus on Easter morning, 1935. In particular, he notes his exposure to suffering which included the suffering of Korea under Japanese colonial authorities and his family’s suffering, which included the loss of five younger siblings during his fifteenth year. From this time, True Father began to immerse himself in prayer, often at desolate locations. He recounts, “The night before Easter in the year I turned sixteen, I was on Mount Myodu praying all night and begging God in tears for answers.” Then, in the early morning, having spent the entire night in prayer, True Father stated that “Jesus appeared before me … in an instant, like a gust of wind, and said to me, ‘God is in great sorrow because of the pain of humankind. You must take on a special mission on earth having to do with Heaven’s work.’”

True Father said that Jesus’ manifestation “caused my body to shake violently, like quaking aspen leaves trembling in a strong breeze.” He said he was “simultaneously overcome with fear so great I thought I might die and gratitude so profound I felt I might explode.” Jesus, he recounted, “spoke clearly about the work I would have to do … saving humanity from its suffering and bringing joy to God.” True Father said he was “truly afraid.” He wanted “somehow to avoid this mission” and remembers, “I clung to the hem of his clothing and wept inconsolably.”
 

APRIL 18, 2003

Clergy Take Down Crosses

True Father believed that “deep-rooted conflict between major religious traditions” constituted the background of “violent wars all over the world. It followed that religious leaders should take the initiative in restoring peace. This lay behind True Father’s proposal for an interreligious assembly or council at the United Nations. It also undergirded his thinking about the Middle East. True Father taught that Christian, Jewish and Muslim leaders should resolve their differences as a condition for the cessation of violence. However, this necessitated that Christian clergy acknowledge that “the era of the cross” had passed and, in fact, remove their crosses, which had been a barrier between the first and second Israel.

The “Take Down the Cross” initiative crystallized in early 2003. In February, True Father asked Unification Church and American Clergy Leadership Conference leaders to educate Christian clergy in Unification theology. At the beginning of March, he called upon clergy to remove crosses from their churches. The goal was that on April 18, Good Friday, 120 ACLC clergy nationwide would have a public ceremony to take down the cross. That goal was met. As reported by Michael Jenkins, who at the time was the president of HSA-USA: “123 clergy took down their crosses over the Easter weekend … supported by another 135 clergy. … All told, 258 clergy directly affirmed the taking down of the cross, proclaiming an end to the era of bloodshed and sacrifice and the beginning of a new era of faith and resurrection.” Though controversial in some quarters, their action launched the Middle East Peace Initiative (MEPI) which brought 10,000 clergy and Ambassadors for Peace to the Holy Land over the following two years.
 

Contributed by Dr. Michael Mickler, professor of church history at Unification Theological Seminary.

True Mother’s American Speaking Tour

True Mother embarked on a 16-city speaking tour from April 1-16, 1998 under the banner:  “Blessed Marriage and Eternal Life”. She spoke in Chicago, Dallas, Boston, St. Louis, Oakland, Atlanta, Washington D.C., Bridgeport, Richmond, Louisville, Manhattan, Seattle, Los Angeles, Denver, Minneapolis and Toronto.  At each stop, Unificationists gathered with True Father at East Garden in Tarrytown, NY, listening to True Mother’s address via live feed.

 

True Mother speaks at the Manhattan Center in New York during her American speaking tour, while True Father participates at East Garden as part of his condition to support True Mother’s leadership.

Unificationists pulled together to make each city stop a big event featuring dignitaries, professors and clergy as well as support from many affiliate organizations such as Women’s Federation for World Peace and American Clergy Leadership Conference among others. True Mother presented three Hoon Dok Hwe books (scriptural books for study in the family) to representative dignitaries, professors and clergy present at each event.  

After each event, True Father would call True Mother and together with blessed families on both ends they would celebrate the day together over the phone with songs, cake and words of encouragement. 
 

CHICAGO

With the support and teamwork of local Christian churches, over 3,000 guests filled the Grand Ballroom of Chicago’s downtown Marriott in anticipation of True Mother’s arrival. Special effort was made leading up to the event, with local Unificationists investing in consistent outreach to local churches. Each couple took responsibility for a specific church, visiting and becoming a part of the community there, and regularly attended events and Bible studies. When it came time to prepare for True Mother’s arrival, these partnerships were essential in helping to make the program happen and filling up the event hall.

People from over 50 churches filled up 39 buses, organized by a local Unificationist to help transport people to the event, and boxed lunches were provided for the guests on the bus. Despite the complication of the event being held on Good Friday, many of the ministers rearranged their own services or made True Mother’s visit a part of their congregation’s celebration.

The ballroom was overflowing with prominent members of the community. Representatives from the U.S. Congress, the State of Illinois, the City of Chicago, the Nation of Islam, the Sikh Community, the Lutheran Church, the Baptist Church and the Church of God in Christ lined the stage to receive the gift of True Father’s speech volumes from True Mother and to present proclamations honoring True Parents.

The powerful speech was met with choruses of “Amen,” “Praise the Lord!” and “Hallelujah,” from the inspired crowd. The whole room erupted in a standing ovation as True Mother concluded the speech and accepted a bouquet of flowers from a local couple, and two special plaques from the Archdiocese of Chicago and the Coalition of Religious Leaders.

Celebrations continued long after the event, with a cake cutting, singing and dancing that lasted for hours. True Father was able to speak and hear the festivities over a phone connection as well. The Chicago community was thrilled to be able to see True Mother once again the following morning for a quick visit and Hoon Dok Hwe before she headed off for the next stop on the tour.
 

DALLAS

Over 500 people attended True Mother’s visit to Dallas. The local community came together beside community leaders and pastors to welcome True Mother. Mrs. Roxanna Carranza Lopez, personal assistant to the Consul General of El Salvador, was among the guests, and was so happy to receive the gift of Hoon Kok Hwe books. Other notable guests were Rev. Rufus Kyles, Superintendent of the Thanks Progressive Evangelistic District, C.O.G.I.C., and on the mayor’s ministerial Advisory Board; Dr. Lonnie Kliever, the director of Religious Studies at Southern Methodist University; Dr. Ronald Flowers, professor of religion and Chairman of the Department of Religion at Texas Christian University; and Minister Robert Muhammad, Southwest Regional Representative of the Hon. Louis Farrakhan. About 70 guests of the Nation of Islam were in attendance and welcomed True Mother warmly.

Along with longtime contacts, many ministers came for the first time and introduced members of their congregation to True Mother, even joining in at the victory party after the speech. The room was electric as True Mother came down from the stage to present the Hoon Dok Hwe books, and all of the guests received them gratefully. Many of the local members worked extremely hard to make the event happen, and were thrilled to have had such a successful and positive experience.
 

BOSTON

The New England region was ignited with the spirit of True Mother as she came to Boston on Friday, April 3. Unificationists in the region had been preparing months ahead of time, even doing a 40-day all night prayer devotion. The organizers felt that God was guiding the preparation process, as they were able to secure the Hon Hancock Hall for the speech, the same place True Father had spoken 25 years prior on the Day of Hope Tour in 1973.

Over 700 guests filled the hall, with 36 community leaders and ministers signing a promise of support for True Parents. Minister Jabbar Muhammad received Hoon Dok Hwe books at the event on behalf of the Nation of Islam, and later shared how inspired he had been by the whole event. He asked for the dates and locales for the rest of the tour so that he could broadcast it on the local Nation of Islam radio program and encourage all his members to pray for the tour.

One of the guests, a six term Massachusetts state senator, joined the celebrations after the speech and even sang a song for True Parents. In True Mother’s closing words to the group during the celebration, she told everyone to think, “not just one nation under God, but one world under God” and encouraged everyone to bring more people to the Marriage Blessing.

All of the local Unificationists were full of joy in being able to welcome True Mother and hear her words. So many helped to organize, plan and mobilize in order to make the day a success.
 

ST. LOUIS

The St. Louis region had been in existence for little over a year when they were asked to prepare for True Mother’s visit. It was a challenge, but through the help of many devoted Unificationists from Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska and Iowa, the “Heartland region” pulled together to make it happen.

True Mother read the speech “Blessed Marriage and Eternal Life” to a hall filled with people from various racial, religious and cultural backgrounds. The audience was warm and enthusiastic. Among the attendants was U.S. Senator Christopher Bond, who met True Mother at the airport upon her arrival. St. Louis Mayor Clarence Harmon offered a proclamation establishing April 4, 1998 as the “Day of Renewing America and Our Families” in St. Louis, and eight community leaders received Hoon Dok Hwe books from True Mother. Recipients included: Dr. Fran Benham, Director of Library Services at St. Louis University; Rev. Dr. Irma Cannida, Director of Wonderful World of Women; Rev. Dr. William Collins, retired Baptist pastor, retired seminary professor and member of the Board of Directors of Eden Theological Seminary; Rev. Michael West, bishop of St. Michael’s Temple; Rev. James Stewart, bishop of Pentecostal Saints Tabernacle; Denise Muhammad, assistant minister of St. Louis chapter of Nation of Islam; Evangelist Ruth Coney, St. Louis Director of Women Aglow; and Rev. Leonard Wrice, Christian Service Center.

The community expressed a sense of a shared bond in the way they all worked together to make the day a success, and renewed hope for the many great things to come.
 

BERKELEY, CA

“I’m the Mother of Oakland but Mrs. Moon is the True Mother of the World,” declared special guest Mary Anne Wright at the celebration following True Mother’s speech at the Jewitt Ballroom of the Marriott Hotel in Berkeley California. The audience was captivated by True Mother’s dignity and the depth of True Father’s words. After the speech, True Mother spoke briefly to church elders and inspired everyone to work hard toward accomplishing God’s work.

At the event itself, the audience felt an air of expectation and wonder. The crowd connected deeply with True Mother and to True Father’s speech that she was reading. Book recipients included the Institute for the Study of American Religions located at the University of Santa Barbara, Graduate Theological Union Library, consortium of nine seminaries located at Berkeley, the Bishop of the Church of God in Christ in Oakland, Minister Keith Muhammad of the Nation of Islam and of course Mother Wright. Mother Wright made up a song to sing to True Parents at the victory celebration and she summed up the whole evening with the words: “It was richer than rich, greater than great.”
 

