Rising from the Ashes

This week in history, August 9-15:

• Violence occurs against church centers in Brazil (August 10, 1981)
• The first national workshop for pastors takes place (August 12, 1971)
• The second anniversary of True Father’s Seonghwa is commemorated (August 12, 2014)
• The Professors World Peace Academy holds a conference on the fall of the Soviet Empire (August 13, 1985)
• True Parents donate 29 ambulances to towns in Brazil (August 13, 1996)
• True Father’s says his final prayer (August 13, 2012)
• Japan surrenders and World War II ends (August 15, 1945)
• The Republic of Korea is established (August 15, 1948)
• The Wolli Haesul is published (August 15, 1957)

August 10, 1981

Violence against Unification Church Centers in Brazil

1981 is remembered in the Brazilian Church as the year of the “great persecution.” Violence against the church included the stoning or sacking of fourteen centers and burning of six more, five of which were completely destroyed. The riots were triggered by a series of media attacks against the church over four successive Sundays on the Globo Television Network’s “Fantastico,” a show with one of the largest audiences in Brazil. Prior to the outbreak the Brazilian Church had experienced remarkable growth with a network of sixty-four centers throughout the country. During and following the attacks, hundreds of home church families sheltered members and became more committed to the Church. The destruction stimulated the Brazilian Church to later purchase an impressive headquarters Church in Sao Paulo from which to coordinate its work.

August 12, 1971

The First National Workshop for Pastors

The first national workshop for pastors was held for eighteen days beginning August 12, 1971, at the Cheongpyeong Training Center. This workshop was held within a month after the completion of the training center, and all participating pastors felt proud that a place of education and training had been created. During the workshop True Father declared his vision that the training center would become the beginning point of missions around the world and that it would become an international holy ground. Today, with Cheon Jeong Gung having been built there, Cheongpyeong has become a hometown of the heart to all members around the world as True Father had said.

August 12, 2014

Second Anniversary of True Father’s Universal Seonghwa

The second anniversary of True Father’s Universal Seonghwa took place on August 12, 2014, at the Cheongshim Peace World Center. The anniversary commemoration culminated a series of major events beginning August 8. These included the dedication of True Parents’ History Archives, World Summit 2014 which welcomed some 300 overseas dignitaries, a Symposium on Peace and Unity of the Korean People, Inauguration of the Sunhak Peace Prize Committee, and a program on “Rev. Sun Myung Moon’s Women’s Peace Initiatives in the Americas,” among other events. The Seonghwa commemoration, attended by more than 20,000, focused specifically on True Parents’ “Peace Movement in the Americas.” It included remarks by former U.S. Congressman Dan Burton and a musical covering True Parents’ providential work in the Americas. In her Commemoration Address, True Mother emphasized the theme “Forgive, Love, Unite.” She said: “My husband and I forgave those who were unforgivable, and loved even the enemy that could not be loved. … Even when we faced persecution, we did not harbor any ill-will but rather prayed for those who opposed us. By overcoming such challenges we were given even greater blessings than we could have dreamed of.” 

August 13, 1985

PWPA Conference on “The Fall of the Soviet Empire”

The Second International Conference of the Professors World Peace Academy (PWPA), scheduled for August 13 to 17, convened under the title “The Fall of the Soviet Empire.”

Despite its declining, even exhausted economy, in 1985 the Soviet Union still appeared as formidable as ever. At that time, True Father insisted that the Second International Conference of the Professors World Peace Academy (PWPA), scheduled for August 13 to 17, be convened under the title “The Fall of the Soviet Empire.” Several prominent professors struggled with the title, considering it too extreme, but True Father refused to relent. During the conference, over 150 “Sovietology” experts and 100 international scholars presented 80 papers which resulted in four books. In the end, the conference was prophetic. Within a few years the Soviet Union began to crumble. One scholar, writing several years later in The National Interest, reported, “It is hard to believe that … [Reverend Moon] got it right when the CIA, Brookings, RAND, Harvard, Columbia and the rest got it wrong.”

August 13, 1996

True Parents Donate 29 Ambulances to Towns in Brazil

In 1995, True Father undertook an ambitious speaking tour of twenty-three Latin American nations, which included audiences with eight heads of state. In these speeches and meetings, he emphasized the region’s “stunning and abundant potential.” That same year he began investing in properties, centering on Jardim, a town in the Brazilian outback state of Mato Grosso do Sol, a land of “two million people and twenty million cows.” There True Father established New Hope Farm and made it a focus of the movement’s activity in the late 1990s. True Parents assigned UTS graduates from the Class of 1996 to 33 towns surrounding Jardim. When True Parents learned there were no hospitals in many of them, they donated 29 new ambulances to towns within a 200-kilometer radius of New Hope Farm and sent a medical team to each of them.

