Building a Peaceful Future in a Dangerous Present

This week in history, June 5-11:

• D-Day landing in Europe takes place (June 6, 1944)
• True Father arrives in Pyeongyang, North Korea (June 6, 1946)
• The World Rally for Korean Freedom is held (June 7, 1975)
• The first Sunhak Peace Prize award recipients are selected (June 8, 2015)
• The work to build a-frame churches began in Korea (June 10, 1974)
• True Mother bestows the Heavenly Scriptures (June 10, 2013)
• The Unification Theological Seminary chapel cross is struck by lightning (June 11, 2001)

June 6, 1944

D-Day Landing in Europe

The Normandy landings (code-named Operation Neptune) were the landing operations on Tuesday, June 6, 1944 (termed D-Day) of the Allied invasion of Normandy during World War II. The largest seaborne invasion in history, the operation began the liberation of German-occupied northwestern Europe from Nazi control and contributed to the Allied victory on the Western Front. The amphibious landings were preceded by extensive aerial and naval bombardment and an airborne assault of 24,000 American, British, and Canadian troops shortly after midnight. Allied infantry and armored divisions began landing on the coast of France at 6:30 a.m. The men landed under heavy fire from gun emplacements overlooking the beaches, and the shore was mined and covered with obstacles such as wooden stakes, metal tripods, and barbed wire, making the work of the beach-clearing teams difficult and dangerous. However, the operation gained a foothold which the Allies gradually expanded over the coming months. German casualties on D-Day were around 1,000 men. Allied casualties were at least 10,000, with 4,414 confirmed dead.

True Father referred to D-Day at several points in his ministry. In his Madison Square Garden speech of September 18, 1974, “The New Future of Christianity,” he said: “God has only been able to engage in ‘guerrilla warfare’ against Satan, not total war. However, God has been preparing for one great day, a heavenly ‘D-Day’ — like the D-Day of the Normandy landing — when God can launch an all-out offensive. That day is the day of the return of Christ.” The Unification movement subsequently referred to Foundation Day 2013 as the day on which the heavenly D-Day was fulfilled.

June 6, 1946

True Father arrives in Pyeongyang, North Korea

True Father went to Pyeongyang, North Korea, in obedience to God’s revelation that he “Go across the 38th parallel! Find the people of God who are in the North” (As a Peace-Loving Global Citizen, p. 84). True Father, who was then 26, had set out to pick up rice and was concerned for his wife and his first son, who was born only a month earlier, when he received this revelation. True Father has said, “God’s commands are very serious, and they must be followed without reservation or hesitation.” He took nothing with him except his Bible. Christianity had set down its roots deeply in Pyeongyang, and it was known as “the Jerusalem of the East.” However, it was then under communist occupation and more than a million refugees already had fled to the South. Upon arrival, True Father began his ministry in the North.

June 7, 1975

World Rally for Korean Freedom

The World Rally for Korean Freedom was held on June 7, 1975, at the Seoul Yeouido Square with 1.2 million people. Over 1,000 representatives from 60 countries around the world participated and promised to defend Korea. Through True Father’s speech, ‘Korea Within the World,’ he emphasized that the ‘Rally for Korean Freedom is a global religious celebration which displays the resolution of the world to rise up and defend Korea’s freedom to the whole world.

June 8, 2015

First Sunhak Peace Prize Award Recipients Selected

The Sunhak Peace Prize Committee, headed by Chairman Il-Shik Hong, former secretary general of Korea University, announced the first Sunhak Peace Prize recipients at a press conference for domestic and foreign journalists at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., on June 8, 2015. The recipients were Anote Tong and Dr. Modadugu Vijay Gupta. Anote Tong at the time was the president of the Republic of Kiribati, a small Pacific island nation made up of 33 coral islands, which sustains a population of one hundred thousand people. With a very low average altitude of 2 meters above sea level, its islands gradually are being submerged by the rise in sea levels caused by recent years of global warming, and it faces the tragic fate of having its entire nation submerged by 2050. President Tong has been raising awareness about his homeland’s critical situation, promoting awareness in the global community on the gravity of climate change, and for this he has been highly praised. Dr. Modadugu Vijay Gupta is known as the “saint for poor people” for helping to quell starvation throughout Southeast Asian nations by developing revolutionary fish farming technology. As a biologist, his methods were responsible for an explosive increase in the number of fish through improving the breeding species of cultivated fish. The Sunhak Peace Prize, a “peace prize for future generations,” was created by True Mother to commemorate the work of True Father. The prize will be awarded to an individual or organization that has made significant contributions toward the peace and welfare of future generations. Recipients of the award will receive one million U.S. dollars.

June 10, 1974

Building A-frame Churches

The work of building a-frame churches across South Korea started with the first shovel of earth in the city of Shintanjin on June 10, 1974. The 82.6-square-meter A-frame church was designed by Oem Deok Moon, who was True Father’s school friend in Japan. A team was organized for the construction, and 188 churches of this shape were built around the nation. True Father said that a building “should be a beautiful sight,” and at the time it had such an innovative form that it drew the attention of the people. Now, even 40 years later, some of these churches still remain.

June 10, 2013

True Mother Bestows Heavenly Scriptures

True Mother and 1,000 Unificationists attended a joint event to celebrate the 60th anniversary of the founding of Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (FFWPU) and the publication of a new edition of the Cheon Seong Gyeong and Pyeong Hwa Gyeong at the Cheongpyeong Training Center in Gapyeong, Korea, on June 10, 2013. As reported by Mr. Seok Byeong Kim, chairman of Seong Hwa Publications, “The existing Cheon Seong Gyeong had some misquoted and duplicated parts, which True Mother was sad to see.” The new edition corrected this and added speeches of True Father and True Mother from the 2000s. The Publication Committee followed strict guidelines in the publication process, which included planning, research, and selecting speeches, editing, supervision, verification and publication. True Mother described the 60 years of True Father’s work as “precious jewelry.” She reminded all present “to think about the seven billion people and make sure they are reborn as Cheon Il Guk citizens” and to “set today as a day of determination and invest all your energy to saving all of humankind centered on the precious words that God gave us.”

June 11, 2001

UTS Chapel Cross Struck by Lightning

As described by UTS President Tyler Hendricks: “On the evening of June 11, there was a thunderstorm in the mid-Hudson Valley. A bolt of lightning struck the five-foot-high stone cross that has stood at the top of our seminary for its 70 years of existence. The cross is not grounded, so the energy had no place to go but out horizontally. This snapped the cross at its base, separating it from the building, and blew off both arms. One arm fell with the pillar of the cross backwards onto the roof. The other careened forward, with pieces falling upon building parapets and to the ground as far as 60 feet away. No one was hurt, but one car suffered damage.” Dr. Hendricks continued: “As a symbol of Christ’s suffering and salvific love for all humankind, the cross is heroic and magnificent. But as a symbol of humankind’s malice toward God expressed by crucifying His son, the cross induces pain and sorrowful grief to God. While a symbol of God’s victory, it is also a symbol of human sin. In 1974, Father Moon directed that the cross remain atop our seminary. Upon hearing of its demise this June, he said that it is now time for all crosses to come down.” True Father’s direction became manifest in 2003 when he called upon Christian clergy to take down the cross as a condition for reconciliation among the sons of Abraham. True Father’s call became the foundation for the Middle East Peace Initiative (MEPI) and Peace Pilgrimages to the Holy Land.