The Words of the Walsh Family
|
|
The Words of the Walsh Family |
Greetings from the Secretariat of UPF International.
Thank you for your commitment to the vision and mission of the Universal Peace Federation (UPF).
This communication is addressed to the leading stakeholders of our worldwide UPF movement in response to questions that have come to us concerning UPF's position vis-à-vis the recent activities of the Global Peace Festival Foundation (GPFF), including the Global Peace Festivals, Global Peace Conventions, etc.
The Global Peace Festival began as a project of UPF International, under the leadership of Rev. Chung Hwan Kwak and Dr. Hyun Jin Moon. UPF's global foundation and volunteer network, the fruit of the decades-long investment of Rev. and Mrs. Sun Myung Moon and thousands of sacrificial Unification Church members and Ambassadors for Peace around the world, were fully utilized to establish and develop the GPF.
However, toward the end of 2008 and into 2009, Dr. Hyun Jin Moon called for GPF to separate from UPF and pursue an independent path. This separation was not approved by the UPF Board of Directors. Some members of the board strongly recommended against separation, warning that it could lead to not only an unnecessary and unproductive duplication of efforts and expenditures, but eventually to confusion and division. Such separation and division would be detrimental to the fulfillment of UPF's mission and the vision of the Founder to build "one family under God."
Additionally, UPF's Founders, Rev. and Mrs. Sun Myung Moon, expressed serious concern and disappointment with the direction of the GPFF and asked the leadership to postpone the 2009 Global Peace Convention. Nevertheless, GPFF's leadership did not honor the wishes of the Founders.
In November 2009, the UPF Board of Directors appointed a new Chairman of the Board, Rev. Hyung Jin Moon.
To continue its activities, the GPFF leadership is now reaching out to many of UPF's Ambassadors for Peace and volunteers.
We do not recommend participation in the activities of GPFF. The continuing efforts of the GPFF leadership to carry forward with a program that claims UPF's Founder as its inspiration and guiding light, while ignoring that same Founder's direct wishes, is misguided and misleading.
We respectfully ask UPF volunteers and Ambassadors for Peace who are invited to participate in activities and programs of GPFF to give serious consideration to these concerns.
UPF is proud of its noble mission and tradition. Let us all continue to invest ourselves wholeheartedly in the ongoing work of UPF. Our Founder has clearly stated that, for the next two years, we should dedicate ourselves unreservedly to one, united effort to establish a unified world of peace, the hope of all ages, one family under God.
We encourage you to remain fully committed not only to the UPF vision, but also to working together with our Founders, hand in hand, heart to heart.
Sincerely,
Dr. Thomas G. Walsh
President
Mr. Taj Hamad
Secretary General