The Words of the Casino Family
|
|
The Words of the Casino Family |
John
Maniatis, executive director of the International Religious
Foundation giving the opening address.
The International Conference for Clergy (ICC) sponsored a seminar on Unification Theology June 27 -- July 2 entitled "Unification Theology, with Implications for Ecumenism and Social Action." The conference was held in Cable Beach, Nassau, the Bahamas. One hundred fifty Christian ministers from all over America attended. Most of the conference participants were contacted through the National Council for the Church and Social Action (NCCSA).
This stimulating conference started Monday at 7:30 p.m. with Dr. Mose Durst, president of the Unification Church of America, greeting the participants. A general orientation was presented by the executive director of the International Religious Foundation, John Maniatis. Dr. Alex Chambers, president of NCCSA and the ICC conference convenor, also welcomed the ministers.
In the course of the five days, various Divine Principle lectures were presented, showing the ideals and teachings of Rev. Sun Myung Moon. Each presentation was followed by a lively question-and-answer session. Then, participants were divided into small discussion groups of 12 to 14 ministers for further sharing about the seminar. This also facilitated the development of friendships between them.
The lectures presented were: God, Humanity and the Creation; Spiritual Life; Fall of Man; Jesus as Savior; Resurrection; Principles of Salvation History; God's Work in History to the Present; and Eschatology and the Second Coming.
The lecturers were Sandra Lang, Andrew Wilson, Shirley Stadelhofer, Ken Gray and Dr. John A. Sonneborn.
In the evening, different presentations were given to show Unification Church activities promoting ecumenism and social action. John Maniatis outlined the church's ecumenical programs such as New ERA, World Youth for God, the Global Congress of the World's Religions, and the Sun Myung Moon Institute, all of which are projects under the newly formed International Religious Foundation.
Dr. Mose Durst presented the film "People of the Quest," and introduced many Unification Church projects.
On the third evening, Dr. Herbert Richardson, who described himself as an Unificationist theologian, presented an insightful commentary on Unification Theology and messiahship.
Dr. Frank Flinn, a Catholic theologian from St. Louis, provided a stimulating and provocative paper on ecumenical Kingdom-building.
Dr. Osborne Scott, chairman of the International Coalition Against Racial and Religious Intolerance (ICARRI), closed the evening with a moving talk about the violation of religious and racial rights that new religions and the Unification Church in particular are being subjected to.
One of the major presentations of the conference concerned NCCSA. Many of the ministers had come to the conference as a result of their interest in and involvement with NCCSA. Executive director Mr. Kevin Brabazon moderated the program which included a slide show on the many NCCSA urban social action projects. He introduced officials and organizers of the 10 NCCSA chapters that are presently incorporated and active in the following cities: Washington, D.C.; New York; Atlanta; Memphis; Los Angeles; St. Louis; Baltimore; Detroit; Jackson, Miss.; and Louisville, Ky.
As a result of this meeting, 10 new chapters are being organized in cities from Boston to San Francisco. Each chapter is an incorporated coalition of churches and social service groups in an urban area, which mobilizes local resources from city, state, churches, and private enterprise, and addresses the burning social issues in the communities.
The NCCSA was founded in 1977 after dialogue between members of the Unification Church Interfaith Affairs Department and ministers of various Christian denominations.
Operating costs and seed money for chapters is provided by the Unification Church, channeled through the International Religious Foundation.
In the past six years the NCCSA, which emphasizes self-help, has secured $4 in cash contributions for every dollar invested by the Unification Church. In addition, it has secured $25 worth of foods and other materials for each church-invested dollar.
One evening spontaneous hymn singing broke out after dinner. The ministers melted together through Christian songs -- the spirit of God moving their hearts, transcending race and religious affiliation. The music of one heart in the love of God prevailed.
The paradise-like Bahamas provided an idyllic setting for the workshop. It took the ministers beyond their usual busy and hectic schedules and gave them a place of peace and rest to hear the lectures of the Divine Principle, which addressed the topic of building the Kingdom of God on earth.
Ministers left the conference respecting the Unification Church more and even desiring to work with us. Some wanted to study Divine Principle more and others wanted to work with the NCCSA. Many recommended their colleagues for participation in future ICC seminars. They came to believe that Unification Theology is highly relevant to ecumenism and social action in the world today.
(From the keynote speech by Bruce Casino, executive vice president of NCCSA)
We are confronted with and are a part of a Christianity that is in many cases pathetically weak, both internally and externally.
