The Words of the Burton Family
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The Words of the Burton Family |
The Reverend Sun Myung Moon, Founder of the Universal Peace Federation, and the Unification Church, honored his longtime friend, the late General Alexander Haig, Jr. and other recently departed public servants in an unforgettable memorial service in Las Vegas on Easter Sunday. The event was the fourth leg of a memorial speaking tour that began at the United Nations on March 18th, followed by a service for Washington's diplomats on April 1st and a service at the Manhattan Center in New York on April 2nd. The service, titled "Honoring a Legacy of Peace: Memorial Festival of Ascension and Unity" was intended to inform the nation -- and posterity -- that in the new world of peace aborning, solemn funerals will become celebrations of passage into a meaningful, eternal afterlife.
Close to 500 guests, including 10 sitting ambassadors, 30 diplomatic corps representatives, and more than 60 clergy from the tri-state area, gathered at the Sheraton National Hotel in Arlington, Virginia to participate in an event aimed at recognizing the "ascension" of the honorees and to hear Rev. Moon share his insights into the nature of the life to come.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, the word 'death' is sacred. It is not a noun that signifies sadness and suffering," he explained. "Therefore, I have created the term Seunghwa to explain the true meaning of death. The moment we enter the spirit world is the time that we enter a world of joy and victory with the fruits borne through our life on earth. It is a time for those of us remaining on earth to send our departed with joy. It should be a time for great celebration. We should be shedding tears of joy instead of tears of sadness. That is the meaning of the sacred and noble Seunghwa Ceremony. It is the first step toward enjoying an eternal life in God's embrace," he said.
The speech was preceded by an educational program moderated by Mr. James M. Gavin, the newly appointed Secretary General of the Universal Peace Federation (UPF) in the USA. Mr. Gavin introduced Rev. Jeong Og Yu, a member of the board of directors of UPF International, who explained the Judeo-Christian theological tradition of original sin and the importance of the special opportunity to rise above all sin in the current age. Rev. Yu further explained that the two genders are represented within God and that the destiny of all human beings is to resemble God within the embrace of ideal marriages and families.
Rev. Joshua Cotter, Vice President of the Unification Church in the USA, then explained how these ascension services have been inspired by Rev. Moon following the sudden death of his friend, Alexander Haig, Jr. on March 2, 2010. Guests learned that as a young U.S. Army officer during the first year of the Korean War, General Haig had participated in the military attack on North Korea's Hungnam labor camp that allowed Rev. Sun Myung Moon to escape certain death, and decades later the two met and became close friends.
Dr. Thomas Walsh, president of the UPF International, then welcomed guests and introduced the Reverend Dr. Walter Fauntroy, former member of Congress. Dr. Fauntroy gave a prayer that invoked the blessing of "Eternal God, our Mother and Father, who has created us in your image and who sustains us in this Life," and which concluded with a request that God allow all those present to live up to the promise and duty of living as "One Family Under God."
Mr. Taj Hamad, Secretary General of UPF International then read a tribute to General Haig and several recently departed heroes and heroines of public service, including Hedi Annabi, who along with 100 other employees of the United Nations, lost his life during the recent earthquake in Haiti. Others commemorated at the service included Nobel Peace Prize winner Kim Dae Jung of South Korea, and former Prime Minister of Iceland, Steingrímur Hermannsson, whose hosting of the 1986 Reykjavik summit between Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev signaled the thawing of relationships that signaled the end of the Cold War. Also recognized were former Indonesian President Abdurrahman Wahid "Gus Dur" of Indonesia; Muslim scholar Sheikh Hassan Cisse of Senegal; Laxmi Mall Singvi, the former Indian High Commissioner to London; Rodrigo Carazo, former President of Costa Rica; Rev. C. Phillip Johnson, a founding member of the American Clergy Leadership Conference, Rev. Walter Bipat, a former member of Parliament in Guyana and a pioneer of the American Clergy Leadership Conference; and Marilyn Killingham, a pioneer of the Free D.C. Movement.
In a musical appreciation, Ben Lorentzen and Chris Alan Derflinger of the Manhattan-based Lovin' life Ministries performed a specially arranged blues rendition of the hymn, Spring of Life and Simon and Garfunkel's Bridge Over Troubled Water. Tributes to the honorees were also given by Archbishop George A. Stallings, founder of the Imani Temple in Washington, D.C. and by Rev. Angelika Selle, president of Women's Federation for World Peace, USA.
Rev. Moon was introduced by his daughter, Rev. In Jin Moon, President and CEO of the Unification Church USA.
"What my father really would like us to realize is that our life each and every day --where we breathe in 20,000 liters of air -- is a gift and an opportunity from the Divine, our Heavenly Parent, and my father and mother really want to encourage us to own up to this wonderful gift and to make something beautiful out of it and to leave something beautiful behind, " she said, adding: "So as is customary in an Eastern culture to always honor our ancestors, my father said how wonderful would it be not just to honor our ancestors but also to honor dear friends that are represented here on stage and to really honor their significant lives and to honor and appreciate each man and woman's significant contribution to make the world a better place."
Rev. In Jin Moon acknowledged the messianic role of her father, explaining that "for the first time in history we have a man and a woman who can stand as a proud son and daughter of God who have come to fulfill the mission left unaccomplished by Jesus Christ." She continued: "And my father comes on the urging of Jesus Christ himself because Jesus Christ appeared to him on an Easter Sunday morning when he was a 16-year old boy praying in the hills of North Korea." The young Korean idealist accepted the call of Jesus and twenty years later founded a church in Seoul that became known as the Unification Church.
In a wide-ranging speech over a period of 90 minutes in Washington, the founder of the Unification movement projected his vision of a world on the brink of dramatic change. "Ladies and gentlemen, we are living in a historic time of great transition." He said. "It is a time for a great, historical revolution to unite the spiritual and physical worlds and to create the ideal kingdom of heaven that God has longed for since the beginning of time. We can no longer postpone or prolong the fulfillment of His wish. I have already proclaimed that January 13, 2013 will be a 'Foundation Day.' That day will be the actual beginning and birth of God's kingdom," Rev. Moon told his guests.
Rev. Moon also proclaimed that the current time period of world history is "the final stage, in which humanity should follow the path of living for the sake of others." He suggested that, in his opinion, God's heavenly kingdom could become a widely apparent reality on earth in 20 years. "The era in which we live today is the time of opening up the era of God's kingdom of Cheon Il Guk, a time in which we can return to the heart of the one true God," he said.