I would like to send you my heartfelt greetings from the Philippines at the Global Peace Festival. We just concluded the opening session of the International Leadership Conference under the theme "The Need for Vision and Leadership at a Time of Global Crisis" in which the participants have been blessed to listen to the passionate speeches by Martin Luther King III and Hyun Jin Moon which moved me indeed to tears.

These distinguished champions of a peaceful world spoke out for the cause of taking responsibility to bring God into the center of everything we do. Without God, we cannot even discuss peace, because without our parent we cannot be brothers and sisters. The participants of the Global Peace Festival are encouraged to take the well known content, which Jesus taught already 2000 years ago, close to their hearts: "Blessed are the peacemakers for they shall be called the sons (and daughters) of God."

Martin Luther King III pointed out it was the historic movements of faith and service which really made strides towards peace, with service as the sword and faith as the shield. He mentioned the "beloved community" described by his father must dwell in our hearts and minds and each of us here can be members of that community.

Hyun Jin Nim brought us to understand that the dream of One Family under God, which the parents of these great leaders pursued throughout their lives, was the Original Dream of God at the time of creation, the Biggest Dream. He began by telling a story of the life of Father, describing Father's up bringing in a nation at the center of turmoil, Father's discovery of a suffering God, and his desperation to liberate God by fulfilling his Original Dream.

Hyun Jin Nim urges us to become owners of the dream of One Family under God. He encourages us to receive the needed Education of Heart and to dedicate ourselves completely to the building of a culture which is centered on heart. Many others discuss peace through an economic means, a political means, even a militaristic means but we are calling for peace to come by people of faith uniting for this dream.

That is where the walls have been built, between people of different faith traditions, we need to go beyond those traditions and reach for that higher vision of building One Family under God. Religious leaders tend to focus on the 20% that divides us instead of the 80% that unites us, the universal truth of loving your enemy, building families of peace, living for the sake of others.

What moved me deeply in their speeches and at various points of presentations during the international conference of the Youth Federation for World Peace, in which I was blessed to participate during these two days, is how close the fulfillment of our Heavenly Father's dream is, and I can see it in the light of the eyes of my brothers and sisters present here from all over the world. Many more people are dedicated to making this dream become a reality.

Hyun Jin Nim sees this Global Peace Festival as the model which may be multiplied throughout the coming year in all nations in order to reach millions of people. We are the ones who are called to write history, to set the standard in this time of crisis, which can be inherited by others.

Our True Parents proclaimed this year a Jubilee Year of special blessing and there are just about 3 weeks left until the end of this year. So it is inevitable that we ask ourselves, what is the special grace of God, that these past 50 weeks have brought to our lives.

Personally I am convinced that now is indeed the time to receive God's special blessing and grace but for this purpose we have to be prepared in our hearts. I wish that each one of us can make the experience of having Heavenly Father near to us in our lives. One quote that comes to mind: "There is no peace without humanity making peace with God."

This is the core of the given challenge. We need to reconcile first fully with our Father in Heaven and with one another in order to have a reason to celebrate with God and we must share this fully with one another through loving even our enemies. By going through this process in our hearts we come closer to being true sons and daughters of God. We become members of His Family and this leads me to associate the initials of the Global Peace Festival -- GPF - to be understood as God's Precious Family.

Each one of us is called to join God's Family, which is so very dear and precious to Him, by our being truly His sons and daughters. My conclusion at the GPF 2007 here in Manila is that most of all we have to become true members of God's Precious Family. This is what I would like to share with you from the bottom of my heart as one of the very few who came from Europe to join this historic event in the Philippines while many of you throughout the world can join the given event through live web-casting and benefit from it.

This is a time of great hope. Let us go beyond any inability to love, giving our very best to even embrace with our hearts even the ones who are most difficult for us to love.