ATLANTA

True Mother was welcomed to Atlanta, Georgia on the fitting day of Palm Sunday. About 1,000 people came out to see her as she spoke and introduced the new Hoon Dok Hwe books.  The air was cool, and the sky was bright and sunny. All around Atlanta, the buds on the dogwood trees and the azalea bushes were just beginning to open.

Later that afternoon, Mother was greeted by some of the most influential leaders of Atlanta and the Southeast: Civil Rights Champion Dr. Hosea Williams; a State Representative on two powerful committees; President Seuk Hee Lee of the 50,000 member Atlanta Korean Association; a past Dean of Students of Clark-Atlanta University; Dr. Jacob Quiambao, past President of Union Theological Seminary of The Philippines; Southern Regional Minister Jamil Muhammad of the Nation of Islam; Ms. Portia Scott, the Senior Editor of the Atlanta Daily World, the nation’s oldest African-American newspaper; Mrs. Karla Brandau of the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints; talk show host Ms. Alberta Grant; Dr. Lonnie Edwards, Sr., the Assistant Superintendent of the Dekalb County Schools; Dr. Al Stewart, President of the Institute of the Christian World with projects in Atlanta and in three African countries; and Dr. Charles A. Carpenter, the Director of Pastoral Care and Clinical Psychology at a major regional hospital.

Mayor Bill Campbell of Atlanta recognized True Mother’s speaking tour by proclaiming April 5, 1998 as “The Day of Blessed Marriage.” The cities of Marietta, East Point, Stone Mountain, Doraville and Clayton County also sent proclamations recognizing April 5th as “The Day of Blessed Marriage.” The Speaker of the U.S. House Newt Gingrich and Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney also welcomed True Mother to Atlanta with their letters. Speaker Gingrich wrote, “Your efforts to strengthen family values are essential to the future of America… My best wishes to you as you continue your speaking tour.”

A riveting video presentation entitled “Toward World Peace” brought many in the audience to tears, and True Mother herself choked up several times during her speech with the audience rapt at attention.

Eight dignitaries from Atlanta and the Southeast were honored to receive the Hoon Dok Hwe books, including Rev. Dr. Hosea Williams, who acted as Dr. Martin Luther King’s Field General. Dr. Williams offered remarks saying, “Rev. Moon’s family movement might just be the movement that will save America.” 
 

BRIDGEPORT

Twelve hundred guests including local dignitaries were present on April 2, when True Mother gave the keynote address at the Mertens Theater of the Arnold Bernhard Art and Humanities Center. Among those in attendance were President Richard Rubenstein, Dr. Betty Rubenstein, Bishop Skyers of the Apostolic Faith Church, Mr. Rodney Dennis, representing the ABCD community action agency, Prof. Thomas Juliusburger, Director of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, Rev. De Kock of the Creative Word Power Ministry, Rev. Jacob David of the Episcopal Diocese of Newark, NJ, Dr. Zal Velvez, Deputy Mayor of West Orange, NJ, and Mr. Nicholas Pastor, former police chief of New Haven, CT. Over 200 students from the University of Bridgeport along with local Unificationists also came to show their support. “We came out to support Mrs. Moon,” commented local Unificationist, Naoka Toda, senior at University of Bridgeport at the time. “She is a role model for young women who are committed to building families and establish themselves as professionals.”
 

LOS ANGELES

On the holy day of Easter morning, April 12, the weather cleared from a storm the day before as True Mother’s plane landed at LAX for her appearance in Los Angeles. At the Westin Hotel, ministers, scholars, business leaders and government officials were among the crowd of 1500 people gathered for the event.

The audience enjoyed entertainment from the International Children’s Choir, St. Thomas Missionary Baptist Church and others, and were even more inspired by the speech itself.

After the event and the presentation of books to various community leaders and clergy, True Mother spoke with True Father via video phone. The video phone was a gift from the Los Angeles community, and True Parents were surprised and pleased to receive it and to be able to use it for the celebration. True Parents sang songs and celebrated with many of the guests well into the evening.
 

TORONTO

True Mother embraced an overflow crowd at the Korean Canadian Cultural Center in Toronto, Canada on April 16, as a conclusion to her 16-city tour across North America. The auditorium was packed within 15 minutes, with more and more chairs added until it eventually became standing room only. The crowd of over 500 people gathered from all walks of life, religions and cultures to support the event and listen to True Mother.

Diane da Camara, a local opera singer, wowed the crowd with musical selections, before welcoming remarks from Rev. Michael Jenkins.

Proclamations were given from Mayor Peter Robertson of Brampton, a neighboring city with a population of 300,000. Other acknowledgments included welcome letters to True Mother from Mike Harris, Premier (governor) of Ontario, Mel Lastman, Mayor of Toronto, and numerous other welcome letters from provincial and city government leaders. Of special note was a plaque awarded to True Mother from the Minister Don Muhammad of the Nation of Islam towards her work strengthening families worldwide.

Flowers and plaques were presented in appreciation after the moving speech. The audience stayed attentive throughout the program, and were especially inspired by the keynote address. True Mother presented the three books of a 15-volume abridged collection of 40 years of True Father’s teachings to eight local dignitaries. These distinguished recipients were:  Mr. Hussein Ackbarally, Principal of the IQRA Islamic School;  Rev. Dr. Petro Bilaniuk, Right Rev. Mitrophoric Archpriest and Professor, University of Toronto;  Dr. Bob Carter, Professor of Philosophy, Trent University;  Dr. Jack Edwards, Pro-Family Lobby Coordinator, Canadian Family Action Committee;  Father Terry Gallagher, Scarborough Catholic Mission;  Mr. Amouzou Komi Nicolas, Minister Counsellor, Embassy of Togo;  Capt. Kenneth Ritson, The Salvation Army; and Mr. Jun Kyung Suh, President, Korean Canadian Association.

Diane de Camara sang, “Fill the World with Love”, and the evening ended with door prizes and refreshments.

The outreach efforts from the local community, as well as Japanese missionaries, were a huge support in making the day a success. It was truly a blessing for those gathered to welcome True Mother and to celebrate the conclusion of the tour together in Toronto. 

A Holy Wedding

This week in history, April 5-11:

• Parents’ Day is established (April 10, 1960)
• The Women’s Federation for World Peace is inaugurated (April 10, 1992)
• The Interdenominational Conference for Clergy visits Korea for the first time (April 10, 1985)
• True Parents’ are married at their Holy Wedding (April 11, 1960)
• True Mother is on her two-week American speaking tour (April 1-16, 1998)
                                    

APRIL 1-16, 1998

True Mother Goes on American Speaking Tour

True Mother embarked on a 16-city speaking tour from April 1-16, 1998 under the banner: “Blessed Marriage and Eternal Life”. Read the full story and watch historical footage here.
 

APRIL 10, 1960

Parents’ Day Established

True Father at the 47th True Parents’ Day celebration.

Parents’ Day was the first Holy Day established in the Unification tradition. True Father established it on April 10, 1960 (March 15, according to the lunar calendar). Unificationists observe Parents’ Day—now designated as True Parents’ Day—on the first day of the third month of the Heavenly Calendar. The establishment of Parents’ Day followed True Parents’ engagement on March 27, 1960. It signified that God had finally established His first son and daughter as the True Parents of humankind. True Father later stated, “Parents’ Day is the first time since God created all things and humankind that there is one balanced man, one balanced woman, balanced in love, to whom God can descend and with whom He can truly be.” Following Parents’ Day, True Father established Children’s Day (1960), Day of All Things (1963) and God’s Day (1968) as Holy Days. They were set up to celebrate the emergence of the True Family and the foundation upon which a new world can take shape and a new history begin.  
 

APRIL 10, 1992

Women’s Federation for World Peace Inaugurated

The Women’s Federation for World Peace, chaired by True Mother, sponsored “Sisterhood Ceremonies” during the 1990s.

On April 10, 1992, True Mother delivered the keynote address before a filled Seoul Olympic Stadium at the inauguration of the Women’s Federation for World Peace (WFWP). In her speech, True Mother testified to “the reappearance of the True Parents … the conclusion and final fruit of human history.” She stated that “women have the mission to give proper guidance to men who lead lives of moral decadence and disorder” and noted, “the Women’s Federation for World Peace must someday develop into a federation of families for world peace.” Established on the foundation of the Women’s Federation for Peace in Asia, WFWP has become a women’s organization of international scope with members in 143 countries. In 1994, more than 200,000 Korean and Japanese women “came together to create sisterly ties” on thirty-eight occasions under the auspices of WFWP. In 1995, WFWP sponsored “sisterhood ceremonies” between some 8,000 Japanese and American women, culminating in dramatic “bridge crossings” which were moving to many participants, including former first lady Barbara Bush. She and her husband, former U.S. President George H.W. Bush, subsequently accompanied True Mother and spoke in support of WFWP on a six-city speaking tour of Japan. In 1997, WFWP received general consultative status with the United Nations’ Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). As only 11 percent of religious NGOs associated with ECOSOC attain “general” status, this was a signal achievement.
 

APRIL 10, 1985

First Interdenominational Conference for Clergy Visit to Korea

ICC participants pray at the Rock of Tears in Pusan.

Prior to his release from Danbury Federal Correctional Institute, True Father asked American members to focus on educating 70,000 ministers, and on that foundation to send 7,000 ministers to Korea. This request led to the creation of the CAUSA Ministerial Alliance, the 300,000-videotape project, and, beginning in April 1985, the Interdenominational Conference for Clergy (ICC) seminars.  Under the theme “Rev. Moon and Korea in the Providence of God,” 64 ministers from 21 denominations attended the first “advanced seminar on Unificationism” from April 10 to 19, 1985. From 1985 to 1988, the U.S. Unification Church sponsored 38 ICC seminars for 7,069 American clergy and religious leaders who traveled to Korea and usually Japan. The “meaning of the 7,000” was connected to the time of Elijah, when throughout Israel God prepared 7,000 people who had never bowed down to Baal (I Kings 19:18). The visits preceded significant breakthroughs in Korean society, including the 1988 Seoul Olympics and eventually True Parents’ meeting with North Korean President Kim Il Sung in 1991.
 

