Pioneering God’s Kingdom

This week in history, January 10-16:

• The first National Missionary Training Workshop is held (January 10, 1959)
• CARP is established (January 10, 1966)
• True Father proclaims the Completed Testament Age (January 10, 1993)
• 72 couples receive the Holy Marriage Blessing (January 11, 1989)
• 1,275 couples receive the Holy Marriage Blessing (January 12, 1989)
• The International Federation for Victory over Communism is founded (January 13, 1968)
• The Coronation Ceremony for the Kingship of God is held (January 13, 2001)
• Pioneers are trained for the Third World Tour (January 14, 1972)
• The Global IOWC team departs for Japan (January 14, 1975)

January 10, 1959

First National Missionary Training Workshop

The First National Missionary Training Workshop, a forty-day Divine Principle workshop to raise missionaries, was held January 10–February 20, 1959. The workshop occurred in the former headquarters church in the Cheongpa-dong district of Seoul. The training program to obtain skills needed to become missionaries attracted 207 persons. True Father offered Heaven a prayer, saying, “Please allow the participants here to feel God’s heart during this time.” Missionary Training Workshops continued until the 18th workshop. (Courtesy of the History Compilation Committee)

January 10, 1966

Establishment of the Collegiate Association for the Research of Principles

The Collegiate Association for the Research of Principles was established inside the main hall of the church headquarters in Cheongpa-dong, Seoul, on January 10, 1966. CARP members from 26 universities in various countries participated in this event. Here, Father said, “Our mission is to unify the democratic side and communistic side,” and that one member of CARP with a college degree or higher should be placed in each of the 2,400 villages in Korea. (Courtesy of the History Compilation Committee)

January 10, 1993

True Father Proclaims the Completed Testament Age

After proclaiming the Completed Testament Age on January 10, True Parents toured the nation and spoke on this theme.

On August 24, 1992, at the first World Culture and Sports Festival (WCSF) and on the foundation of the Cold War’s end, True Father declared that he and True Mother “are the True Parents of all humanity … the Savior, the Lord of the Second Advent, the Messiah.” It was hard to imagine how True Father could proclaim anything more dramatic than that. However, he may have succeeded in doing so by proclaiming the beginning of a whole new historical epoch. In a speech, “The Reappearance of the Second Coming and the Completed Testament Era,” delivered at Belvedere International Training Center, Tarrytown, New York, on January 10, 1993, True Father announced “the transition today to the Completed Testament Era.” Details as to the precise nature of the new epoch were as yet sketchy, but it 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 Unificationism and rendered all previous religious expressions, including that of the Unification Church, obsolete. Within a few years, the church began to reconfigure itself as a “Family Federation,” developed theological concepts and terminology reflective of the shift, and launched efforts to realize a restored and purified Garden of Eden. The gateway to the Completed Testament Age (CTA) was the Blessing, which extended far beyond the Unificationist community during the 1990s. The immediate concern was to proclaim the message of the new age. On April 10, 1993, the statement “True Parents and the Completed Testament Age” was published in the newspapers of 160 nations. Then, in May 1993, True Parents began a tour of thirty-three U.S. cities under the same theme. True Mother spoke on Capitol Hill and in the United Nations, which served as a springboard to proclaiming the CTA message worldwide.

January 11, 1989

Second Generation 72-Couple Holy Blessing

Seventy-two couples made up of Unificationist-born individuals received the Blessing in Holy Marriage in January 1989. In addition to the Blessing of the 36 Unificationist-born couples three years earlier, the victory of this Blessing, according to Father Moon, can be likened to the complete restoration of the 12 apostles and 72 disciples at the time of Jesus.

January 12, 1989

1,275 Couple Holy Blessing

1,275 couples received the Holy Marriage Blessing.

Happy Blessing anniversary to all 1275 couples and 72 couples!

True Parents blessed 1,275 couples from 87 nations in holy matrimony on January 12, 1989. The ceremony was conducted beginning at 2 p.m. in the Il Hwa Company compound in Yongin, Korea. It followed by one day True Parents’ Holy Marriage Blessing of 72 Unificationist-born couples at the Little Angels Performing Arts Center in Seoul. After the ceremony, representatives of the couples were mobilized into forty-three groups of ten each and spread out across Korea to support witnessing activities and, later, the distribution of the Segye Ilbo newspaper.

