To: City and Assignment Desks

Contact: Nick Buscovich

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 29 /U.S. Newswire/ -- From African American preachers to U.N. diplomats to the Governor of Alaska, it seems that more and more people are taking interest in the peace initiatives of the Rev. Sun Myung Moon. The outspoken 85-year-old Korean evangelist will visit San Francisco this evening as the "Now is God's Time" tour comes to the Hilton Hotel, 333 O'Farrell St. A press conference will be held at 5 p.m.; the program starts at 6:45.

San Francisco is the 11th of 12 cities that the energetic preacher and founder of the Washington Times will visit. More than 12,000 clergy and civic leaders are expected to gather over several nights to join in the launch of a new global body for the resolution of conflict, the Universal Peace Federation. The tour began Sept. 12 in New York with a program at the Lincoln Center, attended by U.N. officials, past and present heads of state and 375 religious and community leaders from 128 countries, and will visit 100 cities worldwide by the end of this year.

The Universal Peace Federation grows out of the affiliation of other world organizations, including the Inter-religious and International Federation for World Peace and the 50,000-member Ambassadors for Peace. "We are hoping to be in every nation of the world," said spokesman Sir James Mancham, founding president of the Seychelles, "as a way of changing the global conversation about how nations work together beyond the traditional channels." Membership includes current and former heads-of-state, diplomats, religious and community leaders. In recent weeks, U.S. Ambassadors for Peace have been working in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama assisting victims of Hurricane Katrina.

The Ambassadors for Peace have also made hopeful inroads in some of the world's most difficult flashpoints. The "Middle East Peace Initiative" launched by Rev. Moon brought more than 10,000 religious and civic leaders to Israel and Gaza in the past two years, promoting inter-religious reconciliation and dialogue with both sides. Rev. Walter Fauntroy, noted civil rights leader and ten-term congressman for the District of Columbia has shared with Palestinian leaders the work of Martin Luther King, and in particular his successful strategy of non-violence. "There is genuine, deep interest in learning new strategies," said Fauntroy, "and a willingness to see religious and spiritual values as part of the solution rather than the problem." Jewish and Muslim leaders also agree, says four-term Jerusalem City Councilman Dr. Eleazar Glaubach. "Rev. Moon's efforts bringing thousands of pilgrims of every faith to Israel in just two years have done more to advance peace than ten years of discussing roadmaps."

The federation's ultimate goal is to address the cultural and religious dimensions of conflict, and promote reconciliation through "forgiving one's enemies." "We hope to bind nations together in a way that the United Nations has thus far been unable to," said Stanislav Shushkevich, former president of Belarus. At the tour's opening, Moon addressed a crowd that included U.N. diplomats. "The U.N. has yet to discover the way to fulfill its founding purpose," he noted, admonishing its member nations for putting the interests of their own countries above that of world peace. The federation will also promote global family renewal and service work as instruments for peacemaking.

The aging but energetic evangelist has been outspoken in challenging countries to redirect their energies from wars to cooperative projects for peace and development. "Why must we continue pouring countless dollars into wars that, in the end, will never bring the reconciliation of enemies?" Moon asks. "The time has come for the countries of the world to pool their resources and advance toward the world of peace desired by God."

Among the projects that Moon will unveil this evening is the most ambitious civil engineering project in history, the "Peace Tunnel," a 52-mile, $200 billion link between the United States and Russia across the Bering Strait that will physically link the two nations for the first time since the last ice age. The idea has been favorably received by Russian scholars and political leaders, who say that it will open up their country to completely new opportunities for peaceful trade and cultural exchange. According to the Ketchikan Daily News (Sept. 18), Moon's proposal prompted Alaska Gov. Frank Murkowski to raise the issue in talks with former Russian president Boris Yeltsin.

"Some may doubt that such a project can be completed," says Moon in his speech, "But where there is a will, there is always a way -- especially if it is the will of God."

"He has been building bridges all his life to bring the races and religions of the world together," says Archbishop George Stallings of the African American Catholic Congregation based in Washington, D.C. "It is natural that he would now launch this visionary appeal to physically unite the world in a project that demands peaceful cooperation."

Addressing divisions of class, race and politics such as those brought to light by the recent tragedy in the Gulf, Moon said, "It is time to set new coordinates for our lives and to come out from behind the barriers of our own nation, our own religion, our own race and culture and make a decisive effort for peace. God has been longing to see the human family reunited, and this is His time."

Moon's various peace initiatives have garnered increasing support for the often controversial leader from a variety of sources. "Rev. Moon is fulfilling the ideals that were first taught to me by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.," Fauntroy told a similar gathering in D.C. in June. Rabbi Mordechai Waldman of Detroit expressed, "such a movement of all races, faiths and nations is a miracle of God. We should all pray that Father and Mother Moon live for 120 years."

Moon's claim that he has a divine mandate has generated controversy, but a number of religious leaders joining the tour support it. "He speaks with the authority of God," Stallings told the Connecticut Post (Sept. 22), adding he doesn't mind that Moon is controversial or misunderstood. "I've never met anyone like him." Reverend Darryl Gray, former Kansas State Representative and communications director for the SCLC noted, "The man is hitting on all the spiritual hot buttons of contemporary society, including racial and interfaith relations, marriage and family, homosexuality, fighting AIDS, peace in the Middle East, and what is more, he's never pulled his punches." Added former North Dakota Sen. Larry Pressler, "No one is doing more for peace than the Rev. Moon."

"The role of the prophet is to speak truth to power," says Dr. Amos Brown, San Francisco pastor and former member of the Board of Supervisors. "And the prophet is always misunderstood. It happened to Martin Luther King, and the same thing is happening to Rev. Moon."

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