APRIL 11, 1960

True Parents’ Holy Wedding

April 11, 1960 (March 16 by the lunar calendar) marked the historic day in the Unification tradition of “the marriage supper of the Lamb.” True Parents joined in holy matrimony in the Chungpa-dong headquarters church. Wedding decorations were put up in the main hall, the walls and floor were covered with white cloth, and a platform was erected. When preparations were completed, True Father consecrated the hall with salt. This began the church tradition of consecrating belongings with Holy Salt.

As described by Rev. Young-hwi Kim, True Mother, dressed in a white hanbok (the traditional Korean dress) with a long wedding veil over her head and ornaments befitting a bride, came down the stairs from the second floor, arm in arm with True Father. A chorus of “Song of the Banquet” was their wedding march. The ceremony was carried out twice, first in the Western style with a wedding veil, and then in the Korean traditional style with a blue silk hanbok, square belt and black hat for the groom and a bridal headpiece and Korean royal dress for the bride. The offering table for the Holy Wedding was set up according to revelations received from Heaven, with some forty kinds of food in cylindrical columns. After the meal, celebrations were held in the same hall, joyously highlighted by True Parents’ dance. True Father said that because of this ceremony, the Principle and the existence of the Unification Church would become known throughout the entire world, and the Will of God would be accomplished.

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 April 5 – 11.

Contributed by Dr. Michael Mickler, professor of church history at Unification Theological Seminary

Pilgrimages for Peace

This week in history, March 29-April 4:

• True Father makes declarations for the South American providence (March 31-April 3, 1995)
• True Father departs Korea to study in Japan (April 1, 1941)
• Day of Hope rallies begin in Korea (April 1, 1975)
• Today’s World begins publication (April 1, 1980)
• ACLC Al-Aqsa Mosque pilgrims are safe after a siege (April 2, 2004)
   

MARCH 31-APRIL 3, 1995

South American Declarations

True Father had been actively pursuing opportunities in South America since 1992 and made the decision to make South America a focal point of his work in 1995. That year, he undertook an ambitious speaking tour of twenty-three Latin American nations, which included audiences with eight heads of state. In these speeches and meetings, he emphasized the region’s “stunning and abundant potential.” He stated, “Latin America is a rich, peaceful, natural paradise of grandiose mountains and virgin lands. The mountains, rivers and jungles hearken back to the original state of creation, the Garden of Eden.” True Father pushed the heads of state to donate contiguous lands for development “as a model for an ideal, international and interracial nation and world.” When that was not forthcoming, Unificationists  began purchasing vast tracts of land in the South American interior and established New Hope Farm outside the town of Jardim (pop. 21,000) in the Brazilian state of Mato Grosso do Sul as the centerpiece of their efforts.

True Father made two declarations to launch this initiative. The Sao Paulo Declaration, delivered on the occasion of True Parents’ Day, March 31, 1995, called on Unification Church members worldwide to inherit True Parents’ tradition of “loving the earth, loving all things, loving all [hu]mankind and loving God, single-mindedly for the realization of God’s will.” The New Hope Farm Declaration, delivered on April 3, 1995, declared that “people of the world will come together as brothers and sisters here and practice the building of God’s nation.” True Father delivered additional declarations as the South American providence developed during the late 1990s.
 

APRIL 1, 1941

True Father Departs Korea to Study in Japan

From the 1943 graduation album of the Waseda Technical High School, Tokyo. True Father stands in the back, center.

After graduating from the electrical engineering department of the Kyongsong Institute of Commerce and Industry in Seoul, True Father traveled to Japan to continue his studies. Korea was under Japanese colonial rule, and this was the first time True Father left his native land. In his autobiography, As a Peace-Loving Global Citizen, True Father noted that he went “because I felt that I had to have exact knowledge about Japan.” Nevertheless, his leave-taking was painful. On the train from Seoul to Pusan, he “couldn’t stop the tears from flowing,” covered himself with his coat and “cried out loud.” It grieved him, he said, “to think that I was leaving my country behind as it suffered under the yoke of colonial rule.” He promised that he would return, “carrying with me the liberation of my homeland.” True Father boarded the ferry from Pusan to Shimonoseki, Japan, at 2:00 a.m. on April 1, 1941. On arriving in Tokyo, he entered Waseda Koutou Kougakko, a technical engineering school affiliated with Waseda University. He stated that he chose electrical engineering “because I felt I could not establish a new religious philosophy without knowing modern engineering.”
 

APRIL 1, 1975

Day of Hope Rallies Begin in Korea

True Father 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, particularly True Father’s Madison Square Garden rally in September 1974. The initial step was the creation of a global “Day of Hope” 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 Japan. After spending nearly 80 days in Japan, the global team of more than 500 members traveled by ferry to Pusan, South Korea, on March 27. There, from April 1 until May 17, they supported massively attended Day of Hope festivals in Pusan, Taegu, Seoul, Inchon, Jeonju, Kwangju, Taejon, Cheongju and Chuncheon. These culminated in the “World Rally for Korean Freedom,” which was held at Yoido Island Plaza in Seoul before an estimated 600,000 to 1.2 million people on June 7.
 

APRIL 1, 1980

Today’s World Begins Publication

The very first issue of Today’s World.

Today’s World served as the Unification Church’s leading international missionary newsmagazine for thirty-two years, from April 1, 1980 through 2012. It included sermons of True Father and church leaders; extensive coverage, including glossy photographs, of the True Family and their activities; historical testimonies; and reports from missionary outposts in Africa, South America, the Middle East, Oceania and southern Asia. It provided an indispensable account of international Unificationists, indexed by year, during its years of publication. In its earlier years, Today’s World was published out of New York. During the 1990s, it and the movement’s World Mission Department relocated to Korea. After 2012, Today’s World was superseded by Internet and e-publications, notably iPeaceTV and True Peace Magazine, which provide international coverage.
 

APRIL 2, 2004

ACLC Al-Aqsa Mosque Pilgrims Safe after Siege

Begun in 2003, in the heat of the Palestinian Second Intifada, the Middle East Peace Initiative (MEPI), a project of the Universal Peace Federation, organized several dozen “peace pilgrimages” to Israel, the occupied territories, and, on occasion, to Jordan over the course of the next decade. In its first two years, more than 10,000 religious leaders, civic officials, NGO leaders, professionals, and Unificationists from throughout the world participated in the pilgrimages. American Clergy Leadership Conference (ACLC) participants were prominent in the earliest of these, and a number of them undertook high-risk trips into Gaza. During the fifth pilgrimage, four MEPI pilgrims went to Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Jerusalem Temple Mount to join Friday prayers and make arrangements for the larger pilgrimage contingent to visit when hundreds of Israeli soldiers stormed the compound. True Father was notified of the situation while in a boat on the Hudson River, where it was his practice to pray for the pilgrimages. With the U.S. State Department, and even the U.S. Marines, at the ready, due to the presence of U.S. citizens inside, the situation was diffused only when Al-Aqsa negotiated the safe exit of the worshipers. Prior to their exit, Imam Bundakji, a member of the MEPI delegation, called from the mosque to say that he might not make it out alive but wanted to tell MEPI’s Jewish delegation that his love for them “remained unchanged.”
 

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 March 29–April 4.

Contributed by Dr. Michael Mickler, professor of church history at Unification Theological Seminary.

A Patron of the Arts

This week in history, March 22-28:

• Bo Hi Pak begins his testimony before the Fraser Committee (March 22, 1978)
• The Cheong Shim World Peace Center is dedicated (March 22, 2012)
• The Martial Arts Federation for World Peace is founded (March 23-27, 1997)
• The Crown of Peace Ceremony is held in the Dirksen Senate Office Building (March 23, 2004)
• The Universal Ballet Academy is dedicated (March 24, 1989)
• The first Holy Marriage Blessing is held at the Cheong Shim World Peace Center (March 24, 2012)
• A 43 couple Holy Marriage Blessing is held in Essen, Germany (March 28, 1969)
   

MARCH 22, 1978

Bo Hi Pak Begins Testimony before the Fraser Committee

Bo Hi Pak prays prior to testifying before the House Subcommittee on International Organizations.

In 1976, the U.S. House Subcommittee on International Organizations, chaired by Rep. Donald Fraser (D-Minnesota) began an investigation into Korean-American Relations and, in particular, the activities of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA) in the United States. In 1977, their investigation intensified in the wake of Korean influence-buying on Capitol Hill, referred to as Koreagate. The Subcommittee was determined to establish a link between the KCIA and the church, the Subcommittee leaked several confidential, unevaluated intelligence documents which led to press reports that the church “was founded by the Director of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency … as a political tool in 1961.” However, this allegation was patently false as the Subcommittee’s final report indicated.

The Subcommittee subpoenaed Col. Bo Hi Pak for testimony on several occasions, but may have not been entirely prepared for his responses. In his initial appearance on March 22, 1978, Col. Pak complained bitterly that the Subcommittee was “ostensibly pursuing a probe of the KCIA” but had “given the impression to the world through the press that the United States Congress is investigating the Unification Church of Reverend Sun Myung Moon.” In his second appearance, Col. Pak escalated his rhetoric, stating his belief that the Chairman was “being used as an instrument of the devil.” In his third appearance, Col. Pak charged that Congressman Fraser was “an agent of influence on the Hill for the Soviet Union.” Col. Pak’s testimony was later published in a volume entitled Truth is My Sword. For its part, the Subcommittee recommended that a U.S. government inter-agency task force investigate the Unification Church. No interagency task force was created, and Congressman Fraser lost in his bid to gain a seat in the U.S. Senate. Nevertheless, his Subcommittee perpetuated a climate of suspicion and hostility in relation to True Father and the Unification Church.
 

