The Words of the Burton Family
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The Words of the Burton Family |
Today is the 55th anniversary of the Founding of the Holy Spirit Association for The Unification of World Christianity.
On this day in 1954, only three years after building his first “church," a cardboard shack on a hillside in Pusan, Korea, Rev. Sun Myung Moon led a handful of followers in Seoul Korea to found a religious organization with global ambitions. Apart from Father Moon, the only surviving member of the group of five who founded the church and who has remained an active disciple is Dr. David Sang Chul Kim, 95, who lives in retirement in Poughkeepsie, New York. The following account of the founding is excerpted from “My Early Days in the Unification Church,” Today’s World, January, 1985.
“On May 1, 1954, the dispensational time was ripe when the trinity, consisting of Mr. [Hyo Won] Eu, Mr. [Chang Hwan] Lee, and myself in Seoul, pledged to follow Father and his truth. The next day Father called us and one other person residing in Seoul [Hyo Min Eu] and explained to us the need and purpose of starting an organization even in the midst of continuing persecution. Three names for the organization were given by Father to the four of us. Two of them were so complicated that we could not even comprehend the meaning of the Chinese characters.
Among the three names Father showed us, we agreed to adopt the present name, which we translated into English as “The Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity (HSA-UWC).” The objectives of the HSA-UWC were: to unite all the scattered Christian denominations throughout the world without initiating a new Christian denomination, and based on the unification of world Christianity, to bring unity among all past and present major religions to build the Kingdom of Heaven on earth.
Although the sign, written in both Chinese and English letters, was hung on May 3, the association was officially inaugurated (retroactively) on May 1, 1954. We translated “Shilryung” as “Holy Spirit,” but it actually means “spiritual.” This name is often confused with the Holy Spirit (one of the Trinity) by outsiders and theologians, but no other translation seemed adequate at the time. The name actually means, “spiritual association to unite all Christian churches.”
The house in Seoul that Father and a few followers resided in had only two very small rooms. The one for Father had barely enough space for one person; the other, a little larger than the first, was where Mr. Eu lectured and stayed There was also a small kitchen. The house was called “House of Three Doors..” In contrast to the great name on the sign, the house was small and miserable-looking to onlookers at that time. Now it is revered as the origin and very root of our worldwide movement, which at present includes many wonderful buildings like our World Mission Center [currently the Hotel New Yorker] in the United States.
An intensive witnessing campaign began right after the May 1 inauguration. These witnessing activities went well in three locations -- Pusan, Taegu, and Seoul.”
Dr. David S.C. Kim became the first overseas foreign missionary of the Unification Church when he enrolled at Swansei University College, the University of Wales in 1954. He was the second missionary to arrive in the United States in 1960, following the arrival of Dr. Young Oon Kim. He was the founding president of the Unification Theological Seminary in Barrytown, New York and served there in that position until 1994. He resides in Poughkeepsie, New York.
Written by Douglas Burton