A Rally for Religious Freedom

The Rally for Justice and Religious Freedom took place on June 25, 1985.

The Rally for Justice and Religious Freedom took place on June 25, 1985.

June 26, 1963

Launching Ceremony of the Cheon Seung Ho Boat

True Parents held the launching ceremony for the boat Cheon Seung Ho at a dockyard in the Manseok neighborhood of the city of Incheon, Gyeonggi Province, with around 200 key members in attendance. On this day True Father prayed in his benediction, “Cheon Seung Ho means that ‘Heaven has won,’ and this launching ceremony of Cheon Seung Ho is being held as it is the starting point of all victories in heaven and on earth.” True Parents had already begun preparing for the maritime providence by this time. (Materials provided by the FFWPU History Compilation Committee)

June 26, 1984

Hearing on Religious Freedom

After the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution hearing, Sen. Orrin G. Hatch and True Father shake hands.

After the Court of Appeals denied True Father’s appeal and upheld his eighteen-month sentence for tax evasion, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Constitution convened a hearing on religious freedom. Chaired by Senator Orrin Hatch (R-Utah), the hearing looked into whether the verdict in True Father’s case had been a violation of religious freedom. More than three hundred invited persons and observers as well as media crews were present. In his prepared remarks, True Father stated, “In 1971, God called me to come to America and … for the last 12 years I have given my heart and soul and every drop of sweat and tears for the sake of this nation.” He listed a number of the vast array of projects undertaken by the movement at the cost of “several hundred million dollars,” denied that he had defrauded the U.S. government of a few thousand dollars, and expressed gratitude that God was “using me as an instrument to lead the fight for religious freedom and to ignite the spiritual awakening of America.”

June 26, 1985

U.S. Clergy Rally for True Father

On June 26, 1985, members of the clergy held a religious freedom rally in Washington, D.C., in protest against True Father’s incarceration in Danbury. Participants, who wore a white sash, marched in protest toward the White House, singing the gospel song “We Shall Not Be Moved” at Lafayette Square on the other side of Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House. The clerics raised their handcuffed hands above their heads and prayed for religious freedom. Around 1,000 clerics from different denominations participated in the rally, as did around 2,000 Collegiate Association for the Research of Principles (CARP) members from fifty universities, including the University of California, Berkeley,  and Harvard University,. (Materials provided by the FFWPU History Compilation Committee)

June 26, 1994

Dr. Theodore Shimmyo Inaugurated as Second UTS President

Dr. Theodore Shimmyo was inaugurated as the second president of the Unification Theological Seminary at the seminary’s 18th commencement exercises. He succeeded the seminary’s first president, Dr. David S.C. Kim, who had served for nineteen years since the seminary’s founding in 1975. Dr. Shimmyo, a graduate of the seminary’s first class, had been a professor of systematic theology and assistant academic dean. In his acceptance speech, “A Place Where Leaders Are Educated,” he pledged to “make sure that this seminary serves the rest of the Unification community, this nation and the world, with a desire to shoulder their burdens.”

June 27, 2015

U.S. Marriage Blessing Movement Begins

The Unification movement in the United States began a nationwide Marriage Blessing Movement on June 27, 2015. It was initiated as a way to extend the grace of the Blessing to more couples and families throughout the nation, multiply the numbers of Blessed Central Families nationwide, and support each Blessed Central Family in reaching the goal of blessing 430 couples. True Mother authorized Blessing Ceremonies to be held in communities across the U.S. once every three to four months on a predetermined date, to be presided over by approved Blessing officiators representing True Parents. An international Blessing Ceremony will still be held at Foundation Day each year, in which the U.S. will take part. The first nationwide Blessing was held on June 27, 2015, followed by a second on October 3.

June 28, 1982

True Mother’s Letter to Judge Gerard Goettel

On May 18, 1982, a jury for the Southern District of New York returned a guilty verdict against True Father for filing false tax returns from 1973 to 1975. Groups and individuals representing more than 120 million Americans later filed briefs in support of True Father’s appeal. However, the immediate concern was the penalty that the trial judge, Gerard Goettel, would impose. On June 28, several weeks prior to his decision, True Mother wrote the judge, petitioning him to pray and be guided by God in his deliberations. She wrote: “I believe that I have had the most blessed life of any woman who has ever lived in being married to my husband. He has totally dedicated his life to the service of God and humanity. … From the time I was a young girl, I prayed fervently to live a pious life and to marry a pious man. God listened to every one of my prayers and blessed me more abundantly than I could have ever imagined.” She noted that she had just given birth to their thirteenth child and that the trial proceedings were very difficult, but she “chose to sit by my husband’s side every day.” She emphasized that True Father “continued to inspire us with messages of forgiveness and compassion … [he] would not allow any of us to harbor any hostility towards the government, the prosecutors or any of the witnesses.” She asked the judge to be “compassionate and lenient.”

On July 17, 1982, the court sentenced True Father to 18 months in prison and a $25,000 fine plus costs. The only positive outcome was Judge Goettel’s “binding recommendation” against deportation. The government’s lawyers were eager to deport True Father and pressed Judge Goettel not to issue an opinion on the matter. However, in this instance Judge Goettel did not see things the government’s way. His position was that deportation, in addition to the eighteen-month jail sentence that he himself had imposed, represented “excessive punishment.” The decision, though technically a recommendation, was binding on the Justice Department and could not be appealed.

June 29, 2003

Washington Declaration

The Washington Declaration was the second in a series of three declarations, the others being the Jerusalem Declaration (May 18, 2003) and the Seoul Declaration (August 15, 2003), which were offered on the foundation of the First, Second and Third Israels. Each of the declarations focused on interreligious reconciliation and peace. Together they led to True Parents’ “Declaration Ceremony for the Beginning of the Nation of the Fourth Israel” on August 20, 2003.

July 1, 1991

Declaration Day of God’s Eternal Blessing

True Father proclaimed the Declaration Day of God’s Eternal Blessing (Chil Il Jeol) at a special ceremony at True Parents’ residence in Seoul’s Hannam-dong neighborhood. On that day, True Father began a new era in which blessed families, as tribal messiahs, inherited True Parents’ realm of victory. At the ceremony True Father prayed, “I have designated this day, the first day of July, to be the one on which we can apply and declare ourselves to be tribal messiahs across the world.”  He said that Unificationist families no longer belong to any nationality but are members of the Royal Family. He advised Unificationists to create a new spiritual attitude and train themselves to overcome their fallen nature in working with their hometown communities.

July 1, 1998

Dedication Ceremony of the Education Center for Ideal Families and World Peace

On July 1, 1998, beginning at 10 a.m., a dedication ceremony was held in Jardim, Brazil, for the Education Center for Ideal Families and World Peace. Around 3,000 people, well-known figures in Brazil and leaders from a variety of backgrounds in Jardim, came to the event. True Father said, “The goal of the Jardim education center is to raise people who do not live for their own individual benefit but instead live for the country, the world and God as families and to raise people who live for the world, even though it means sacrificing one’s clan or nation.” After the dedication, FFWPU members from across the globe began to attend the Jardim forty-day workshops in this center to inherit True Parents’ heart and traditions. (Materials provided by the FFWPU History Compilation Committee.)

July 1, 2010

True Father Holds 23.5-Hour Hoon Dok Hwe

True Father, at age 90, hosted a historic Hoon Dok Hwe that lasted twenty-three and a half hours, speaking on the topic of “God Is the Owner and Victor” to Japanese women participating in a forty-day workshop for “world ocean leaders” at Blue Sea Garden in Yeosu, 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 June 25 to July 1.