MARCH 22, 2012

Cheong Shim World Peace Center Dedicated

Cheong Shim World Peace Center, a massive arena designed to hold 25,000 people at the Unification movement’s Cheongpyeong Lake complex, opened on the 53rd True Parent’s Day, March 22, 2012. This completed construction of the largest and most sophisticated multipurpose cultural center in South Korea, eight times larger than the Sejong Performing Arts Center and twice as large as the Olympic Gymnastics Hall. The highlight of the dedication was a performance of the “Crown of Glory,” a musical based on the life of True Parents. Performed by 60 actresses and actors with support of 150 staff and 60 orchestra performers, the script was developed with help from the research team from Cheong Shim Graduate School of Theology. A mammoth moving and rotating stage with 3D video supported the production. However, True Father emphasized the importance of the arena as a Blessing venue. He noted, “From now, we don’t have to use the Seoul Olympic Stadium; but can use this place to give birth to hundreds of thousands of blessed families here.”
 

MARCH 23-27, 1997

Martial Arts Federation for World Peace Founded

Four hundred leading martial artists, including Grand Masters and masters from the main martial arts schools in 83 nations attended the inaugural convention of the Martial Arts Federation for World Peace (MAFWP) at the Washington Hilton Hotel in Washington, D.C. from March 23-27, 1997. The purpose of the convention and federation was to foster cooperation among the martial art disciplines to provide moral leadership, inspire a moral and spiritual renewal among the world’s young people, and support the establishment of world peace through the development of inner peace. True Father spoke three times at the convention and emphasized “the goal of absolute mind-body unity.” The convention included plenary sessions, breakout meetings, an organizing session, and a public exhibition of martial arts in the Hilton Grand Ballroom attended by 1,500 people including the mayor of Washington, D.C. After being established,  the Martial Arts Federation went on to set up chapters in about 40 different nations. 
 

MARCH 23, 2004

Crown of Peace Ceremony in the Dirksen Senate Office Building

True Father inscribes calligraphy at the ceremony.

The Unification movement conducted six “crown of peace” ceremonies from late 2003 until early 2005. The first of these was the coronation of Jesus as “King of Peace” in Jerusalem as part of the Middle East Peace Initiative on December 22, 2003. Most of the coronations did not generate controversy or significant notice outside of the movement, with the exception of the event at the Dirksen Senate Office Building on March 23, 2004. The program was elaborately prepared. Building on contacts established over the years through The Washington Times, the host committee included six congressional co-chairs and a partial listing of the invitational committee included three additional congressmen, as well as one current and one retired U.S. senator, four state senators, a former ambassador. Ninety-one Ambassador for Peace awardees represented all 50 states.  There was a reconciliation ceremony between the three Abrahamic faiths, and one representative each from Jewish, Islamic and Christian traditions were given national-level awards. Several congressmen and ambassadors were given global level leadership awards. All of this served as a backdrop to True Parent’s crown of peace award which included royal regalia. Following the brief ceremony, True Father delivered a keynote address on “Declaring the Era of the Peace Kingdom.” In an unscripted moment, a Jewish rabbi, inspired by the “miracle” of Jews, Christians and Muslims coming together in reconciliation, came to the microphone and blew a shofar (ram’s horn) signifying the coming of the Messiah.

The awards banquet was a closed event. However, postings on Unification web sites, including a 20-minute video, were picked up by independent bloggers and eventually the mainstream media. On June 23rd, three months after the event, the Washington Post published a front page article on the banquet. The New York Timesreported on the ceremony the same day, noting, “Capitol Hill was in full-blown backpedaling mode, as lawmakers … struggled to explain themselves.” Unification movement representatives responded forcefully, charging that media accounts were “filled with misrepresentations, distortions and outright falsehoods.” In an official statement, the Interreligous and International Federation for World Peace called for “fair and frank consideration by an unbiased media” of questions raised by the “Crown of peace” awards ceremony “before subscribing to the ‘witch hunt’ that this issue has become.”
 

MARCH 24, 1989

Universal Ballet Academy Dedicated

True Parents conducted a brief dedication ceremony in the chapel of the newly completed Universal Ballet Academy building in Northeast Washington, DC on March 24, 1989. The four story structure was restored and expanded by a Washington-based architectural firm. A new addition was constructed to house four large dance studios, equipped with mirrors and barres. Dormitory facilities (32 rooms), locker rooms, and a dining area were also built. Altogether, the Academy was built to house more than 60 boarding students in its dorms, with an additional 100 students in daytime classes. As patrons of the arts, True Parents had launched several dance institutions previously—including the Little Angels Performing Arts Center in Seoul, Korea, where students are trained at an early age in the fine and performing arts. The Academy hired Oleg Vinogradov to head the school. For the previous 13 years, he was director of the Soviet Union’s famous Kirov Ballet, the alma mater of Rudolf Nureyev and Mikhail Baryshnikov.
 

MARCH 24, 2012

First Holy Marriage Blessing at the Cheong Shim World Peace Center

Two days after its formal dedication, Cheong Shim World Peace center served as the venue for a major Holy Marriage Blessing. Officially, the “Blessing Ceremony in the Era to Open the Gates to the Victory, Liberation, and Completion of the True Parents of Heaven, Earth and Humankind” convened more than 20,000 Unificationists from 54 countries. More than 2,500 couples participated as newlyweds and 1,100 couples participated to “re-affirm” their marital vows. Approximately 100 countries broadcast the ceremony live by satellite while another 92 held their own marriage-Blessing ceremonies with previously-recorded materials. Due to the impressive venue and the participation of attractive, young Unificationists, the Blessing sparked widespread interest. News outlets from some 100 countries covered the event. The BBC aired a largely supportive special in Britain, titled “Married to the Moonies,” which followed three British youth and their partners as they prepared for and participated in the Blessing. A variation of the BBC version, titled “Getting Married to the Moonies,” aired in the United States. It followed three American youths and their partners.
 

MARCH 28, 1969

43 Couple Holy Marriage Blessing in Essen, Germany

During True Father’s Second World Tour in 1969, True Parents blessed 43 couples in the United States, Germany and Japan, the first Holy Marriage Blessing Ceremony conducted outside Korea. The 43 Couple Marriage Blessing was conducted on the foundation of the 430 Couple Marriage Blessing held by True Parents in Korea the previous year and signified expansion to the worldwide level. The Blessing in Germany, the second phase of the Blessing, joined couples from England and America, Holland and America, Holland and Germany, England and Italy, Germany and Austria in international marriages. National leaders from Korea, Japan, America, England, Holland, France, Spain, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Germany were either blessed or present at the ceremony. The 43 Couple Blessing was foundational for the 777 Couple Marriage Blessing in 1970 and the globalization of True Parent’s ministry.
 

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 March 22–28.

Contributed by Dr. Michael Mickler, Professor of Church History at Unification Theological Seminary.

A Legacy of Peace

This week in history, March 15-21:

• True Father begins a speaking tour of U.S. Korean communities (March 17, 1990)
• Unificationists are released from a Thai prison (March 17, 1993)
• True Father proclaims the Pacific Rim Era (March 17, 2007)
• Hyo Jin Moon ascends to the Spirit World (March 17, 2009)
• Arthur Ford has a sitting with True Father (March 18, 1965)
• The first Legacy of Peace ceremony is held (March 18, 2010)
   

MARCH 17, 1990

True Father Begins Speaking Tour of U.S. Korean Communities

True Parents receive flowers at the San Francisco public speech to the Korean community on March 18, 1990.

True Father launched his first U.S. speaking tour since the 1970s, addressing Korean communities in five U.S. cities, beginning in San Francisco on March 17, 1990. The other cities were Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, D.C., and New York, and True Father said the five cities represented the 50 states of America. True Father spoke on the topic “True Unification and One World.” The events were promoted as “Welcoming True Parents Rallies.” They served to introduce True Parents’ activities and thought to Koreans in America and to familiarize the Korean community with the term “True Parents.” True Father had conducted “Welcoming True Parents” rallies in five Korean cities the previous month. These rallies were part of the lead-up to the Moscow Rally in April 1990 and True Parents’ declaration of their roles on the worldwide level.
 

MARCH 17, 1993

Unificationists Released from Thai Prison

Dr. Lek’s wife Vipa at the women’s prison where she endured separation from her husband and the other Unificationists.

On June 26, 1991, eight leaders of the Unification Church in Thailand, including the national leader, Dr. Lek Thaveetermsakul, were arrested and jailed under charges of treason. “Crime Suppression Police” subsequently invaded Unification Church centers nationwide. The action was taken under the auspices of Thai army generals who had declared martial law and who were influenced by newspaper attacks on the church. Treason was understood to mean subversion against the monarchy or nation, and its penalty was life imprisonment or execution. After three months, the case was filed and no bail was allowed. The eight leaders were imprisoned for 21 months, until March 17, 1993, when the king of Thailand took unprecedented action to relieve the top dictatorial general of his duties as head of Thailand, replacing him with a prime minister who formulated a constitutional system. An era of tyranny ended, and friends of the Unification Church of Thailand successfully demanded bail for the eight leaders who were released. However, the case continued for another eight years, until September 1, 2001, when the Thai Supreme Court acquitted the eight of all charges.
 

MARCH 17, 2007

True Father Proclaims the Pacific Rim Era

True Father declared 2007 to be a “Great Jubilee Year” in God’s providence. The major reason for this was the beginning of “The Pacific Rim Era.” In a March 17 speech titled “A Providential View of the Pacific Rim Era in Light of God’s Will—The United States and the Future Direction of the United Nations and the World,” delivered before 700 Unificationist leaders and Ambassadors for Peace on the grounds of “Hawaii King Garden,” a church-owned property on the island of Kona, he stated:

The development of human civilization has completed a circuit of the entire globe and has arrived at the Pacific sphere. Human history has come to a point in time in the providence at which it should reach completion and fruition through the Pacific Rim region. No force can impede the providence now. Though there were both victories and defeats … in the era before heaven, nothing could prevent the rise of the Pacific Rim Era. Herein lies the reason that Heaven declared this a jubilee year.