Internally, it has not been able to stem the flood of immorality, has not been able to bridge the chasm of racism, and is subverted by materialism. Externally, its attitude towards Communism is ambiguous, while atheistic materialism is rampaging through the world violating not only civil and human rights, but even the right to life itself.
If the mission of Christianity is, as I believe, to complete the work of the Savior by building God's Kingdom on earth, then we can say that the paramount problem of our time is the weakness of Christianity. The great challenge of our day is to restore and strengthen Christianity so it can be an instrument in renewing the face of the earth.
I believe the causes of this sorry situation are as follows: an over-spiritualized concept of the Kingdom and salvation, fragmentation of effort as evidenced by denominationalism and parochialism, and, above by devastating racism, timidity in the face of an over-extension of the doctrine of separation of church and state, and lack of faith, concern, and courage.
The NCCSA exists to counteract these great evils, to uproot their causes, to restore the church and this great nation, America. Specifically, it exists for four major purposes:
1) To develop and propagate a model of the church as a community of service rather than one merely of doctrine and ritual;
2) To help individual churches meet the needs of their communities and their members;
3) To overcome individualism, racism, and denominationalism; and
4) To develop a unified Christian front on a community, city, state, national, and international basis; that is, to engage the churches in the actual process of cooperation with God in building the Kingdom.
We need your help. Just as God promised to save those ancient cities of Sodom and Gomorrah if but a few good men or women could respond to His call, now we feel the call of God to find a few good men or women who can walk the walk that will lead to the salvation of their cities.
Together we are not just talking that talk, we are walking the walk, and invite you to come walk with us and together we can fulfill Jesus' words, "Thy Kingdom come, Thy Will be done on Earth."
The conference was wonderful from beginning to end -- from the first drive down the Bahamian road from the airport to the final flight departure. Coconut trees, palms, and other tropical flora were everywhere -- and then there were the salty sea and the large, art nouveau Balmoral Hotel that reminded me of some 1940s Hollywood movie.
The conference group was very racially integrated, and we spent the seven days of the conference talking, laughing, praying, singing, and embracing together as brothers and sisters under God.
Our little discussion group included one firebrand -- a young black Baptist pastor whose beliefs were deeply rooted in the Scriptures. He and I clashed a few times, so I spent all of one afternoon and most of the night praying for him and praying for my own heart to be humble before him.
The next day, he was a transformed man, partly due to the ministrations of Gilbert Starr, a representative from Minority Alliance International, and partly due, I feel, to my prayers. He and I greeted each other with a deep sense of love and respect, and I felt of all the people in a conference he and I had restored something by loving each other in spite of our differences. In fact, he said he was completely satisfied and felt a great deal toward our teachings -- that they were so good they had made him feel shaky inside himself. He became very interested in Father and, in fact, some people felt he had actually had a conversion experience.
The last night of the conference was a social night -- a feast of music, dance, and food on the hotel's private island -- Balmoral Island. One of the ministers and I went for an exploratory swim around the island and found coral, sea urchins, and beautiful sea shells. It was an adventure for both of us.
Then we heard distant drums from the other side of the island -- it was like something out of a movie -- and we went back to find a native Bahamian band on the main beach. What an exciting island adventure.
Oddly enough, just as the pleasure trip was ending and we were waiting for the boats to take us back to the main island, a terrific rainstorm brewed up and all the people were trapped boatless out on the dock! At first, it was frightening in the dark and the storm, not knowing when the boat would come. The sea was dangerous, too.
But we huddled together and tried to protect one another from the rain with our clothing, and began to sing spirituals. By the time the boat came, we were all very happy and feeling strong in our unity and faith. We got on the boat and an older man whom I had shielded from the rain told me I'd gone "above and beyond the call of duty." It felt good to be able to love and help one another under adverse circumstances as well as relate with each other amid the luxuriousness and opulence of the conference. On the way back, people were dancing and laughing on the boat but I watched the waves and wondered what Father would be thinking.
The boat couldn't pull up to the dock because of the storm, so the captain ran it aground on the beach and, to my surprise, as I got off the boat, two deep-voiced native Bahamians were singing a rich black spiritual, "Wade in the water, wade in the water, children! Wade in the water!" and demonstrated that that was what we needed to do. People splashed in up to their knees and waded onto shore. One minister joked that we had all been baptized.
It felt so good to be grasped by warm black helping hands as I got off the boat! It felt so good to embrace people on the dock and hold hands during prayer! I felt we were all really God's children, one in heart.
I think that the conference did a lot to promote interracial love and harmony as well as to convey our other teachings. We all truly had become brothers and sisters, maybe more so in the storm than during the sunshine -- a beautiful family enriched by differences in background and skin color, not divided by it.