"God absolutely needs a nation. Without that, all of history is nothing!" With this dramatic declaration, True Father Rev. Sun Myung Moon called more than 100 former and current heads of state, including several Nobel Laureates, to join with him in building the Kingdom of God on Earth. The response was equally strong.

"Leadership is not necessarily something you are born with," said Lech Walesa at the World Peace Summit this morning in Seoul. "I was a laborer for 25 years and I led no one. For ten years I was leader of Solidarity, a trade union with just a couple of thousand members. And then I found myself President of Poland with a population of 40 million people."

"My conclusion is that although culturally we are in a new age of globalization," Walesa said, "Our governmental structures are still stuck in an outdated model, specifically that of the nation-state. We need a radical change for a new century."

Walesa, a Nobel Peace prize winner in 1983 for his work to free Poland from communist dictatorship, was joined by several other Nobel Peace Prize winners at the annual convocation of former and current heads of state under the leadership of Rev. Sun Myung Moon.

The 1976 winner, Betty Williams, began by asking all the delegates to stand and embrace each other, a simple act that raised the emotional warmth of the gathering by several degrees. "I have always believed that arms are for hugging, not for killing!" she said, going on to explain of her worldwide initiatives prevent war. "I have seen so many children sacrificed for war," she said, "Reverend Moon, for their sake we must change the world."

Another noted peacemaker at the Opening Plenary was Abdurrahman Wahid, President of Indonesia from 1999 to 2001. As president, Wahid had worked to bring religious leaders and religious values into modern government, a move that brought him considerable adverse publicity when in office. "There is a problem if religions become secularized and back only one party," he said "but what I am speaking about is where religious values guide all parties in a spirit of tolerance and peace."

This theme is one which the World Summit itself actively promotes. Hamilton Greene, former Prime Minister of Guyana, read a declaration from the recent God conference in Washington DC again urging the United Nations to harness the resources of religious leaders to help bring about world peace, and to give fresh consideration to Rev. Moon's recommendation to add a religious council or 'Senate' to complement the General Assembly.

The keynote speaker was, of course, the founder Rev. Sun Myung Moon. "I am the oldest one here," he said, speaking the day before his 83rd birthday (and Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon's 60th) "and so you should listen to what I have to say carefully."

In his keynote speech, "God's Fatherland and the Age of Kingship in Cheon Il Guk", he called on all people to take seriously Jesus' command "Seek first God's Kingdom and His righteousness"

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