True Father drew together themes that had been prominent in his thought for some time, including his identity as “the True Parent of humankind,” the fruition of human civilization “in the Pacific Rim region, centered on the Korean Peninsula,” oceans as “the resource on which humanity’s future depends,” the responsibility of the United States “to bring harmony and oneness among the world’s 6.5 billion people and to expedite the creation of a peaceful, ideal world,” the significance of international and cross-cultural Marriage Blessings, and the necessity of  “an ‘Abel-type’ counterpart to the United Nations.” He also proclaimed, “The oceanic era that has begun represents the women’s era.”

True Father delivered the Pacific Rim speech in a “New Civilization” tour covering 24 cities in Korea during April and early May of 2007. True Mother delivered the same speech in 10 Japanese cities from May 2 to 11. The American portion of the tour continued through May and June. Unificationists subsequently held “New Civilization” rallies in their respective nations.

MARCH 17, 2009

Hyo Jin Moon Ascends

World Seong Hwa Ceremony honors Hyo Jin Moon.

Hyo Jin Moon, the eldest son of True Parents, died of a heart attack at 9:46 a.m. on March 17 in Seoul, Korea. He was born there on December 3, 1962, but grew up in the United States. For many years he ran Manhattan Center Studios, a state-of-the-art multimedia facility in New York City that was favored by leading musicians and orchestras both for recording and televised events. He worked for 10 years (1985-94) as the first president of the World Collegiate Association for the Research of Principles (World CARP). One of the defining moments of his presidency was the 4th World CARP Convention in Berlin in 1987. Hyo Jin Nim led 1,000 students on a memorable march to the Berlin Wall, where he delivered a stirring speech, calling on Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev to be a righteous man and tear down the wall.

Hyo Jin Moon was the first son of True Parents.

He was an intensely passionate singer and lead guitarist who produced over a dozen CDs and a catalog of thousands of compositions. True Parents held a world-level Seonghwa Ceremony and wrote a special calligraphy translated as “He will open and liberate the deepest heaven and turn it into a flower garden as the lord who opens the gates of loyalty and filial piety.” He left his wife, Yun Ah Choi, and four children, as well as five children from a previous marriage.

MARCH 18, 1965

Arthur Ford Sitting

Arthur Ford (1896-1971) was one of America’s best-known psychics, famous for his sittings with the widow of escape artist Harry Houdini as well as for founding the Spiritual Frontiers Fellowship (SFF). He had become aware of True Father through Charles Brooke, the former rajah of Sarawak and himself the leader of an English metaphysical group, who met an early Unificationist missionary and traveled to Korea to meet True Father, whom he regarded as the “earth form of limitless love.” On March 18, 1965, Ford had a sitting with True Father, accompanied by Col. Bo Hi Pak and others, during True Father’s first world tour. Ford later included “The Sun Myung Moon Sittings” in his work Unknown But Known (1968). During the sitting, Ford’s communicator, Fletcher, stated, “It is not easy for me to get down to the level of Ford. Great power in the form of light—if you were to see the light that surrounds you—most of you would be blinded by it. … In another setting I would insist that my instrument and the rest of you should take off your shoes. But spiritually you can create the humility that will enable you to know that you are in the presence of truth-Incarnate and Discarnate. … Sun Myung Moon is the one I have been talking about.” True Father was viewed with interest by New Age leaders during the late 1960s. However, with the emergence of the Unification Church as an increasingly well-defined and controversial movement during the 1970s, New Age and spiritualist groups generally ignored or criticized the church.

MARCH 18, 2010

First Legacy of Peace Ceremony

Gen. Alexander Haig, who as a young officer in the U.S. Army participated in the U.N. military attack on North Korea’s Heungnam labor camp in October 1950 which freed True Father after nearly three years of confinement, passed away on February 20, 2010. Gen. Haig, who was the U.S. secretary of state in 1981 and 1982 under President Ronald Reagan, was a supporter of The Washington Times and participated in Unificationist-organized events. True Father asked church leaders to attend his funeral services and to place a large gift of flowers at Arlington National Cemetery. A few days later, top church leaders hosted a private memorial dinner at the Sheraton National Hotel attended by General Haig’s son, Alexander P. Haig, who thanked the Unification Church and True Father for their support. True Father subsequently directed the Universal Peace Federation (UPF) to hold a larger, more public event at the United Nations. Held on March 18, 2010, the “Memorial Festival of Ascension and Unity,” convened in the United Nations Secretariat Building, also honored more than 100 UN personnel killed in a recent Haiti earthquake as well as Rodrigo Carazo, the former president of Costa Rica, who died the previous December, and other peace advocates. The event was highly successful and gave birth to “Legacy of Peace” events elsewhere in the United States and throughout the world. In addition to honoring the recently deceased, the events provided a platform for communicating church views on eternal life and the Marriage Blessing as an instrument of peace.
 

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 March 15–21.

Contributed by Dr. Michael Mickler, professor of Church History at Unification Theological Seminary.

A Guiding Light for the World

This week in history, March 8-14:

• A power outage occurs during True Father’s speech (March 8, 2001)
• True Father’s autobiography is published (March 9, 2009)
• The Family Party for Peace and Unity is inaugurated (March 10, 2003)
• A Unificationist is freed in Kazakhstan (March 10, 2009)
• A massive tsunami hits Japan (March 11, 2011)
• The first National Messiah Workshop is held (March 12, 1996)
• Dr. Bo Hi Pak begins his mission in the United States (March 14, 1961)

MARCH 8, 2001

Power Outage in Minneapolis

One of the more bizarre occurrences during any of True Father’s public speaking engagements happened in Minneapolis during his 2001 “We Will Stand in Oneness” tour with the American Clergy Leadership Conference. True Father was speaking at the New Salem Missionary Baptist Church, which was filled to capacity with close to 1,000 people. Archbishop George Augustus Stallings had given a rousing introduction in which he stated that True Father has “a triple A rating from clergy who know him,” being “Anointed, Appointed, and Approved by God.” The atmosphere, as one report put it, was “electric.” Then, with some twenty minutes to go in True Father’s speech, a transformer blew, plunging the whole neighborhood into darkness. The microphones went out and no one could see anything. According to a report, “At first there was silence and then a young girl’s scream. Some of the audience fled into the night. There was confusion and even despair, until an usher shone his flashlight on the stage.” True Father was heard to say, “Please don’t leave.” Bishop Stallings also went out into the audience, saying: “Be at peace. God is in control.” As more flashlights surfaced and candles were lit, the stage was bright in the warm glow of candlelight. Large candelabras were placed behind the podium. True Father completed his message.

MARCH 9, 2009

True Father’s Autobiography Published

As a Peace-Loving Global Citizen

The idea of publishing True Father’s autobiography, As a Peace-Loving Global Citizen, was first proposed by Gimm-Young Publishing Company, a leading Korean publisher. Its president, Ms. Pak Eun-ju, a practicing Buddhist, approached the church in 2008 and obtained access to voluminous source material, notablyTrue Parents’ Life Course (12 volumes), a work comprising excerpts from True Father’s speeches arranged chronologically in the form of an autobiographical account. Church representatives worked with the publisher’s writers to craft the final product, published on March 9, 2009. It quickly made Korea’s non-fiction best-seller list. On June 1, 2009, the church hosted a commemoration of the autobiography’s publication at the Seoul Convention and Exhibition (COEX) Center for 3,500 people, including 200 foreign dignitaries. An English translation was ready by May 2010, and there was a parallel launch event. Many U.S. members purchased 430 copies, at True Parents’ request, for distribution to contacts. More than 144,000 were distributed in Las Vegas alone.

As a Peace-Loving Global Citizen consists of eight chapters which follow the general chronological flow of True Father’s life. The earlier chapters are exceptionally rich in autobiographical detail surrounding his family background, early upbringing and call to faith. The account vividly describes True Father’s torture at the hands of Japanese and North Korean interrogators as well as his imprisonments in South Korea and the United States. The later chapters focus on True Father’s marriage and family ministry and initiatives for world peace. True Father described the autobiography as an “honest and candid account.” He said it “expresses about 80 percent of [my] life.” In one speech he said he had “as much faith” in his autobiography as in the “Eight Great Textbooks.”

MARCH 10, 2003

Inauguration of the Family Party for Peace and Unity

True Father founded the Cheonju Pyeonghwa Tongil Gajeong Dang, or Family Party for Peace and Unity (FPPU), on March 10, 2003. Its purposes were primarily educational—to promote a true-family movement and a pure-love movement to expunge the immoral culture that has produced problems throughout the world. In fact, the Family Party neither campaigned nor fielded a candidate for office by 2007 and thereby was legally dissolved, according to a Korean law which required that a political party elect at least one candidate to office within a four-year period. The Family Party was re-registered on August 28, 2007, and it announced that it would field candidates in the 2008 general elections for the National Assembly. FPPU was the only political party to field candidates in all 245 legislative districts. However, none were elected, and FPPU’s party registration was again canceled. Nationally, FPPU won 1.05 percent of the vote. There were some positive outcomes. Many Family Party candidates campaigned earnestly on buses, in public speeches and in television or radio debates with opponents. Their efforts did not necessarily translate into votes but helped turn public opinion on the Family Party and on Unificationism from negative to friendly in some districts. Parents and relatives of members, many of whom had been negative, were also said to be proud that their sons and daughters, nephews and nieces had committed to be candidates for public office.

MARCH 10, 2009

Unificationist Freed in Kazakhstan

On March 10, 2009, an appeals court in Almaty, the largest city in Kazakhstan, took action to release Elizaveta (Liza) Drenicheva, who had served 61 days in prison for a “crime against the peace and security of humankind.” Her offense had been to gather four persons for a seminar in which she taught the Unification Principle. Ms. Drenicheva, who is a Russian citizen, joined the Unification Church in 1995 and began mission work in Kazakhstan, a former republic of the Soviet Union, in 2006 during which time twelve full-time members joined. However, on January 2, 2008, at 6:00 a.m., KGB officers broke in to the Unification Peace Embassy, taking away literature and computers and arresting Ms. Drenicheva. She was released after two days but faced trial on October 24, 2008, was convicted, and sentenced on January 9, 2009, to two years in prison. Unificationists worldwide considered her to be a “prisoner of conscience” and launched a broad-based “Free Liza” campaign which resulted in her release. Unfortunately, the government refused to reverse her conviction. It wasn’t until 2013 that the Unification Church obtained official registration as a religious association.

