Hak Ja Han
April 2014
Mother presents the Cheon Il Guk Constitution to Hyo Jin nim's family, represented by Yeon Ah Choi Moon nim (foreground) and Heung Jin nim's family, represented by Julia (Hoon Sook) Moon on the anniversary of Foundation Day
According to Dr. Ken Pennington, a professor of Ecclesiastical and Legal History at the Catholic University of America, "Christian communities lived without a comprehensive body of written law for more than five centuries." During that half millennium, only rule books containing general guidance on one's life of faith existed. One extant guidebook from the third century was discovered in a monastery in Constantinople and published in 1883. Some of its rules took a practical form such as "Do not have your fasts with the hypocrites For they fast on Mondays and Thursdays; but you should fast on Wednesdays and Fridays." Other rules set out clear restrictions on behavior among the faithful, "But the way of death is this: First of all, it is filled with evil and cursing, murders, adulteries, expressions of lust, acts of sexual immorality, thefts, idolatries, acts of magic, robberies, false witnessing, acts of hypocrisy, acts of duplicity, deceit, pride, malice, stubbornness, greediness, abusive language, jealousy; arrogance, haughtiness and boastfulness."
Global Regional Presidents at the Foundation Day victory celebration
At the time that Christianity did first develop canonical law, it was still a regional religion. It existed in the Middle East, North Africa and Southern Europe, ringing the Mediterranean Sea. It had only recently settled in Germany and parts of Britain.
Unificationism has not yet so densely saturated the whole population of any nation as Christianity had in those nations by that time, but we do exist to some degree in more than a hundred nations and in all parts of the world. In large part because of the internal troubles that have plagued our church in recent years, it seems the time has come for us to adopt canonical law by way of the Cheon Il Guk Constitution as a means of protecting True Parents' legitimate authority. A video outlining some basic points of the Cheon Il Guk Constitution has been produced. The Cheon Il Guk Constitution is an important development that sets out what is expected of those that represent our church and covers the Cheon Il Guk citizens' rights to hold elections, submit petitions and not to be discriminated against because of race, social status, sex or financial standing.