Hak Ja Han
August 10, 2014
Founders' Address
Millennium Seoul Hilton Hotel
Opening Plenary: Global Assembly of the UPF's Summit 2014
Read by Sun Jin Moon
Director General of the FFWPU International Headquarters
Sun Jin Moon representing Hak Ja Han in reading the UPF Founders' Address
Sun Jin Moon's Introduction:
Good morning, anyonghaseyo! Our family wishes to extend to each of you our sincere gratitude for your attendance and participation in this very important World Summit, dedicated to peace and human development. We are deeply moved to welcome and work with so many highlevel leaders from virtually every field who have come here to Seoul despite your busy schedules.
No other cause or goal can surpass what we all know to be the single calling we have in our hearts today; that is, to realize a world of true peace, joy and prosperity for all. We gather here united as one family under God on this historic day, commemorating the second anniversary of my father's passing. In this way, we honor his legacy, his life's mission and his treasured teachings, which call us to build a world of harmony, kinship, service and faith, and to commit ourselves in service to all of God's children around the globe.
My father tirelessly dedicated every waking moment of his physical life to teaching us to work together to apply the principles of peace through true love. True love reaches out to everyone, globally, even to our enemies. The lifeline of this global consciousness eternally links us to our Creator. It is what guides and calls us to live our lives for the sake of others and is the only force that can bring the entire world into balance. True love is our eternal quest, from the time of our birth, throughout our physical lives, and even beyond our earthly existence, until we attain everlasting peace.
Why, then, do we find ourselves in the midst of very trying and unpeaceful times? Although we know in our hearts the peace and love we desire, it constantly evades us on a personal, family, tribal, national and global level. Now more than ever we are faced with the impending disharmony of war, disease, famine, environmental destruction, greed, corruption and human rights violations, all throughout the globe, threatening all members of the human family.
Your excellencies, religious leaders, ambassadors for peace, distinguished delegates from throughout the world, now more than ever, the world needs you. Our family is absolutely and wholeheartedly committed to this cause, and we will do our utmost to stand side by side with each and every one of you and your families to create one peaceful world under God.
It was always my father's tradition to deliver the Founders' Address at the start of a major conference. My mother, Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon, now takes up that task. Since my dear father's passing in September 2012, my mother has led the way in carrying forward the development of our worldwide movement. I have witnessed her stoic and unwavering efforts to reconcile, reorganize, restore and recalibrate all the organizations of our worldwide movement in order to build a world of lasting peace.
As you can imagine, her responsibilities are overwhelming. As a result, she has asked me to assist her in a variety of capacities as she leads our global movement and prepares for the second commemoration ceremony. Therefore, she has asked me to deliver the Founders' Address today on her behalf.
We are eternally grateful for our mother who has walked down and survived this incredible path of service and true love with our father. She has been an unconditional source of love, healing, and encouragement, and a tower of strength for our movement, a true shining example of living for the sake of others. I am sorry to be the one to deliver this speech this morning, as I could never do it justice, as my mother could. So please excuse the reader, and please take her words into your hearts and let them inspire the great change that is possible when we come together as one united family under God.
With this in mind, let me now deliver the Founders' Address that she asked me to share with you today: Your excellencies, distinguished religious leaders, ambassadors for peace, respected delegates from throughout the world, ladies and gentlemen:
Hak Ja Han's address read by Sun Jin Moon
Thank you for participating in the very important World Summit 2014, sponsored by the Universal Peace Federation, in partnership with the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, the Women's Federation for World Peace, the Washington Times Foundation, and the Segye Times.
We have come together at this time to honor the life and legacy of my beloved husband, Dr. Sun Myung Moon, who ascended to the spiritual world two years ago. On this second anniversary of his Seonghwa (ascension), I have commissioned a wide range of programs, such as the World Summit, not only to pay tribute to my husband and the providential work we have carried out together over many decades but to blaze a trail forward toward the fulfillment of God's providence. I pray that we can work together to achieve this goal, which has been the hope of all the ages, and God's hope.
At the time of our Holy Wedding in 1960, amidst a handful of followers in a humble house located not far from here, my husband and I pledged to God, our Heavenly Parent, to work day and night, until our dying breath, to build a world of peace and prosperity for all. I vividly remember that day, as if it were yesterday. My husband and I had been brought together by heavenly providence for a sacred mission. As we began our marriage, we felt great hope and at the same time a sense of overwhelming responsibility.
God alone does not control the events or outcomes of history. rather God seeks to find and raise individuals that understand and follow his will. The progress of God's providence requires that each individual, and especially central figures, fulfill their own portion of responsibility. Those who take up the call often find that the path is steep, treacherous and painfully difficult.
Neither my husband nor I were naïve or unaware of the challenges we would face. On the one hand, we each experienced directly the love, guidance and protection of our Heavenly Parent in the most intimate and powerful ways, and this inspired our absolute faith, commitment and determination. On the other hand, we also encountered extraordinary opposition and obstruction that defied rational explanation and that can only be called demonic. The forces of good and evil were ever-present and palpable.
Korea itself was a battleground. We each had firsthand experience of the humiliation of colonial rule and the horrors of war right here on this peninsula, which to this day remains divided. Forced to flee our hometowns, when a dictatorial communist regime took control of the territory north of the thirty-eighth parallel, neither of us was able to live in the cherished homes of our birth, among family, friends and relatives.
As we started out on our mission, Korea was a nation emerging from a devastating conflict, with our people still mourning the tragic loss of hundreds of thousands of men, women and children. Korea was then a small, impoverished country, known to many as the "hermit kingdom." Our church headquarters was, at that time, about the size of a single hotel room. Our followers were few, and our resources meager. As if this were not enough, we faced prejudice, slander and persecution from the established political and religious authorities.
Yet, by the grace of God, our movement grew, and grew, and grew! Who could have predicted that what is now a respected global movement, known throughout the world for its vision, principles and best practices, could have arisen out of the ashes of war, abject poverty and unfair persecution? God works in mighty and mysterious ways!
The essential ideal that has guided and sustained our work through thick and thin over so many difficult years is that God is truly our Heavenly Parent, and we are all sons or daughters of the one God, one family under God. All our effort and the numerous peace organizations that we founded over many years have been entirely dedicated to the fulfillment of that vision. by the grace of God, and through the blood, sweat and tears of countless members, this vision is now blossoming like a flower of hope in the midst of a world that otherwise seems on the brink of disaster.
Although it may appear that we are about to enter an era that resembles the Dark Ages, we are actually on the threshold of a new era of peace, if only we respond to God's call. This World Summit is itself a response to God's call.
Our world faces a multitude of challenges -- from climate change and poverty to geopolitical tension, terrorism and inter-religious conflict; from family breakdown and crime to moral and spiritual confusion. I am sure you encounter many of these same challenges in your own nations and regions -- in the Americas, in Africa, in Asia, in Europe, in the Middle East or in Oceania. These problems cannot be solved through the instruments of government alone, for their root cause is not exclusively political or economic in nature. Rather the root cause is buried deep in the human heart, in selfishness and in separation from God.