MARCH 11, 2011

Massive Tsunami Hits Japan

True Father in Las Vegas, praying for the safety of Japan after the earthquake.

A 9.0 magnitude undersea earthquake approximately 43.5 miles off the Japanese coastline on March 11, 2011, triggered a powerful tsunami, with waves reaching heights of up to 133 feet, which, in the area of the city of Sendai, traveled up to 6 miles inland. Referred to in Japan as the Great East Japan Earthquake, it was the most powerful earthquake ever recorded to have hit Japan, and the fourth most powerful earthquake in the world since modern record-keeping began in 1900. The earthquake moved Honshu (the main island of Japan) 8 feet eastward and shifted the Earth on its axis by between 4 and 10 inches.  A Japanese National Police Agency report confirmed 15,889 deaths, 6,152 injured, and 2,601 people missing across twenty prefectures, as well as 127,290 buildings totally collapsed, with a further 272,788 buildings “half collapsed” and another 747,989 buildings partially damaged. The tsunami caused level 7 nuclear meltdowns at three reactors in the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant complex, affecting hundreds of thousands of residents in an 18-mile radius who were forced to evacuate. The World Bank’s estimated economic cost was US $235 billion, making it the costliest natural disaster in world history.

As a major center of world Unificationism, the Japanese Unification Church was directly impacted by the tsunami. In the immediate aftermath, there were reports of two confirmed deaths. However, Unificationists also lost relatives and homes. Some 300 to 400 Unificationists resided in Sendai, the worst-hit city. More than 500 Unificationists were evacuated to four facilities in Japan. The Japanese Church called for a three-day fast immediately after the earthquake and began relief efforts, delivering food and blankets to survivors. True Father directed the International Church to donate $1.7 million for relief through the Japanese Red Cross. American Unificationists donated $120,000 and partnered with the Christian Disaster Response organization to train Youth Ambassadors for Peace and other volunteers in Japan.

MARCH 12, 1996

First National Messiah Workshop

True Father directed a select group of Korean leaders and elders to attend a 40-day workshop at Cheongpyeong Heaven and Earth Training Center beginning March 12, 1996. The workshop was subsequently extended to 47 days. Afterward, 54 elders were assigned as “national messiahs” to 54 nations. This was the first of several national messiah workshops conducted in 1996. Eventually, quartets of Korean, Japanese, American and European “national messiahs” were assigned. They supplemented or, in most cases, replaced the original missionary teams of Japanese, Americans and Germans who had completed 21 years of missionary service, having been dispatched in 1975. As the Cheongpyeong activities had begun in earnest a year earlier, the national messiah workshops were significant in supporting that work. Many thousands of Unificationists who were not appointed national messiahs attended later Cheongpyeong workshops for the purpose of spiritual renewal. The national messiah providence built upon True Father’s 1988 declaration of “tribal messiahship” as a goal for Unificationists.
 

MARCH 14, 1961

Dr. Bo Hi Pak Begins His Mission in the United States

Dr. Bo Hi Pak was the third Unification Church missionary to the United States, arriving on March 14, 1961. Unlike Miss Young Oon Kim and Mr. David S.C. Kim, both of whom had come on student visas, Dr. Pak—who then was known as Col. Pak—came as a diplomat, serving as assistant military attaché at the Korean Embassy in Washington, D.C. Like them, he also began witnessing and held Bible study sessions in his home. In early 1963, he incorporated the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity (HSA-UWC) in Arlington, Virginia, and was granted a federal tax exemption. The following year he published a translation of the Principle, Outline of Study: The Divine Principles (c. 1964). However, he soon began to move in cultural and public advocacy directions. In 1962, True Father conceived the idea of forming a Korean children’s dance troupe which would become the Little Angels and asked Dr. Pak to head the initiative. Dr. Pak subsequently created the Korean Cultural and Freedom Foundation (KCFF) which sponsored the Little Angels’ tours as well as Radio of Free Asia (ROFA). Dr. Pak’s work helped set the pattern for Unificationists’ intercultural and “victory over communism” efforts.

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 March 8-14.

Working Through the Word

This week in history, March 1-7:

• The March 1st Korean Independence Movement came about (March 1, 1919)
• The first 100-day training at Belvedere was held (March 1, 1973)
• The first edition of the Washington Times was published (March 1, 1982)
• The Universal Peace Academy opens (March 4, 2013)
• The Middle East Times begins publication (March 7, 1983)
   

MARCH 1, 1919

The March 1st Korean Independence Movement

The March 1st (Samil) Movement came about as a result of Japan’s repressive colonial occupation of Korea starting in 1905.  On March 1, 1919, thirty-three activists who formed the core of the movement read the Korean Declaration of Independence which they had signed. This sparked nationwide demonstrations which were viciously put down by Japanese police. The March 1st Movement had a profound impact on True Father. In his autobiography, he stated that his great-uncle, Yoon Guk Moon, a graduate of Pyongyang Theological Seminary and a minister, “participated in the drafting of the 1919 Declaration of Independence.” He also “printed thousands of Korean flags and handed them out to the people who poured into the streets.” Yoon Guk Moon later was arrested and put under constant surveillance.  True Father wrote that his great-uncle’s “steadfast love for his country, even in the face of extreme adversity,” provided him with a “definite compass” for his life.  True Father was born 10 months after the March 1, 1919 demonstrations.
 

MARCH 1, 1973

First 100-Day Training at Belvedere Estate

On March 1, 1973, the first International Training Session began at Belvedere in Tarrytown, New York. Initiated as a 100-day program for future church leaders, the schedule included forty days of intense Divine Principle study, thirty days of the Victory over Communism (VOC) ideology and thirty days of Unification Thought, a recently published application of the Principle to philosophy. The six hours of daily lectures were interspersed with talks from True Father, fellowship, discussion, examinations, lecture practice, and participation in the ongoing New York City outreach campaign. In addition to solidifying the U.S. Unification Church, Belvedere Training was the first international training program as it included recently arrived “New Pilgrims” from Europe. One U.S. participant wrote: “Europeans were not the only ones wearing smiles of eagerness and anticipation. Some American brothers were intoxicated in those early days, because we were so many fine people together and Belvedere is the most holy place in America.”

Belvedere Training also afforded intimate access to True Parents who spent much time there. Joseph Kinney wrote, “People who needed internal guidance, or who had spiritual problems, went directly to Father Moon. There was no security on the property; True Parents would just walk around the grounds and the garden, and members could just walk up to them. … The chain of commanders and links between Father Moon and us was extremely short. He spoke to us throughout the day, and he had personal give and take with everybody in the Training Center, even if it was just one or two sentences. If you were lucky, you’d give a testimony in front of him, or he’d bonk you gently on the head or ask you what country you were from. Even if he saw you in a crowd, there’d be some acknowledgment.”
 

MARCH 1, 1982

First Edition of The Washington Times

On January 1, 1982, True Father announced his intention of starting a new daily newspaper in Washington, D.C.  Specifically, according to the testimony of Dr. Bo Hi Pak, one of the first missionaries to the United States, True Father stated his intention of founding a conservative daily newspaper in the nation’s capital. The Washington Star, the capital’s only major competitor of the powerful but liberal-leaning The Washington Post, had folded the previous year, and many lamented the prospect of Washington, D.C., becoming a “one-newspaper town.” On January 1, True Father selected 200 newspaper trainees from among a full ballroom of Unificationist volunteers and directed that The Washington Times be published within three months, on March 1, to correspond with the anniversary of Korea’s Samil Independence Movement. True Father appointed Dr. Pak as president. In the 58 days from January 1 to March 1, Dr. Pak recruited an experienced editor and publisher as well as a first-rate staff, including a number of well-known journalists. He also found and obtained True Father’s approval to purchase a former paper factory located on New York Avenue NE, just a short distance from downtown Washington, as The Times’ headquarters. Still, articles for the first edition had to be transmitted to New York, where they were typeset in the offices of The News World. Dr. Pak himself went to New York and brought the newspaper negatives back to Washington overnight on a chartered light aircraft.
 

MARCH 4, 2013

Universal Peace Academy Opens

On March 4, 2013, the first Entrance Ceremony for the Universal Peace Academy (UPA) was held in the Main Chapel of Cheongshim Graduate School of Theology at Cheongpyeong Heaven and Earth Training Center in Korea. Forty-three students, mainly from Korea and Japan but also from eight additional nations, participated. They were chosen as entering “cadets” through a strict selection process for the master’s level course which includes the graduate school and a one-year pre-graduate language school for those needing to raise their competence in Korean. After the Wonmo Peace Foundation was established according to True Father’s direction, UPA was the first project set up for the education of Unificationist-born future leaders. True Mother founded and named the academy. At the Entrance Ceremony she said that under the motto of “Loving Heaven, Loving Nation and Loving People,” UPA “is a school to create leaders who will build a world with freedom, peace, unification and happiness in heaven and on this earth.” She called on the cadets to regard their educational experience “not only as the light of your life but the light for the seven billion people of the earth.”
 

MARCH 7, 1983

Middle East Times Begins Publication

True Father first shared his vision of the importance of creating a newspaper for the Middle East at an international leaders’ conference at his sixtieth birthday observance in 1980. He did so for two major reasons. First, Unificationist missionaries were specifically forbidden from pursuing traditional missionary activities in predominantly Islamic nations. Second, local publications were of generally poor quality both in production standards and, more importantly, editorial standards. In fact, Middle East media contributed to divisions within the region by being highly partisan, controlled either directly or indirectly by government or religious interests. The Middle East Times, founded at the end of 1982, published its first edition on March 7, 1983. Its vision was to promote a regional view of the Middle East, taking a position of reconciliation between different sides. Published out of Cyprus, the weekly paper utilized the talents and experience of Unificationist missionaries in the region. By 1985, it circulated in 12 countries. By 1991, it circulated in 18 countries with a readership of 50,000 every week. It also played a significant providential role in connecting the Grand Muftis of Syria and Yemen as well as other Middle East leaders to True Parents.

