Near and Far: the East Coast Gets Ready to Honor True Father’s Life
Near and Far: the East Coast Gets Ready to Honor True Father’s Life
As a culmination of the God’s Hope for America pilgrimage, a new pilgrimage will end in New York at the National Memorial Service for True Father on September 20; with these and other events, the East Coast has had a busy start to the month. Just in the past week, the area has had a number of local happenings—no doubt a strong foundation for the National Memorial Service coming up next weekend. Here is a small taste of what has been going on:
ACLC Prayer Breakfast in Brooklyn, New York
Eighty faith leaders, including clergy of Islamic and Sikh religious traditions, gathered in Brooklyn on Saturday, September 13 for the monthly American Clergy Leadership Conference (ACLC) Prayer Breakfast. They learned about True Father’s vision for America and his appreciation for the important role faith leaders have played throughout the nation’s history. All were encouraged to attend the upcoming National Memorial Tribute to the Reverend Sun Myung Moon on Saturday, September 20 from 10:30-12:30a.m. at the Manhattan Center in New York.
The prayer breakfast was hosted by Pastor Johnny Ray Youngblood and the members of the Mount Pisgah Baptist Church located in Brooklyn. Among those present were former Congressman Edolphus Towns, who served in the U.S. House of Representatives for 30 years. He is also a Christian minister, and he visibly enjoyed the fellowship.
After a complimentary breakfast provided by the members of Mount Pisgah Baptist Church, and a lovely musical offering by keyboardist Minister Hugh Write, powerful messages were delivered by Archbishop George Augustus Stallings, Jr., Pastor Johnny Ray Youngblood and Rev. Dr. Michael Jenkins. The series of three remarks fit together perfectly creating a “Holy Trilogy” of insight and inspiration. At the conclusion of the talks, the audience was called to work side by side to renew faith in America and to bring hope to a broken world.
Archbishop Stallings concluded by reading from True Father’s message from Danbury Prison titled God’s Warning to the World: “Let’s make God’s presence in America a living reality. We must have our churches filled with fiery faith; we must create new homes where our families can be really happy, and we must finally create a new society, a new spiritual nation where God can dwell. America must go beyond America! This is the only way for this country to survive.”
After his remarks, Archbishop Stallings led the gathering in Holy Communion during the service. The service was introduced as an expression of unity, recognizing that we all came from One Source. Everyone, including non-Christians, broke bread together, taking the wafer and the cup.
The next ACLC Prayer Breakfast was announced for Saturday October 11 at Mount Pisgah Baptist Church, with keynote speaker Rev. Dr. Calvin Rice. Dr. Rice is the Senior Pastor of New Jerusalem Baptist Church in Jamaica, New York. He was a manager at Procter and Gamble and used some of their business practices to increase the membership of his church from 35 to 2,500. He is particularly concerned about training young people for future church leadership, and established a successful intergenerational ministry.
The God’s Hope for America Tour Comes to Brooklyn
After the successful ACLC prayer breakfast on Saturday September 13, Reverend Andrew Compton and eight God’s Hope for America tour representatives came to Brooklyn, New York. They were joined by the local Unificationist community, as well as a number of Unificationists from all over New York City, making up a group of about 30 in total.
The group gathered for a rally, which was inspired by this summer’s national tour and a previous local event in White Plains. At the nearby train station, they raised banners high and ignored the rain which fell off and on the entire hour. The group sang songs, presented brief talks and invited passersby to a “Meet and Greet” supper at the nearby FFWPU community center.
At the center, the 30 participants were joined by six guests, four of whom were previous contacts. With participants coming from all parts of the world (including Qatar!), it was a vibrant gathering. The introduction to the God’s Hope for America tour was well received, and a stimulating discussion was held on the topic of what people loved about America and what could be done for improvement.
WestRock Service Worships in the Woods
On September 14, the WestRock community held their second annual “Worship Service in the Woods” for family and friends. The service, whose theme was “The Joy of Family Life,” was held in the woods just south of Belvedere – in an area that had been cleaned out and renovated into a space for meditation, prayer and picnics.
About 180 Unificationists and their guests participated in the service, led by Debby Gullery. Six new guests attended, three of whom met us in the previous week through the downtown “God’s Hope for America” rally and program in White Plains.
Pastor Andrew Compton gave an inspiring sermon about how it is sometimes difficult to find joy in the family. He explained that just as Jesus brought forgiveness of sin to individuals, families can now be transformed through the Holy Marriage Blessing ceremony that Rev. and Mrs. Moon initiated. Just as the transformational power of Jesus’ message lay in the ability of individuals to have faith in their forgiveness, the power of the Holy Marriage Blessing lies in our faith that it does actually connect our family to God. When we are connected to God we can begin to discover the true joy of family life.
The music, the trees, the sunshine and the presence of so many wonderful brothers and sisters created an incredible spirit. Especially inspiring was the performance by our Japanese sisters’ choir. The participants enjoyed a potluck lunch, recreational activities and games for the children following the service.
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