Unification News for February 2004

Archbishop Stallings Testimony to True Parents

The following historic address was given before representatives of Congress on February 4th at the Ambassadors For Peace Awards for Leadership in Reconciliation and Peace. Archbishop Stallings is the Chairman of the Executive Committee of the 20,000 member American Clergy Leadership Conference. His speech was given as the introduction to the Coronation Ceremony in which the Crowns of Peace and Glory were offered to True Parents.

by Archbishop George Augustus Stallings

Good evening, family. For we are one family. Brothers and sisters one to another, because we have one God who is father and mother of us all, and we can celebrate the richness of our diversity and be brothers and sisters one to another.

What our eyes have seen and what our ears have heard surely is indicative of the work and the presence of God among us, and God is manifested in the lives of those who accept His call, to take on the mantle of messiah and to truly transform this earth to become the Kingdom of Heaven right here on earth. We have heard and we have seen the tremendous, unprecedented work of persons, especially in the person of the Rev. Dr. Sun Myung Moon, in bringing about a world of true and lasting peace. I know of no other person who has committed all of his resources, who lives for the sake of others, who challenges us to love our enemies, who talks the talk but walks the talk, and has shown us how to bring about a world of lasting peace.

This gathering would not be possible tonight if it had not been for that vision of which the distinguished gentleman from the State of Illinois, the Honorable Danny Davis spoke of tonight, this visionary. It would not have happened without the visionary, the Rev. Dr. Sun Myung Moon. It would not have happened and we would not be witnessing the walls being torn down, and men and women coming together and loving each other in spite of our race, our culture, our ethnicity, our socio-geo-political background. We would not see this happening anywhere else in the world, where the family of humanity is being brought together as one.

What shall we call such a person who has the capacity to do such things? How do we begin to describe someone who brings the races together? We know of the division of race. The distinguished gentleman from Utah, Congressman Cannon, spoke about that tonight, how we have allowed race to separate and divide us, but yet we are coming together as one people. What shall we call someone who has the capacity to do that, to get us to look beyond ourselves?

You know, I read a quote on the Internet, my brother Imam Bundakji, just the other day and it says that if you are all wrapped up in yourself, you are overdressed. (applause, laughter) And I think that we have become so wrapped up in ourselves, that we are so overdressed, that we cannot recognize each other as brothers and sisters. And Father Moon has done that. He has allowed us to see the God in each other. He has allowed us to remove the barriers that have separated and divided us. He has challenged us to love our enemies. He lives for the sake of others, and if anyone walks among us and tells us to do that, we should recognize him and honor him and acknowledge that he bears a mantle - he bears the mantle of the messiah. He bears the mantle of one who walks in the likeness and in the manner of God.

For we should not look any longer for the messiah to come on a white horse, appearing out of the west, coming with a paddy wagon of jewelry and riches of the world. No, we should look for the one who will roll up his sleeves and get down on the ground like all of us and show us how to become brothers and sisters one to another. That's what the messiah comes to do. That's what we ought to look for. (Applause) We ought to start looking for the messiah in each other. We need to look for the presence of God in each other and stop looking for some imaginary white knight on a white horse coming to save humanity.

If humanity is to be saved, you and I must save it and we must save it with someone who has the vision and the stamina and the determination to forsake all else and lead us in the pathway to peace. I thank God that I lived to see the presence of a man and woman standing together as the True Parents of heaven and earth, who are willing to march through hell for a heavenly cause and willing to stand up and bring all us together in this one room to love each other as brothers and sisters.

Find someone else who will do what we have seen and heard tonight and I will show you where the Kingdom of God is. The Kingdom of God is right here in this place, and I think we ought to stand to our feet and praise God for allowing us to be alive to see a man and a woman who have stood together as husband and wife and as the True Parents of all humanity and led us to this place where we can truly say we have seen Heaven tonight, and it sure looks good.

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