January 13, 1968

Founding of the International Federation for Victory over Communism

The International Federation for Victory over Communism was founded in the former headquarters church in the Yongsan district of Seoul on January 13, 1968. The Victory over Communism movement started in 1965, and many small anti-communist enlightenment groups were formed in Korea’s eight provinces. The International Federation for Victory over Communism registered with the Ministry of Culture and Public Information (number 164). Mr. Kim In-cheol was the first chairman. True Father said, “We need an ideological organization based on the results that we can show to the world,” when explaining the significance of the founding of the International Federation for Victory over Communism. (Courtesy of the History Compilation Committee)

January 13, 2001

Coronation Ceremony for the Kingship of God

True Parents held the Coronation Ceremony for the Kingship of God.

There is nothing more fundamental to Unification tradition and central to True Parents’ and members’ core motivation than the desire to liberate the suffering heart of God. According to True Father, the Coronation Ceremony for the Kingship of God, conducted on January 13, 2001, “liberated God’s heart for the first time.” He described it as “the greatest day of celebration in all human history.” As a result, God “could start His new history based on the might and power of true love.” The Coronation Ceremony for the Kingship of God was a crucial building block for True Parents’ declaration of Cheon Il Guk (“the Nation of Cosmic Peace and Unity”) on November 15, 2001, and subsequent church activities.

Some 6,000 Unificationists witnessed the ceremony in the main hall of the Cheonseong Wanglim (“Palace of Heavenly Presence”) at Cheongpyeong Heaven and Earth Training Center in Korea. At the top of a tiered stage area, two white thrones were prepared for the “Royal Parents of Heaven and Earth.” At 7:00 a.m. True Parents entered, flanked by 120 attendant couples. The procession stopped twice, at which time True Father offered prayers. True Parents then placed silver crowns, royal gowns and a scepter on the chairs reserved for God. True Parents lit holy candles and offered bows. A lengthy succession of representatives approached and offered bows. True Father then offered a third prayer. This was followed by congratulatory telegrams, plaques and gifts; a flower presentation; cutting of a celebration cake; cheers of Mansei (“ten thousand years”); and sharing of food from the offering table.

True Father’s Coronation Ceremony Address concluded the three-hour event. In it, he outlined the three “immutable laws” or “articles” of the “constitution of the Kingdom of Heaven”: first, not to “stain the blood lineage,” that is, to maintain sexual purity; second, “not to violate human rights” through discrimination and not to change subordinates’ positions (hiring, firing or transferring them) according to one’s own desire; and third, “not to steal public money” or utilize public property for oneself.

January 14, 1972

Training the Pioneers for the Third World Tour

The first step taken in preparation for the Third World Tour was the selection of pioneers for the two-week training session scheduled to begin in New York City on January 14, 1972. The pioneers housed in the three-story, stone and stucco Bronx center, seventy-two pioneers and staff traveled daily to St. Steven’s Methodist Episcopal Church, where they were accommodated more comfortably for meals and lectures in the basement social hall. The training session focused on building solidarity—a difficult task—given the factions which had developed in the American church. One pioneer described the challenges of the early days:

“There are about eighty of us. We come from different centers throughout the United States. We didn’t know each other when we first started. Each of us had different songs, different ways of praying, and different ways of applying the Principle. It was hard to unify at first. But we knew it was necessary.”

January 14, 1975

Global IOWC Team Departs for Japan

True Parents long considered the United States to be the gateway to the world. In early 1975, the Church launched activities worldwide based upon its successes in America. The initial step was the creation of a global International One World Crusade (IOWC) team. On January 14, the first global team, which included some 340 American and European members, boarded a chartered jumbo jet in Los Angeles for Tokyo. There they joined forces with an even larger contingent of Japanese members to evangelize and hold Day of Hope rallies in Tokyo, Sendai, Osaka, Nagoya, Kyoto, Hiroshima and Fukuoka. After spending nearly 80 days in Japan, a 500 member-plus global team traveled by ferry to Pusan, South Korea, on March 27. There, from April 1 until May 17, they supported the massively attended Day of Hope festivals in Pusan, Taegu, Seoul, Inchon, Jeonju, Kwangju, Taejon, Cheongju and Chuncheon. These rallies culminated in the World Rally for Korean Freedom held at Yoido Island plaza in Seoul before an estimated crowd of more than a million on June 7, 1975.