Turning Points for Peace

This week in history, October 26-31:

• True Mother embarks on a North American tour (October 26-November 6, 2012)
• True Mother addresses WFWP USA at the 20^thAnniversary Convention (October 27, 2012)
• The Inaugural Peace Queen Cup Tournament is held (October 28, 2006)
• The groundbreaking ceremony for the Cheongshim Peace World Center Stadium is held (October 28, 2008)
• 6,500 couples receive the Holy Marriage Blessing (October 30, 1988)
• A WFWP conference is held in North Korea (October 30, 2007)

October 26- November 6, 2012

True Mother’s North American Tour

True Mother arrived in Las Vegas on October 26, 2012. The next day, the 20th anniversary event of Women’s Federation for World Peace that had been planned before True Father’s Seonghwa was held successfully under True Mother’s guidance. Afterward, True Mother visited every corner of Lake Mead on True Father’s boat. There, she captured True Father’s spirit as Lake Mead had been the place that he had always gone and prayed to lead the Las Vegas providence. Soon after, True Mother started a cross-country pilgrimage that was retracing, in reverse from west to east, the course she had taken with True Father 34 years ago to bless America. That way, she symbolically completed the providence in the elder son nation. This pilgrimage, spiritually accompanied by True Father, took seven days from Las Vegas to New York and covered a total of 3,500 miles. It showed True Mother’s strong will and determination to lead the tradition and the providence that True Father had left behind. On November 3, 2012, True Mother completed her pilgrimage when she departed from Boston to New York, stopping by Bridgeport University. The next day, she spoke to 2,000 Unificationists at the Manhattan Center and emphasized that True Parents’ tradition and the providence will never be stopped and that all Unificationists should fulfill their mission and responsibility as Tribal Messiahs. The next day, on November 6th, True Mother visited various places in East Garden and recalled the times she spent together with True Father and family.

October 27, 2012

True Mother Addresses WFWP USA 20^th Anniversary Convention

In her first public appearance in the United States after True Father’s Seonghwa, True Mother attended the Women’s Federation for World Peace (WFWP) USA’s 20^thAnniversary Convention in Las Vegas. Sun Jin Moon, our current Director General for Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (FFWPU) International, delivered True Mother’s keynote address, “Women as the Turning Point for Peace,” before 1,200 attendees. In her speech, True Mother called upon those present to “carry the heavy responsibility to complete the providential mission of the ‘Abel Women UN,’ which is the final organization that True Father and I created together.” She noted, “Until now we have depended on government organizations created by men to bring about global peace.” However, she said, “To surmount the limitations of their efforts … a peace movement … guided by women should take root as the cornerstone of a new system.” After the convention True Mother announced that she would go from there to the eastern United States, visiting places where she had accompanied True Father “years ago,” exploring places on the way “where he would like to visit.”

October 28, 2006

Inaugural Peace Queen Cup Tournament

The Inaugural Peace Queen Cup Tournament.

Following the 2002 World Cup soccer tournament jointly sponsored by Korea and Japan, True Father established the Sun Moon Peace Football Foundation. It sponsored a Peace Cup invitational soccer tournament for some of the world’s best men’s club teams every two years beginning in 2003. In 2006, the foundation sponsored the first Peace Queen Cup tournament for women’s soccer teams. It was held from October 28 to November 4, 2006, in six South Korean cities. The tournament brought together national women’s teams from Brazil, Italy, Canada, Australia, Denmark, South Korea, the Netherlands and the United States. The U.S. national women’s team defeated Canada 1-0 to win the first championship.

October 28, 2008

Groundbreaking for Cheongshim Peace World Center Stadium

Cheongshim Peace World Center under Construction.

Three thousand people attended the groundbreaking ceremonies for the Cheongshim Peace World Center on October 28, 2008. Designed to hold 25,000 people, it was created to be the largest and most sophisticated multipurpose cultural center in South Korea, eight times larger than the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts and twice as large as the Olympic Gymnastics Hall, both located in Seoul. With three floors underground and four floors above, it was designed to be the first Korean arena with folding chairs, a state-of-the-art moving stage and an audiovisual system to host an array of events including concerts, business conventions, corporate events, indoor sports competitions, educational events, expositions and television commercials. The arena would take three years to complete and addressed True Father’s long-held desire to see an iconic center for global culture near Cheongpyeong Lake.

October 30, 1988

6,500 Couple’s Holy Marriage Blessing Unites Korean and Japanese in Marriage

The 6,500 Couple’s Holy Marriage Blessing Ceremony, October 30, 1988.

On October 30, 1988, True Parents blessed in marriage 6, 516 couples in a Holy Marriage Blessing Ceremony conducted in the complex of Ilhwa Pharmaceutical’s McCol soft drink factory in Yong-in, Korea. This Marriage Blessing was significant in that it brought together some 2,500 Korean/Japanese couples. As True Father noted, “Korea and Japan have been enemies for a long time, and their animosity has never been healed. Through this matching … emotional strains and hurt will be removed … the fortunes of these two nations will begin to take root on earth.” True Parents conducted the Marriage Blessing on the foundation of the recently completed Seoul Olympics and declaration of “The Nation of the Unified World.” It was the ninth providential Marriage Blessing following True Parents’ Holy Wedding and the Marriage Blessings of 3, 36, 72, 124, 430, 777, 1,800 and 8,000 couples.

October 30, 2007

WFWP Conference in North Korea

WFWP Korea had been working for some time to re-establish inter-Korean sisterhood, initiating, among other things, a “One Percent Love-offering” which encouraged people in South Korea to donate 1 percent of their income to the North. WFWP Leaders also met with their counterparts from the North on a number of occasions. Their interaction came to fruition in a WFWP convention on “Women’s Leadership in Building North-South Unification and World Peace” held at the Mount Kumgang Resort in the North. Ten female leaders from Pyongyang participated in the conference in addition to 700 international delegates. There were some sensitive issues, such as use of the term “leader,” as North Koreans used the word “leader” only for Kim Jong Il and preferred the designation “worker” or “laborer” for signage. They also resisted religious words such as “God” (changed to “Creator”) and religious ceremonies. Nevertheless, the head of the North Korean delegation referred respectfully to True Parents’ visit with Kim Il Sung sixteen years earlier, acknowledging that “They  … so love this nation and its people.”

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 October 25-30.