The Words The Kwak Family |
53rd Anniversary of Founding of HSA-UWC
Chung Hwan Kwak
May 1 2007
FFWPU International
The ceremony to commemorate the 53rd anniversary of founding of HSA-UWC (FFWPU) was held on May 1, 2007 in the main hall on the 8th floor of the FFWPU Headquarters building in Seoul Korea. Over 700 members and church leaders around the metropolitan area took part in this event. The ceremony began at 10:30 a.m. and was led by Rev. Gyu Sam Lee, Director of General Affairs at the Korean Headquarters.
The opening prayer was given by Rev. No Hi Park. Former presidents of HSA-UWC Korea and FFWPU Korea together cut the celebratory cake.
Rev. Young Seok Song, vice-president of FFWPU Korea gave a brief report on the history of the HSA-UWC and FFWPU. He briefly mentioned the main theme of True Parents' focus and achievements of each year since the founding of HSA-UWC and FFWPU.
There was a special award ceremony for recognizing those who served in the public mission for 15 consecutive years.
Rev. Sun Jo Hwang, president of FFWPU Korea, came to the podium and read an excerpt from the speech included in "God's Will and the World" which True Father gave at the 27th anniversary of HSA-UWC. Rev. Hwang first thanked the elder members who were living witnesses to our movement's birth and growth, and to all the church ministers and members for their dedication to the movement. He called upon the participants to give a big hand to those elder members who had worked hard for the past 53 years. Rev. Hwang then explained the major events and milestones of our movement which brought us to where we are today. He emphasized "True Parents appearance on the earth is the most important event in history," and that "True Parents' achievements were made based on their unrelenting spirit of sacrifice and service.
Kook-jin nim spoke that day representing the True Family and in his capacity as the Chairman of the Foundation for the Support of HSA-UWC. In his address he emphasized that "A jubilee year in God's providence refers to an era in which history and all creation have returned to that pristine era at the time of creation, where creation existed in a state of beauty of God's desire and as His objects of joy."
He also touched upon the mission of the Foundation saying "True Parents originally established the Foundation for the purpose of making profit so that it may support providence and our churches. True Parents have founded many providential organizations in order to fulfill providence and the Foundation has been supporting these organizations."
He also made the point that "In order to fulfill True Parents' words, there needs to be a suitable strategy and system in carrying it out. Only then, can our members and even the people of this nation and world see our vision; only then can we truly create Cheon Il Guk on this earth which is our desire. I believe that there needs to be a concrete and clear strategy and system for creating Cheon Il Guk according to True Parents' providential desire and this must be done based on passion and mutual agreement of all those involved."
Rev. Chung Hwan Kwak also spoke that day. He emphasized that "at this point in time when we are called to create Cheon Il Guk, we should attend True Parents as our eternal king who shows us the way of heaven and who more recently has declared the beginning of a new universal civilization of peace." He underscored the importance to "look back on our past mistakes and repent; and to renew our mindset and our way of life so that we can take the lead in establishing a new tradition and culture of Cheon Il Guk."
The ceremony that day ended with a benediction by Rev. Hwang and three cheers of eog-mansei by Rev. Young Hwi Kim, the former president of HSA-UWC.