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 March 1–7.

We Will Stand in Oneness

This week in history, February 22-28:

• True Father is arrested for a second time in Korea (February 22, 1948)
• The Holy Marriage Blessing for 430 couples is held (February 22, 1968)
• Unification News begins publication (February 22, 1982)
• Foundation Day (February 22, 2013)
• True Father begins “We Will Stand in Oneness” speaking tour (February 25, 2001)
• A Holy Marriage Blessing of 13 American couples is held (February 28, 1969)
• One World Crusade is established (February 28, 1972)

FEBRUARY 22, 1948

True Father Arrested a Second Time in North Korea

True Father received a revelation in 1946 which said, “Go across the 38th Parallel! Find the people of God who are in the North.” He immediately responded and arrived in Pyongyang on June 6. He began evangelical work but was arrested by communist police on August 11 and accused of being a spy from the South. He was brutally tortured and finally released on November 21. After recovering, he resumed evangelical work, and within a year his congregation had become quite large. Some 80 ministers of established churches whose members had begun attending the new congregation’s services wrote letters of complaint, and True Father was arrested a second time by communist authorities on February 22, 1948. This time, in addition to accusations of espionage, he was charged with “disturbing public order.” True Father again was severely tortured, tried on April 7, convicted, sentenced to 5 years’ labor, and transported to Heungnam Prison on May 20, 1948.
 

FEBRUARY 22, 1968

Holy Blessing of 430 Couples

True Parents gave the Holy Marriage Blessing to 430 couples (436 technically) on February 22, 1968. True Father noted that 1967 marked 4,300 years of Korean history (the Dangun era). He stated that the 430 Couples corresponded to the 4,300 years of Korean history and that the Holy Marriage Blessing connected Korea to the Unification Church. True Father also noted that it took the Israelites 430 years to return to Canaan from Egypt and that “we too have set out to restore the world, which is our Canaan.” The following year, True Parents conducted their second world tour and blessed 43 couples worldwide, which connected to the 430 Couple Holy Blessing internationally. The 430 Couple Holy Blessing included the first non-Korean couple, Osami and Tetsuko Kuboki from Japan. Their Blessing connected Korea and Japan. True Father later stated, “The Blessing … is not just for Koreans. The fact that I connected the 430 Couples to the 43 Couples on the foundation of the family on the world level signifies the birth of a new race transcending ethnicity and nationality. That is how I see it.”
 

FEBRUARY 22, 1982

Unification News Begins Publication

Volume 1, Number 1 of Unification News was published on February 22, 1982. The lead story was “New Day for Civil Rights,” which covered True Father’s support for the Minority Alliance International (MAI) and its first awards banquet. For nearly 30 years, until December 2011, Unification News was the monthly voice of American Unificationism. For most of that time, “The Newspaper of the Unification Community” was edited by Richard Lewis. In a 2010 interview, he noted that it was established at the same time as The Washington Times. He recalled that True Father spent two hours on a cold Sunday morning at Belvedere in February talking “about the fall of communism and how important The Washington Times was going to be.” Then, right at the end, almost as an afterthought, he said, “Oh, Dr. Pak. I want you to create a second newspaper at the same time so that we’re never tempted to use The Washington Times as our church newspaper.” He then “held up two dummies, one of the Unification News and one of The Washington Times.” As the newspaper of record for the American Unification community, it covered True Parents’ momentous work over the course of three decades, regional and local Unification news, and commentary. Its mission is now carried on by the Family Federation for World Peace through its online website and newsletter.
 

FEBRUARY 22, 2013

Foundation Day

True Father proclaimed Cheonju Pyeonghwa Tongil Guk (“the Nation of Cosmic Peace and Unity”), abbreviated as Cheon Il Guk (CIG), on November 15, 2001. It is the Unification equivalent to the Kingdom of Heaven and represents an extension in the order of salvation from the individual and family to the creation of a heavenly nation. The Cheon Il Guk era refers to the time period during which the foundation of Cheon Il Guk was to be established. According to True Father, the movement was on a “tight schedule” of twelve years, extending until Foundation Day (the thirteenth day of the first month by the Heavenly Calendar), when the necessary conditions for the start of Cheon Il Guk would be fulfilled. The most important of these was the “marriage” of the “God of Night” (the eternal Godhead, transcendent of time and space, the creator God) and the “God of Day” (perfected Adam and Eve, the “Parents of Heaven Earth and Humankind”). “God’s Holy Wedding” was consummated on Foundation Day, and on that basis Unificationists worldwide renewed their Marriage Blessings. The Cheon Il GukCoronation Ceremony of the True Parents of Heaven, Earth and Humankind, also conducted on Foundation Day, marked the first year of Cheon Il Guk and expressed the church’s commitment to “peace and harmony for humanity.”
 

FEBRUARY 25, 2001

“We Will Stand in Oneness” Speaking Tour Begins

In May 2000, True Father invited 120 clergy from seventeen denominations to Seoul, Korea, for the inaugural American Clergy Leadership Conference (ACLC). The clergy had deep experiences at the 38th Parallel, where they released doves of peace, and at the Cheongpyeong Heaven and Earth Training Center, where several of them experienced healings. At the end of the year True Father asked ACLC’s Executive Committee to organize a 50-state revival tour. The tour, titled “We Will Stand in Oneness,” featured True Father as keynote speaker and covered 52 American cities (in all 50 states) in 52 days between February 25 and April 17, 2001. ACLC clergy and Unificationists nationwide supported the tour.

True Father’s informal remarks preceded each speech and often ran for an hour or more. He emphasized the sanctity of marriage, particularly marital fidelity, stating that husband and wife were “owners” of one another’s “love organs” and each possessed “only one key.” He typically elicited laughter with his exclamation, “No spare keys!” True Father’s keynote address, “The Path for America and Humanity in the New Millennium,” highlighted God’s suffering, the Last Days, True Parents, the significance of the Korean Peninsula, the Holy Blessing ceremony, and America’s providential role. The tour helped transform ACLC into an organization with a national network. An unexpected result was that a number of clergy requested True Parents’ blessing on their marriages. This led to an Interfaith Marriage Blessing on May 27, 2001, which included the participation of Archbishop Emmanuel Milingo, among others.
 

FEBRUARY 28, 1969

Holy Marriage Blessing of 13 American Couples

True Parents after officiating the 13 Couple Holy Marriage Blessing.

On February 28, 1969, at the historic Upshur House in Washington, D.C., True Parents blessed 13 American couples, who according to some interpretations represented the original 13 colonies. This was the first Holy Marriage Blessing outside Korea and the first of three that together came to be known as the 43 Couple Blessing. True Parents held a Marriage Blessing of 8 couples in Essen, Germany, on March 28, 1969, and a Marriage Blessing of 22 couples in Tokyo, Japan, on May 1, 1969. The 43 Couple Blessing was conducted on the foundation of the 430 Couple Holy Blessing conducted by True Parents in Korea the previous year and was intended to signify expansion to the worldwide level. True Parents celebrated the Blessing on the 20th day of their visit to the United States as part of their 1969 World Tour. Miss Young Oon Kim, who directed HSA-UWC America, stated that the Blessing of 13 couples (26 people) “was probably the largest wedding ever celebrated in America.” Those numbers would be eclipsed many times over in subsequent years.
 

FEBRUARY 28, 1972

One World Crusade (OWC) Established

A One World Crusade tour bus.

In January 1972, True Father gathered 72 “pioneers” from Unification Church missionary groups in New York City to prepare for the inaugural 7-City Day of Hope speaking tour. In Los Angeles, the sixth city on the tour, True Father formed the One World Crusade (OWC). It would be the official name of the mobile units comprising the 72 trainees from New York. True Father said the new organization was formed to evangelize the United States and, further, the whole world. Mr. David S.C. Kim, who was present, wrote, “Two probable names were suggested – ‘World Unification Crusade’ and ‘One World Crusade.’ After heated discussion, finally ‘One World Crusade’ was born by our Master’s decision.”

After the first Day of Hope Tour, OWC bus teams continued to campaign across the United States assisting newly appointed state representatives (SRs). They expanded from two to three teams, then to ten. Following the arrival of international members as a “New Pilgrim Movement” and the first 100-Day Training programs, True Father created 40 International One World Crusade (IOWC) units so that there would be one for every state. The IOWC teams brought success to later 21-, 32-, and 8-city Day of Hope tours. In early 1975, a large IOWC contingent boarded a jumbo jet for Japan and eventually Korea, where they supported massive Day of Hope rallies modeled after what had been accomplished in the United States.

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 22–28.

A Beacon of Hope

This week in history, February 15-21:

• True Father sends a letter and videotapes to 300,000 U.S. ministers (February 16, 1985)
• True Mother officiates the Cosmic Blessing Ceremony (February 17, 2013)
• 74 couples receive the Holy Marriage Blessing (February 21, 1977)
• True Father celebrates his 60th birthday (February 21, 1980)
• The Cheon Bok Gung opens (February 21, 2010)
   

FEBRUARY 16, 1985

True Father Sends “Letter from Danbury” and Videotapes to 300,000 U.S. Ministers

Dr. Bo Hi Pak led Unificationists at Belvedere in a farewell gathering hours before True Father departed to Danbury Correctional Facility in 1984.

In August 1984, shortly after his incarceration in the Federal Correctional Institution at Danbury, Connecticut, True Father proposed that Unificationists produce and distribute sets of videotapes explaining the Unification Principle for Christian ministers throughout the United States. Originally the plan was to offer 30,000 videos to 30,000 ministers and to ask each of them to share their tapes with ten other ministers and with their congregations. By October, American Unificationists had distributed more than 30,000 tape sets. True Father felt that was not enough. So it was decided to distribute videotapes directly to 300,000 ministers. It required several months to produce, duplicate, label and package the videotapes, which was done entirely in-house. New Future Films worked with 25 staff members around the clock in areas set up on the sixth, eighth and tenth floors of the World Mission Center (New Yorker Hotel) with 800 video-copying machines in continuous use. The crew managed to turn out 900 tapes daily. Another 23 members worked in the shipping department. Packets included three 120-minute-long videotapes on the Unification Principle, a brochure and booklet about the Unification Church, an Outline of the Principle text, a book of True Father’s talks titled God’s Warning to the World, and True Father’s personal “Letter from Danbury.” Twenty-eight tractor-trailers were required to ship all 300,000 packages to the mailing location. The project was completed on February 16, 1985. True Father stated, “I feel very good because that is all done now; that was an incredible operation.”
 