August 13, 2012

True Father’s Final Prayer

Though he is very ill, True Father takes time to visit the Cheongshim Middle and High School, Cheongpyeong World Peace Center and the Cheongpyeong Training Center.

True Father takes time to visit the Cheongshim Middle and High School, Cheongpyeong World Peace Center and the Cheongpyeong Training Center.

True Father was admitted to St. Mary’s Hospital in Seoul on August 3, 2012, due to cold symptoms that worsened into pneumonia. On August 12, after 10 days of tests and treatment, he insisted on returning to the Cheon Jeong Gung Peace Palace. After arriving, True Father went from room to room in a wheelchair, visiting the East, West, North and South of the facility. He touched the table at which he and True Mother sat during Hoon Dok Hwe and many other items, now and then saying, “Please be well.” Those things he could not touch with his hands he observed with his eyes, holding True Mother’s hand tightly and repeating now and then, “Mother, thank you.” The following day, True Father’s condition continued to worsen. Nevertheless, he insisted on visiting Cheongshim Middle and High School, Cheongpyeong World Peace Center and the Cheongpyeong Training Center.

He then came to the sitting room in the Cheon Jeong Gung and asked for a digital recorder. He thought deeply for about ten minutes and then offered his final prayer:

Today, as I have returned the completion of the final perfection of the Father, I am aware that I have offered my whole life up to this moment to the Father. According to His Will, I am spending this time to bring my life to a conclusion, using this time to bring it to a close with Jeong Seong. …Tribal messiahs have established a name that can represent the nation. I have accomplished all these tasks. I have accomplished everything.

Afterward True Mother took True Father to Cheongshim Medical Center, where his strength appeared to fail, and he was rushed back to St. Mary’s Hospital in Seoul. He remained in the Intensive Care Unit there until August 31, when True Mother directed that he be returned to Cheongshim Medical Center. True Father ascended on September 3 (H.C. 7.17).

August 15, 1945

Japan Surrenders; World War II Ends

A photo commemorating the Independence Day of Korea.

Imperial Japan surrendered on August 15, 1945, bringing World War II to an end. The war’s end sparked nationwide rejoicing in Korea, which had been under Japanese domination for 40 years. Unificationists regard August 15, 1945 as the beginning of True Father’s public ministry. According to True Father, “The end of World War II was a unique time in human history.” It was, he stated, “the ideal time for the Second Advent.” At the same time, there were formidable challenges. Korea was occupied by new powers, the USSR in the North and the U.S. in the South. There was political chaos and social disruption with several million returning refugees; in addition, Korean churches were disunited, divided between those that had accommodated Shinto shrine worship under the Japanese and those that had resisted. Thus, while his countrymen shouted “Mansei” in the streets, True Father foresaw tremendous struggles ahead for Korea, and found it difficult to join in the independence celebrations.

August 15, 1948

The Republic of Korea Is Established

The Republic of Korea was formally established, with Syngman Rhee as the first president, August 15, 1948.

After Japan’s surrender to the Allied powers, Korea did not gain its independence. Instead, the USSR and the U.S. established separate trusteeships divided at the 38th parallel. In effect, Korea was subjected to Soviet and U.S. military occupations. This fomented discontent, especially among Korean patriots. The UN General Assembly called for a UN-supervised general election, but this was rejected. A general election for a Constitutional Assembly was held in the South, a constitution was adopted and on August 15, 1948, the Republic of Korea was formally established, with Syngman Rhee as the first president. Less than a month later, a communist regime, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, was proclaimed under Kim Il Sung in the North. The division of Korea during the years 1945-48 was a political and providential failure. True Father traveled north in 1946 to avert this. In the end, he was arrested and spent nearly three years in a North Korean labor camp, liberated only after the outbreak of the Korean War, which resulted in a death toll of over 1.2 million.

August 15, 1957

Wolli Haesul Is Published

Wolli Haesul (Explanation of the Principle) was the first official publication of Unification Church doctrine. It is based on True Father’s core revelation and teachings and was written by Hyo Won Eu, the church’s first president, under True Father’s direct supervision.  It followed Wolli Wonbun (Original Text of the Principle), True Father’s handwritten text which circulated in copied manuscripts from 1952.Wolli Haesul was the standard Principle text until 1966. At that time it was superseded by Wolli Kangron (Discourse on the Principle), which expanded the text’s content and served as the basis of English translations Divine Principle (1973) and Exposition of the Divine Principle (1996). Wolli Haesul was instrumental in the church’s expansion during the 1950s and early 1960s.

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 August 9 to 15.