Unification in Practice

This week in history, September 6-12:

• True Father’s body lies in state as thousands gather to say goodbye (September 6, 2012)
• True Father is awarded National Reunification Prize from North Korea (September 6, 2012)
• The Little Angels go on their first overseas tour (September 7, 1965)
• True Mother speaks at the United Nations (September 7, 1993)
• True Father receives honorary doctorates (September 7, 1995, September 12, 2006)
• Sa Sa (4.4) Jeol Declaration (September 8, 1998)
• Gu Gu (9.9) Jeol Liberation Ceremony of Cosmic Unification (September 9, 1999)
• The Proclamation of Sam Ship Jeol (3.10 Day) (September 10, 1999)
• The 9/11 attack on America (September 11, 2001)
• The Universal Peace Federation (UPF) is founded (September 12, 2005)
• A dedication ceremony is held for the Ocean Cheonjeong Palace Hotel on Geomun Island (September 12, 2011)

September 6, 2012

True Father’s Body Lies in State as Thousands Gather to Say Goodbye

Elected leaders, diplomats, clergy and academics from Korea and abroad were among 15,000 mourners who gathered on Sept. 6, 2012, to pay their respects to True Father. Visitation at the Cheongshim Peace World Center was held from September 6 to 14 from 8 a.m. until 10 p.m. Visitors first watched a video of True Father and then moved to the first basement floor, where they received either an offering rose or a lily. They then had the opportunity to electronically input their names and a message to True Father. Numerous floral tributes expressing the condolences of various VIPs from Korea were on display. Beginning on September 9, the public had the opportunity to pay their respects and offer condolences to the family at the Cheon Jeong Gung (Peace Museum), where his holy remains lay in state.

September 6, 2012

True Father Awarded National Reunification Prize from North Korea

The Presidium of the Supreme People’s Assembly of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) on Sept. 6 conferred the National Reunification Prize posthumously upon True Father, as reported by the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). “Moon positively contributed to realizing the nation’s reconciliation and unity and the country’s peaceful reunification and achieving the prosperity common to the nation,” according to a KCNA report. On the same day the supreme leader of North Korea, Kim Jong Un, sent a floral wreath to the memorial altar for  Rev. Moon that had been set up in the World Peace Center in Pyongyang.

September 7, 1965

The Little Angels’ First Overseas Tour

The Little Angels set off on their first overseas tour on September 7, 1965. After two-years of intensive training and experience performing in Korea, the dance troupe performed in United States in twenty-five states and in Washington D.C. Audiences and the media praised them with reviews such as, “The young Korean children sang and danced as if angels themselves had come down and were performing.” Their first performance was in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, in front of Dwight Eisenhower, an ex-president of the United States. The three-month tour of the U.S. included seventy-five performances. On their way back to Korea, they held several additional performances in Japan and finally arrived home on December 26.

September 7, 1993

True Mother Speaks at the United Nations

True Mother gives her address at the UN headquarters September 7, 1993.

True Mother gives her address at the UN September 7, 1993.

True Mother delivered the speech “True Parents and the Completed Testament Age” at the United Nations on September 7, 1993. This followed her delivery of the same speech at the U.S. Capitol on July 28 before representatives from 115 congressional offices and was the springboard to her world tour in which she delivered the same message at 25 rallies in Japan in September, on 40 Korean college campuses in October and in 40 nations during November and December. Prior to her Capitol Hill and UN speeches, on April 10, 1993, the movement published “True Parents and the Completed Testament Age” in the newspapers of 160 nations. True Father delivered the “Completed Testament Age” proclamation in 12 U.S. cities during May 1993 and True Mother in 21 more during late May and June. At the UN event, 105 nations sent embassy and consulate representatives, including more than 60 UN ambassadors. His Excellency Stoyan Ganev, president of the UN General Assembly, introduced True Mother. She was the first Korean woman to speak in the United Nations.

September 7, 1995, September 12, 2006

True Father Receives Honorary Doctorates

True Father receives an honorary doctorate from the University of Bridgeport September 7, 1995.

The University of Bridgeport awarded True Father an honorary doctorate on September 7, 1995. In addition to honoring his work as a religious leader, the award was an acknowledgment of his role in saving the financially troubled university in 1992. Dr. Richard Rubenstein, the school president, stated, “Without him, the university would have died.” The head of the faculty council was quoted in The New York Times as saying she was “happy the university could formally thank a benefactor who had given so much.”

The Universidad Santa Maria in Caracas, Venezuela, awarded True Father a Doctor Honoris Causa degree on September 12, 1996, the first anniversary of the founding of the Universal Peace Federation (UPF). The university’s vice president, Dr. Carlos Enrique Pena, who conferred the degree, explained, “When I learned about the life and work of Rev. Moon, I felt that it was the sacred duty of our university to offer the highest honor to recognize an extraordinary contribution to the field of human rights.”

September 8, 1998

Sa Sa (4.4) Jeol Declaration

The four-position foundation is basic to Unification theology as the structural component of the cosmos whereby individuals, families and the created order center on God. The tragedy, according to True Parents’ teaching, is that the foundation was usurped by Satan. Their mission has been to substantially restore the four-position foundation centered on God. At 9:40 in the morning of September 8, 1998, at North Garden in Kodiak, Alaska, True Parents gave a prayer of benediction for the declaration of 4.4 Jeol. True Father stated: “If we add together the numbers 1, 9, 9, 8, 9, and 8 [the date written in numerals], we get the number 44. On account of the fall of the human ancestors, Satan has been claiming ownership of the number 4, which is the number of Heaven’s four-position foundation.” On that day True Parents declared “4.4 Jeol,” which was understood to restore and establish the perfection number of the four-position foundation of earth. True Father stated that the installation of 4.4 Jeol means that God will be able to perform substantially His works of omnipresence, omniscience and omnipotence. Moreover, humankind was to enter an era of total liberation through the globalization of the Holy Marriage Blessing.