FEBRUARY 17, 2013

Cosmic Blessing Ceremony

True Parents initiated cosmic-level Blessings in 2009 following the 50th anniversary of their Holy Wedding (Korean count). Couples previously had received the Holy Marriage Blessing on the church and worldwide levels. True Father explained that this was the third and final cosmic-level Blessing in which previously blessed and newly blessed couples would participate. True Parents conducted subsequent cosmic-level Blessings in 2010 and 2012. The Cosmic Blessing Ceremony officiated by True Mother on February 17, 2013, five days prior to Foundation Day, was significant as it was the first such ceremony conducted since the ascension of True Father. At least 3,500 couples gathered for the Marriage Blessing at the Cheongshim Peace World Center in Gapyeong, Korea, and 12,000 altogether by video link to dozens of countries. In her prayer for the couples, True Mother said, “You have lit a beacon of hope for fallen humanity through the great Blessing ceremonies, which first commenced with the Blessing of 36 couples in 1960 and has now been held 53 times until today.”

FEBRUARY 21, 1977

74 Couples Holy Blessing

On February 21, 1977, True Parents officiated at the largest Holy Marriage Blessing ceremony yet held outside Korea. Seventy-four couples from eleven nations took part in the ceremony, which was conducted in the Terrace Room of the World Mission Center (New Yorker Hotel) in New York. True Parents previously had conducted a Blessing for 43 couples (13 couples in the United States, 8 couples in Germany and 22 couples in Japan) during their Second World Tour in 1969. True Father explained that the Holy Blessing of 74 Couples was made possible on the foundation of the victory of 1976 in America, notably the Washington Monument Rally. He said that he especially wished to give the Blessing to “sorrowfully separated couples from the 777 and 1,800 families” and those who had not been able to participate in the 1975 Blessing due to mission responsibilities.

For the first time since the Holy Blessing of 36 Couples, True Parents posed for photos with each couple individually. They also held a banquet for participants after the ceremony which included a number of “games” such as couples competing to stare into one another’s eyes the longest without blinking or trying to make one another laugh, then trying to make True Father laugh, unsuccessfully. Even though True Mother and the children joined in, True Father “refused to budge” until “there was a glimmer and he broke his seriousness to please us all.” It was reported, “The room filled with joy.” Col. Bo Hi Pak announced that such a banquet had not happened before.

FEBRUARY 21, 1980

True Father’s 60th Birthday

True Father fishing on the Hudson River near the Unification Theological Seminary (UTS) circa February, 1980.

In early 1980, elders of the Unification Church were eagerly preparing to celebrate True Father’s 60th birthday. This was because in East Asia, the 60th birthday has special significance, meaning that a person has completed the five 12-year cycles of the Oriental zodiac. It signifies accomplishing one big cycle in one’s life and starting another and is considered the most significant birthday in an individual’s lifetime. Therefore, church leaders were immersed in a multitude of detailed preparations for that celebration. However, unexpectedly True Father summoned Col. Bo Hi Pak and asked him to abandon all plans for a celebration and immediately go to Latin America. He had intuited the need for a new initiative to support Latin American governments which were increasingly under pressure because of the communist takeover of Nicaragua in 1979 and the growth of communist insurrection in countries such as El Salvador, Guatemala and Peru. He gave Col. Pak instructions to establish contacts and offer resources in educating young people, the military and civic leaders so as to avoid a fate similar to Nicaragua’s. This led to the founding of CAUSA International and a new chapter in Unificationists’ “victory over communism” activities.

 

FEBRUARY 21, 2010

Opening of the Cheon Bok Gung

True Father speaks at the opening of the Cheon Bok Gung

True Parents dedicated the Cheon Bok Gung, or “Unification Peace Temple,” on February 21, 2010. In 2008, True Father had called for the establishment of a 20,000-member church in Seoul that would serve as a platform to influence the nation. He later increased the goal to a 210,000-person congregation that would influence Korea and eventually the world, not just socially and culturally but also spiritually. Efforts to construct a “growth-stage” Cheon Bok Gung began in earnest with the acquisition of a large public building in Seoul’s Yongsan district. The church’s worldwide membership, led by Japan and Korea, donated nearly $100 million for the purchase and subsequent renovation costs. This was completed in early 2010, and Unificationists undertook an hour-long march from the previous church headquarters to the new sanctuary, which also would serve as International and Korean Church headquarters. In his dedication prayer, True Father prayed that the Cheon Bok Gung “become the candlelight in a garden around which all people who resemble heaven in heart can assemble. … Let it serve as an ecumenical foundation and become the temple embodying the original essence of Your exemplary love as it governs beyond all people and the universe.”

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 15–21.

The Age to Embrace the World

This week in history, February 8-14:

• 1800 couples receive the Holy Marriage Blessing (February 8, 1975)
• True Father arrives in America for the first time (February 12, 1965)
• 400 million couples receive the Holy Marriage Blessing (February 13, 2000)

FEBRUARY 8, 1975

1,800 Couple Holy Marriage Blessing

True Parents bless 1800 couples in marriage.

True Parents blessed 1,800 couples (technically, 1801) in what the Guinness Book of World Records then recorded as the largest mass wedding in history on February 8, 1975. The ceremony, conducted in Seoul’s Jangchung Gymnasium, brought together couples from 25 nations, including 891 couples from Korea, 797 from Japan, 76 from the United States, 35 from European countries and two from the Republic of China. Over 10,000 guests witnessed the event, after which couples boarded ninety-four sightseeing buses for a parade through the streets of Seoul. True Parents blessed the 1,800 Couples 14 years after their Holy Marriage Blessing in 1960. It closed out the second 7-year or national-level course and opened the way to the Unification Church’s international work. Some 300 members from the 1,800 Couples went out to 123 nations as foreign missionaries, pioneering the worldwide providence. True Father noted that 1,800 represents three times six, equaling eighteen or “the complete subjugation of the satanic number 6.” The 1,800 Couples, he said, “represent all humankind.” Upon their Blessing, he declared, “we enter the age to embrace the world.” This year marks the 40th anniversary of the 1,800 Couple Blessing.

FEBRUARY 12, 1965

True Father Arrives in America for the First Time

True Father established the first Holy Ground in
the United States on Twin Peaks overlooking San Francisco.

From its earliest days, the American Unification movement anticipated the imminent arrival of True Father. Miss Young Oon Kim, the first church missionary to the United States, expected True Father’s arrival with Mr. David Kim in September 1959 and out of her meager funds rented an apartment and purchased bedding and other items. The original Bay Area group anticipated his arrival in the spring of 1961 and purchased a camper. The same expectation was a focus of the American church in 1964. Members throughout the country began a “High Noon Prayer Vigil” in anticipation, and by November word came that “Time is growing short.” True Father departed from Korea for his first world tour in January 1965. After spending two weeks in Japan, he and Mrs. Won Pok Choi left for America. Miss Kim, who accompanied them to Japan, departed ahead of them “to prepare Americans for his visit.” In an article, “Hail to the Brightness,” New Age Frontiers, the newsletter published by Miss Kim’s group, chronicled True Father’s San Francisco Bay Area arrival:

The Great Day dawned for us before the sun was up. At 5:30 a.m. on the still, cool morning of Friday, February 12, our Master set foot upon the continent of North America. Twenty-seven highly honored, greatly privileged and totally breathless members of the Unified Family in the United States were on hand to greet him and Mrs. Choi as they stepped off the Japan Airlines flight from Hawaii at the San Francisco International Airport. Among thefortunate few were the three missionaries from Korea whose love and single-minded devotion were responsible for the presence of Americans at the momentous occasion—Miss Young Oon Kim, Col. Bo Hi Pak and Mr. David Kim.

Three days later, True Father established the first Holy Ground in the United States on Twin Peaks overlooking San Francisco. In the next forty-four days, he traveled by car to all forty-eight contiguous states, setting up a total of fifty-five Holy Grounds. True Father’s first visit to the United States lasted nearly five months, until July 1, 1965, when he departed for Europe.

FEBRUARY 13, 2000

First International Blessing of 400 Million Couples

400 million couples receive the Holy Marriage Blessing.

Many Unificationists expected that the Holy Marriage Blessing of 360 Million Couples of 1999, which focused largely on previously married couples, would be the final Marriage Blessing in the sequence of international wedding ceremonies conducted on a global and mass scale. Unificationists, therefore, were surprised when True Father announced a 400 Million Couple Blessing to be conducted in conjunction with his 80th birthday, on February 13, 2000. They were more surprised to learn that the 400 million were to be “matched couples only.” True Father envisioned that the 400 million “Youth Blessing,” in conjunction with the 360 Million Couple Blessing of 1999, “will influence the entire human race.” In America, Unificationists targeted school graduations, movie theaters, ball parks, beaches, fairs and other places where young people congregated, passing out “Pure Love Pledge Cards.” The “Pure Love Pledge” called on young people to refrain from all sexual relationships before marriage; to respect and honor the ideal of purity in themselves and others; to learn how to practice pure love as a child, friend, spouse and parent; to dedicate themselves to absolute fidelity within marriage; and to encourage others to do the same. Legions of female Unificationists from Japan helped in the work. True Parents conducted Blessing 2000, as they had in 1999, before a packed Seoul Olympic Stadium. Representatives from ten world faith traditions pronounced blessings, and the event, coordinated with the 2000 World Culture and Sports Festival, was a spectacular success. However, it was apparent that “matched couples” still made up a minority of the Blessing participants. True Father, therefore, designated it “Phase One” of the 400 Million Couple Blessing. Successive phases followed over the course of the next decade.

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 8–14.