The Holy Wedding Ceremony

Then God blessed them, and God said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.' (Genesis 1:28)

God created the human ancestors, and blessed them saying grow and prosper, fill the earth and have dominion over the earth. If the first human beings, Adam and Eve, had matured in true love, received God's blessing, become an ideal man and wife and borne children, they would have become true parents and the eternal true ancestors of their descendants. However, as Adam and Eve were unable to become true human beings due to the fall, they did not receive the blessing of God, but became man and wife on their own will, and multiplied descendants of evil. The desire of God, whose dispensation is to save fallen man, is that true love and the true family be restored, in order to fulfill God's three blessings. The desire of fallen man is also to receive the blessing of God and to create a true family. The Holy Wedding Ceremony of the Unification Church is a rite in which an order of love blessed by God is to be established. By becoming a true man and wife centered on God's love, a family is created which will bear children of goodness; by expanding this to a true race, country and world, the Kingdom of God can be built in both heaven and earth. The significance of the Blessing and the purpose of the joint wedding ceremony is for all of humankind, having God as their parents, to become brothers and sisters and make one world. Well over four hundred thousand couples have received the Blessing through these joint Holy Weddings, including 360,000 couples who were blessed in 1995. These Blessings began with three couples in 1960, thirty-three couples in 1961, and so on.