On Saturday, January 27, there was a meeting of UPF-NL Ambassadors for Peace and Secretariat in the UPF Dialoogcentrum in Amsterdam Zuid.

UPF-NL Secretary General Wim Koetsier opened the meeting, wishing everyone a Happy New Year and reporting his attending a meeting in Utrecht the previous Tuesday: a meeting to reaffirm the values of religious freedom and tolerance and living for others proclaimed in the Union of Utrecht on the same day, January 23, in 1579, an important date in Dutch history, signifying the beginning of the revolt to establish The Netherlands as an independent country and a champion of freedom of conscience. He encouraged everyone present to visit the website "In Vrijheid Verbonden" (Bound Together in Freedom) - www.invrijheidverbonden.nl - and sign the confirmatory Declaration, signed on the day by the Queen and religious and civic leaders.

He said he hoped this would contribute to waking up the spirit of The Netherlands and mentioned how UPF had run a campaign in 2006 when Jan van Winden, UPF Ambassador for Peace, had dressed as Willem van Oranje, Vader des Vaderlands, and, with other UPF supporters, had handed out leaflets to leaders outside the Dutch Parliament in The Hague, calling on the government to remember its spiritual responsibilities.

After all present had introduced themselves, Mr. Koetsier reported that he had recently been in Israel/Palestine with the Middle East Peace Initiative (MEPI) and asked two of the Ambassadors for Peace who had also been there, Gerry Mok and Madzy van der Kooij, to share some of their experiences and reflections. Mr. Mok said that what was paramount in discussing the situation in Israel/Palestine was seeing the truth, since there were so many false ideas, that many lived in a world of fantasy, and he was very complimentary about both the facilities and content of this trip, his fifth or sixth MEPI, and about the work of UPF and founder Dr. Moon himself, adding that while the UN did a lot, it fell far short of what was needed

It was the first time Mrs. Van de Kooij had been to Israel and she seemed to have been quite shocked by the restrictions imposed by both sides on daily life. It was the first time she had been to Israel and she had great anticipation about visiting Bethlehem and seeing Shepherds Fields, but while she appreciated the beautiful church they visited, she felt nothing, no special presence. She valued the lunch in Bethlehem with a young Christian family and the many speakers who had addressed them in Tel Aviv, being struck by one who was very afraid of Iran, and, like Mr. Mok, felt the biggest problem overall was the pessimistic attitude of many people, focusing on the past and problems, instead of seeking to do something positive in the present. She had become very aware of how many children had been killed.

Both she and Mr. Mok appeared to have been most impressed with the representatives of the Bereaved Families Forum, people who had suffered the bereavement of a close family member and had decided, not from any religious conviction, but just from their own evaluation of the situation, to respond by seeking dialogue with the "enemy" rather than revenge.

These reports led to some vigorous discussion, which took up much of the time allotted to the meeting, but was valuable in enabling all present to freely interact.

Wim Koetsier said MEPI sought first of all to listen to the people and then try to help. In reality the "occupation" was not at all like that of much of Europe, including the Netherlands, under the Nazis. It was said that at least 70% of the people just wanted the freedom to work together and it was better to look to the future rather than blaming others for the present. In the last century we had seen many terrible tragedies, in Ruanda, under Communism, in Dafur: evil was real and we needed to confront it – and challenge ourselves as well.

He commented on how the difficulties of Christians working together had been illustrated by the fact that the key to the church built over the place said to have been Jesus’ tomb was kept by a Moslem family, because the Christians could not agree on who should guard it. The ceremonies they observed down in the tomb area were conducted in a formal and ritualistic manner, the spirit of Christ was more present in the young peoples’ Christmas party, even in their singing of Jingle Bells.

It was interesting that the Bereaved Families group had not developed from a religious idea, but from ordinary people who thought that dialogue was the only way to resolve the problems of division and conflict: while religion was of great importance for peace, it was not an end in itself. He was not the only one to have felt more spirit for peace in the Bereaved Families group than in the "holy places" visited.

One of the group asserted that you never got out of a problem if you kept talking about it, it just got worse: one had to overcome fear, develop trust and give love to others

Mr. Koetsier then moved on to talk about the Bering Strait Project. He suggested that one way to resolve division was to encourage people to unite in creating something.. Some people said this was one of the good things that could come out of a war, for example in the rebuilding of Rotterdam after World War Two, but it was even better to create a challenge in a peaceful situation; one such was the proposal to join up the Red Sea and the Dead Sea, so water could flow into the Dead Sea, which was drying up.

Some critics of Dr. Moon’s enthusing that a link across the Bering Strait would enable someone to drive from South Africa to Chile said you could get there quicker by plane, but by traveling on the ground you would meet many people and experience many cultures. Having this link would make for better communication – and would be an economic benefit. One of Africa’s problems now was poor communication, the train had transformed and united the Netherlands – and the "railroad" was one of the great myths of the United States of America.

After seeing a video/DVD about the project, some present commented that, while it was very impressive, they questioned its real contribution to peace. Mr. Koetsier suggested again that having a big project to focus on could help people unite in working for a common purpose that could put their imagined differences in the shade; and with the changes in climate that were occurring, the Bering Strait region was becoming more accessible – and important. Mr. Santoe agreed it was an important project for human development and a number of other participants enthused about it.

1. Education Projects: Mr. Koetsier asserted we needed to find the way to communicate the ideas of UPF into the wider world. In Russia and China, UPF presented books and lectures developed by the International Educational Foundation around the idea of building a "spiritual civilization". We had started to translate this material into Dutch.

2. UPF World Peace Speaking Tour: Dr. Moon had recently launched World Peace Tour VI; after American and Korean Ambassadors for Peace delivering his message all over the world, in World Peace Tours IV & V, he was calling on Ambassadors for Peace from all countries to do likewise. The worldwide goal was 12,000 rallies and the Dutch campaign would run from the beginning of February to Easter.

3. Peace Councils. In addition to his proposal that an Inter-religious Council be created at the United Nations, Dr. Moon had, on October 3, 2003, in New York, inaugurated the Inter-religious and International Peace Council (IIPC), and on December 16/17, 2003 the European IIPC was launched in Geneva, Switzerland. Dr. Moon had urged the creation of national and even local Peace Councils and the intention was to soon create such a council in The Netherlands.

4. UPF-Europe Symposia: would be held in Huize Glory, Bergen aan Zee February 16-18 and March 16-18.

5. MEPI: the next European MEPI was February 9-14.

Discussion was continued over afternoon tea, prepared by Mrs. Mihoko Koetsier.

 Download entire page and pages related to it in ZIP format
Table of Contents
Information
Tparents Home