September 9, 1999

Gu Gu (9.9) Jeol Liberation Ceremony of Cosmic Unification

According to True Father, the Gu Gu (9.9) Jeol Liberation Ceremony of Cosmic Unification extended the previous year’s 4.4 Jeol declaration from the family to the cosmic level, “jeol” being the Korean word for “day” in the sense of a holiday or commemoration. The chief manifestation of this was the elimination of conditions needed to receive True Parents’ Holy Marriage Blessing. True Father connected the Declaration Day of God’s Eternal Blessing (7.8 Jeol), established in 1997, to the 9.9 Jeol. The former, he said, culminated the re-establishment of elder sonship, parenthood and kingship in the era of restoration. Events afterward, he said, can be distinguished as events of creation in order to create the original world under God’s sovereignty. After 7.8 Jeol, True Father declared that God could bless Satan who was the origin of the Fall. Passing through Satan’s number 9 (at 09:09:09 on September 9, 1999) signified the starting point of God’s cosmic nation.

September 10, 1999

The Proclamation of Sam Ship Jeol (3.10 Day)

On September 10, 1999, at 10 minutes past 10 o’clock in the morning, True Father declared the Liberation of Cosmic Unification for the Parents of Heaven and Earth, or Sam Ship Jeol (3.10 Day). According to True Father, Gu Gu Jeol (9.9 Day) corrected all activities of the satanic world that went in the opposite direction and established a foundation upon which God can dwell. On that foundation, at 10 minutes past 10 o’clock in the morning on September 10, the grace of blessing that enables humanity, in the name of True Parents, to embrace the entire universe from the highest position through the Day of Three Tens was established. The buffer zone between God’s borderline and Satan’s borderline, he said, united with a unified standard.

September 11, 2001

Attack on America

The terror attacks of September 11, 2001, impacted the Unificationists as it did people worldwide. Prior to 9/11, True Father had called for a 12,000 couple World Clergy Holy Marriage Blessing scheduled for September 22 at New York’s Madison Square Garden. The events of 9/11 not only forced the cancellation of the September 22 blessing but also challenged the interreligious and world peace premise upon which it was based. In the days after the World Trade Center’s destruction, Unificationist leaders and American Clergy Leadership Conference (ACLC) clergy who were gathered in New York to prepare for the September 22 Holy Marriage Blessing Ceremony, ministered directly to bereaved families as well as to police, firefighters and others at the site. Many went, starting from the first night.

In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, Unificationists looked to True Father for guidance as to its meaning. He was in Kodiak, Alaska, at the time of the attack and learned of it through a note that was passed to him during morning devotions. Dr. Chang Shik Yang, currently the Special Emissary to the Americas, reported then that True Father “remained by himself and prayed” for the next three days, not appearing in public. He then made the decision to cancel the clergy Marriage Blessing and flew to New York on September 18. On arrival, he offered his interpretation of the tragedy. In his words, “Jesus was on the cross, now America stands on the cross of the world.” The question was, how would America respond? According to True Father: “Now is the time to change everything. America and Americans must take the lead in practicing ‘Love your enemy.’” As he saw it, religious leaders needed to take the lead. They “must unite beyond their religion and guide the political leaders of their nations.” He directed Unificationists convene an assembly on “Global Violence: Conflict and Hope” in October, and on November 15 he proclaimed Cheonju Pyeonghwa Tongil Guk(the Nation of Cosmic Peace and Unity). Just as Christianity emerged from the crucifixion and the Unification Church from the rubble of the Korean War, so True Father saw a new world rising from the devastation of 9/11.

September 12, 2005

Universal Peace Federation (UPF) Founded

True Father speaks at the inauguration of the Universal Peace Federation on September 12, 2005.

True Parents at the inauguration of the Universal Peace Federation on September 12, 2005.

True Father established the Universal Peace Federation on September 12, 2005, prior to the United Nations’ 60th anniversary. Its inaugural convocation was held before 376 delegates from 157 nations at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall in New York. Its mission, True Father declared, was “to renew the existing United Nations and provide a new level of leadership as an ‘Abel-type’ United Nations.” As part of the launch, he also proposed a “World Peace King Bridge Tunnel” to “build a passage for transport across the Bering Strait.” He described this as “a truly providential and revolutionary project” and envisioned it as a crucial “link” in “an international highway system connecting the world as a single community.” UPF was a successor organization to the Interreligious and International Federation for World Peace (IIFWP, established in 1999). In addition to its UN renewal and Bering Strait initiatives, UPF led the movement’s Middle East Peace Initiative (MEPI), which sponsored interfaith “Pilgrimages for Peace,” and its Northeast Asia Peace Initiative (NEAPI), which supported Korean unification.

September 12, 2011

Dedication Ceremony for the Ocean Cheonjeong Palace Hotel on Geomun Island

The dedication ceremony of the Ocean Cheonjeong Palace Hotel on Geomun Island off the southern coast of Korea near the city of Yeosu, began at 10:30 a.m. at the newly built hotel located in Deokchon hamlet. More than three thousand people attended, including members of the American Clergy Leadership Conference (ACLC), church members, core members of the Tongil Group, chief executives of providential organizations and corporations, Ambassadors for Peace, Japanese leaders, leading celebrities of Yeosu and the surrounding area, and local residents of Geomun Island.