The Words of the Kanno Family
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The Words of the Kanno Family |
Couples
from around the world exchange their rings during a mass wedding
ceremony in Ansan, South Korea, Sunday, Oct. 10, 2010. Some 7,200
South Korean and foreign couples exchanged or reaffirmed marriage
vows in the Unification Church's second mass wedding this year.(AP
Photo/Ahn Young-joon)
ASAN, South Korea -- Some 7,200 South Korean and foreign couples exchanged or reaffirmed marriage vows Sunday in the Unification Church's second mass wedding this year.
Church founder Rev. Sun Myung Moon, a self-proclaimed messiah, offered blessings for the participating couples gathered at Sun Moon University, the school he founded in Asan, south of Seoul.
"I pronounce marriage for the blessed beautiful women and handsome men standing before God, the Lord, the world, and myself," said the 90-year-old Moon.
The couples exchanged vows and held hands to pray during the one-hour spectacle, which was broadcast live online and through satellite television to 194 countries, church officials said.
"We've always grown up, hoping that we could find someone with whom we can then share a family to invite God in and to bring rejoice to God," 22-year-old Italian bride Mika Kanno said as she stood with her British husband Chris Koconey.
The participating couples also threw up their hands and cheered "Hurrah!" in unison.
The church apparently did not schedule the ceremony for the novelty of the 10-10-10 date.
Critics say the mass weddings prove the church brainwashes its followers. Followers routinely let Moon pick their spouses on the belief that he has divine insight and many meet their future spouses for the first time at the mass weddings.
Moon, who says he was 15 when Jesus Christ called upon him to carry out his unfinished work, has courted controversy and criticism since founding the Unification Church in Seoul in 1954.
He held his first mass wedding in the early 1960s, arranging the marriages of 24 couples himself and renewing the vows of 12 married couples.
Over the next two decades, the weddings grew in scale and began to involve followers from Japan, Europe, Africa, Latin America, the U.S. and elsewhere.
A 1982 mass wedding at Madison Square Garden in New York, the first held outside South Korea, drew tens of thousands of participants -- and protesters. The ceremonies had been smaller in recent years.
ASAN, South Korea—In an Oct. 10 story about a mass wedding held by the Unification Church, The Associated Press misspelled the surname of one participant. The correct name is Chris Moloney, not Chris Koconey.
The story also said followers routinely let church founder Rev. Sun Myung Moon pick their spouses, with many meeting for the first time at the mass weddings. The Unification Church says Moon no longer picks spouses for mass weddings and that most meet before the ceremony.