Centered on True Love

This week in history, April 26-May 2:

• 144,000 interfaith clergy receive the Marriage Blessing (April 27, 2002)
• Soviet officials visit the United States and hear CAUSA lectures (April 30-May 2, 1991)
• HSA-UWC is founded (May 1, 1954)
• The Exposition of the Divine Principle is published (May 1, 1966)
• 22 Japanese couples receive the Holy Marriage Blessing (May 1, 1969)
• True Father introduces the Family Pledge (May 1, 1994)

April 27, 2002

144,000 Clergy Interfaith Marriage Blessing

Based on the Interfaith Marriage Blessing of 60 clergy couples on May 27, 2001 (which included Archbishops Emmanuel Milingo and George A. Stallings, among others), True Father called for a 12,000 Couple Clergy Blessing at New York’s Madison Square Garden in September 2001. That was postponed due to the terrorist attacks of 9/11. Instead, True Father announced a Marriage Blessing for 144,000 clergy couples around the world on April 27, 2002. The main venue was the Sheraton National Hotel in Arlington, Virginia, for some 700 representative clergy couples. Thousands of other couples participated in all 50 U.S. states and 196 nations via satellite connection. Commendations for the Blessing came from four U.S. governors and 25 members of Congress, including several U.S. senators. United Press International, Associated Press, ABC National, CBS local, The Washington Times and many Spanish-language and African-American newspapers covered the event. Religious leaders from every faith tradition offered prayers. Thirty couples came from the Nation of Islam, directly sent by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan. Twenty-one Buddhist couples came from Korea. More than 21 Sikh leaders came from the Washington area. True Parents declared that the interreligious and international ceremony was a “total victory.” Pastor T.L. Barrett Jr. from Chicago, who helped organize the event, declared, “Father [Moon] is a marrying man! He wants everything to be married. He would like a desk and chair or even the two light bulbs to be married, if possible.”

April 30-May 2, 1991

Soviet Officials Visit the United States, Hear CAUSA Lectures

The demise of Marxism as a viable ideology created a serious void for the USSR. True Parents’ meeting with Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev on April 11, 1990, opened the way for the Unification Church to sponsor seminars for Soviet officials and eventually Divine Principle workshops for thousands of Soviet university students and professors. In December 1990 and February 1991, the church sponsored seminars for 80 deputies of the Supreme Soviet (federal, republic and city levels) in which they received lectures on Victory over Communism (VOC) theory as well as briefings on the underpinnings of U.S. democracy. Then, from April 30 to May 2, 1991, the church sponsored an unprecedented seminar and fact-finding tour in Washington, D.C., for approximately 200 high-ranking Soviet officials and political leaders who were introduced to True Father’s thought and achievements. Dr. Thomas Ward, who lectured, noted, “This was the only time during the final years of the Soviet Union that any person, government or private organization brought together representatives from all 15 Soviet republics.”

May 1, 1954

The Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity (HSA-UWC) Is Founded

True Father established the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity (HSA-UWC, or Unification Church) on May 1, 1954. The armistice agreement ending the Korean War was signed in July 1953, and in September True Father moved from Pusan to Seoul. There, with four early followers, True Father established the new association. According to Dr. David S.C. Kim, who was present, True Father submitted three possible names, two of which “were so complicated that we could not even comprehend the meaning of the Chinese characters.” True Father stated in his autobiography that the group chose HSA-UWC “to signify that we belonged to no denomination, and … had no plans to create a new one.” He said: “I did not want to place ourselves in this separatist type of category. My hope was for the rise of a church without a denomination. True religion tries to save the nation, even if it has to sacrifice its own religious body to do so. … It was necessary to hang out a church sign, but in my heart I was ready to take it down at any time.”

May 1, 1966

Wolli Kangron (Exposition of the Divine Principle) Is Published

Following his encounter with Jesus on April 17, 1935, True Father dedicated himself to solving the fundamental problems of God, humankind, nature and history. The fruit of his investigation is the Divine Principle. According to Won Pil Kim, True Father kept a notebook with notes about the Divine Principle, which he carried with him into North Korea in 1946. Unfortunately, it was lost during his incarceration in Heungnam Prison. Afterward, on arriving in Pusan, True Father began writing Wolli Wonbon (Original Text of the Divine Principle), which he finished on May 10, 1952. It circulated as a hand-written manuscript for several years until superseded by Wolli Haesul (Explanation of Divine Principle) in 1957. Wolli Haesul was prepared by Hyo Won Eu, based on Wolli Wonbon and guidance from True Father. In the early 1960s, True Father directed Rev. Eu to prepare a new text with a more systematic structure and additional content. It was published as Wolli Kangron (Exposition of the Divine Principle) on May 1, 1966. It has served as the authorized version of Divine Principle to the present. Wolli Kangron was translated into English in two official versions, Divine Principle (1973) and Exposition of the Divine Principle (1996). It is one of the “Eight Great Textbooks” that True Father designated as his “last words to humankind.”

May 1, 1969

Holy Blessing of 22 Japanese Couples

True Parents’ Blessing of 22 Japanese couples in holy matrimony on May 1, 1969, in Tokyo was the third of three Blessings that comprise what is known as the 43 Couples Blessing. The first was the Holy Blessing of 13 American couples on February 28, 1969, at Upshur House in Washington, D.C. The second was the Holy Blessing of eight European couples in Essen, Germany, on March 28, 1969. These were all conducted during True Parents’ Second World Tour and came on the foundation of the 430 Couple Holy Blessing conducted in Korea in 1968. They were the first Holy Blessings conducted outside Korea and signified the Unification Church’s expansion to the worldwide level.

May 1, 1994

True Father Introduces Family Pledge

On January 10, 1993, True Father announced “the transition today to the Completed Testament Era.” The new epoch was understood to involve a fundamental shift in the order of salvation. As one church leader explained, “Previously, religious organizations have always been centered upon the salvation of the individual, but we have now progressed to the salvation of the family.” The implications of this were momentous. Essentially, it signaled a radical new beginning for the church and rendered all previous religious expressions, including that of the Unification Church, obsolete. On HSA-UWC’s 40^th anniversary, May 1, 1994, True Father introduced the “Family Pledge.” It displaced “My Pledge,” which had expressed Unification Church members’ standard of attendance since 1961.  According to Rev. Joong Hyun Pak, continental director of the church in North America at that time, My Pledge represented the individual’s pledge. Family Pledge signified the transition to the family era. True Father stated that reciting Family Pledge “means we have crossed over the barriers and are now on God’s side.” He noted that the fullest exemplification of this was that “all paragraphs of Family Pledge begin with the phrase ‘centered on true love.’”

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 April 26 – May 2.

Contributed by Dr. Michael Mickler, professor of church history at Unification Theological Seminary.