National Ministry Team Monthly Meeting
At today’s national progress meeting for the month of July, the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (FFWPU) USA National Ministry Team had a chance to touch base, revisit our victories, connect about our plans, and invite collaboration.
We feel that True Mother’s heart and prayers are with us, and we are striving to encourage one another to make a difference as we reach out to others and testify about True Parents. Now in between the 40th anniversaries and commemorative events of both the Yankee Stadium and the Washington Monument rallies, the National Ministry Team is turning our attention first and foremost to remembering True Father on his ascension anniversary, which will fall on August 19 of this year.
Demian Dunkley, National Director of Evangelism, opened our monthly meeting with a prayer. Katarina Connery, Vice President of Women’s Federation for World Peace (WFWP) USA, followed with a scripture reading from the speech originally delivered by True Father on the occasion of the Washington Monument Rally of September 18, 1976, “America and God’s Will.”
“At this crossroads of human history, we must listen to the calling of God. God prepared America for 200 years. This is the time for awakening. America must accept her global responsibility. Armed with Godism, she must free the Communist world, and at last, build the Kingdom of God here on earth. God has chosen America as the flag bearer. America must rise up. Today. Tomorrow may be too late.”
Mari Curry, Vice President of FFWPU USA, emceed the event.
Continental Director of FFWPU North America, Dr. Ki Hoon Kim, after congratulating the American movement for the hard work and success manifested in June’s God Bless America Family Festival, urged us to unite with True Parents’ vision for America to lead a worldwide movement. “America must rise up and support True Parents’ worldwide activities. True Mother treats me like a world leader, not just an American leader. Even district and state pastors, please feel that you are worldwide leaders. It is not America that comes first but True Parents: True Parents first, the world second, and America last.”
Dr. Kim also introduced the “Hyo Jeong Cheonwon” workshop, an international 21-day workshop for 1000 college, high school, and middle school students, which will take place from August 1-21, 2016. True Mother will be closely involved in the organization of the workshop, which will coincide with the commemoration of the fourth anniversary of True Father’s Seonghwa.
Details coming soon!
Dr. Michael Balcomb, President of FFWPU USA, echoed Dr. Kim’s congratulations and also encouraged everyone to begin preparing for the upcoming 40th anniversary of the Washington Monument Rally. Although details for this second commemorative event are forthcoming, Dr. Balcomb reflected on his recent experiences of reading “America and God’s Will” in order to better understand the essence of True Parents’ message at that time. “True Father’s essential message seems to be ‘Rise up today—tomorrow may be too late.’ There are parallels to this message in the Bible,” he said, “such as God’s words to the Israelites after 40 years in the wilderness, ‘Rise up, go over the Jordan, the time has come to claim this promise and this land.’”
Dr. Balcomb exhorted everyone to remember God’s promises made to the world through True Parents and to read the original Washington Monument speech again and again in the months leading up to the anniversary in order to understand True Parents’ expectation and hope for America and the world. He concluded his remarks saying, “Meet us at the Monument, read the speech, honor True Parents, and rise up today because tomorrow may be too late.”
Cheon Il Guk Institute of Music
Dr. David Eaton, Chairman of the Committee for the Cheon Il Guk Institute of Music, reported on the committee’s most recent meetings in Korea. Although much of the institute’s responsibilities are still being determined, one of the committee’s first concrete initiatives requested by True Mother is to create an updated selection of Holy Songs (official Unificationist hymns) and to discover new songs that can be added to this selection. Dr. Eaton also had the opportunity to see a performance of the Shim Chung ballet during his latest trip, which he sees as the prototype for True Parents’ vision of a culture of heart: bringing the opposites of East and West into harmony through the arts. Through the collaborative efforts of the committee, he hopes to create regional hubs that will serve as structures to support musicians and artists in making their offerings to the nascent culture of Cheon Il Guk.
Universal Peace Federation International
Dr. Thomas Walsh, Chairman of UPF International, was also recently in South Korea, where he attended the victory celebration for True Mother’s visit to America in June and was commissioned to support a series of regional International Leadership Conferences (ILCs), scheduled to take place around the world in the coming months. The regional ILCs, will begin with a conference in Kathmandu, Nepal at the end of July, with successive conferences in East and West Africa as well as South and Central America, before concluding with an international conference in Washington, D.C. in December. The regional ILCs will also mark the launch of the International Association for the Parliamentarians for Peace at each conference site around the world.
Women’s Federation for World Peace International
Christina Lange, Administrator for the WFWPI UN Office, attended the 66th UN DPI/NGO (Department of Public Information) conference in Gyeongju, South Korea from May 30 – June 1, 2016. The theme of the conference was “Education for Global Citizenship: Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals Together.” A total of 620 NGOs from 80 countries attended the event. WFWP sent 70 international representatives, held a workshop on the theme of “Toward Inclusive, Harmonious Societies, and Sustainable Peace: Four Case Studies,” and organized an exhibition booth to display the activities of WFWP chapters worldwide. Yeon Ah Moon, President of WFWPI, was among the attendees and worked closely with the WFWP representatives throughout the conference. For Christina, the conference provided a powerful opportunity to see Unification principles in action and she walked away from the event with a deeper appreciation for how much we can “offer to the world just by being who we are—just by having conviction in our contribution as Unificationists.”
Universal Peace Federation USA
Dr. Tom McDevitt, Chairman of UPF USA, began with comments about this year’s Sunhak Peace Prize. The Sunhak Peace Prize board is now actively seeking candidates for the prize, and will work with UPF USA to find and select next year’s prize recipients.
Dr. McDevitt also discussed the upcoming National Parents’ Day celebration, to take place in Washington, D.C. later this month. “The heart of Parents’ Day is to provide a platform for conversation about ideal parents, namely about True Parents and our Heavenly Parents, as well as our own parents. This is a key theme in realizing True Mother’s vision for America to think of the world first and to become a responsible world leader.”
Blessed Culture and Sports Festival
Karlsun Allen of the National Ministry Team’s Evangelism Department is also a volunteer coordinator of the 12th annual Blessed Culture and Sports Festival (BCSF). Karlsun discussed the mission statement of BCSF, which is “to create a hub for Unificationists and their friends to connect and express their passions through sports, culture, and faith,” and provided an overview of the place and value of the festival in building principled relationships within and beyond the Unification community.
Blessing and Family Ministry
Crescentia DeGoede, Director of the BFM, discussed details and resources regarding the ongoing condition for the receipt of Special Grace and the new Cheon Il Guk Holy Items, commenting, “It can be challenging to be on this path of faith given the current climate of our nation, so let’s encourage one another as we move forward to achieve True Parents’ vision for both America and the world.” Crescentia also provided details about the upcoming Marriage Blessing Ceremony to be held on Saturday, July 9, 2016 at the Belvedere estate in Tarrytown, NY, inviting all eligible couples to register and attend the ceremony, and everyone else to attend in celebration of this happy event.
Collegiate Association for the Research of Principles
Members of the CARP USA team offered updates about their recent and upcoming events. President of CARP USA, Naokimi Ushiroda, reflected on the 10-day trip of CARP USA student delegates to network with peers of their sister organizations CARP Japan and CARP Korea in Japan. Teresa Rischl, Program Director of CARP America, followed with an update about the upcoming Global Momentum workshop (July 27-31, 2016) and CARP 50th Anniversary Banquet Celebration (July 30, 2016), inviting current CARP members and all CARP alumni to attend these upcoming Las Vegas events.
The meeting concluded with a cake-cutting and celebration in honor of the 2075-couples Blessing Ceremony in Madison Square Garden on July 1, 1982. A very happy anniversary to all!
