The Words of the Hyun Jin Moon
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The Words of the Hyun Jin Moon |
A report to True Parents and our global membership based on the activities of the last six months. This is an abridgement of a longer report Hyun-jin nim recently presented to True Parents.
My loving parents and precious brothers and sisters: I want to offer my sincere gratitude and honor to True Parents and congratulate them on so many successes in this providential jubilee year as we work to usher in a new civilization of peace for heaven and earth.
Moving as one with True Parents and the providence we have entered an era when God's will is being made substantial and the providence is bearing fruit. If this entire Unification movement of God-affirming people of all faiths and traditions will align to the will of God, unite and invest themselves, we will accomplish our goal of seeing true and lasting peace in the world by 2013.
In this report, I will outline the key strategies and results for the first part of this year, including the most recent activities of our Middle East Peace Initiative (MEPI), the Global Peace Festivals (GPF) in Europe and the recent launching of an Abel-minded international body that is similar to the United Nations in the scope of its mission and is guided by spiritual and moral principles. I will briefly explain how this "Abel UN," offering its support and encouragement to the peace-building efforts of the United Nations, will function in service to God and humanity.
My motivation is always to receive deeper guidance from True Parents when we meet together in person, and then move forward. Everything we are doing is bearing fruit because of their lives' investment.
The seventh year of Cheon II Guk is a jubilee year, in which centered on the three generations of the True Family, blessed central families and Ambassadors for Peace, the age where the entire Unification movement must go beyond its own boundaries begins. This is the time of aligning to God's original will and moving as one.
For the past seven years, I have prepared for this time by educating our blessed central families in how to fulfill God's dream and True Parents' legacy by creating true families based on the Family Pledge and Father's Peace Messages, and to align with God and become owners of a new culture of heart.
True Father has explained that Jesus was the one who came to realize God's dream for all people of the world. He did not live long enough to accomplish his full mission, and he said he would have to come again. Today True Father has come to fulfill God's original ideal and the same dream Jesus had. Thus, Jesus "returns" in the work of the True Parents. They have come to finish the uncompleted mission of Jesus.
Like Jesus, True Father's original mission was not to create another religion or a separate theology but to realize the ultimate dream of God in creating a true inter-religious, international movement.
True Parents' interfaith movement is different from other existing interfaith efforts. Instead of merely respecting and tolerating the differences of each religion, True Parents' interfaith efforts focus on the universal principles found within all religions and unify the different religions centered on these principles in order to realize God's dream.
Through the first twelve-city speaking tour, directed by True Parents, I was able to begin spreading this message about the need for all humanity to go beyond religions and fulfill their true mission of realizing one family under God. To this, I add the word, "aju," a Korean word (coined by Father) that implies the concept, "I will take responsibility for doing it." Therefore, "One Family under God, Aju!" There is no more profound or simpler way to express it.
True Father received the Divine Principle directly as a revelation from God, but this is not Unificationist "theology." This is a set of principles behind the Creation, fundamental truths that the world's faith traditions already embody -- and that can serve as a basis for bringing us all into oneness under God. I have been explaining this through the International Leadership Conferences (ILC), MEPI (Middle East Peace Initiative), at the Korean National Assembly, the United Nations Headquarters in New York, and in meetings with the pastors of some of the largest Christian churches in the U.S.
To accomplish concrete providential goals, centering on the vision of "One Family under God" and the Peace Messages, there is a need to newly integrate and align our Unification Movement worldwide, inter-religiously and internationally. Therefore, I have presented three key strategic initiatives as focal points for our Unification Movement.
The first strategy is to encourage the Pan-Pacific Rim peace movement to move toward the peaceful reunification of the Korean Peninsula. This is the desire of every Korean and will bring stability to the region.
The second strategy is to work with inter-religious peace movements worldwide to finally resolve conflict of the Abrahamic faiths and end the hatred and bloodshed in the Middle East.
The third strategy is to help bring renewal to the UN by taking the lead in achieving the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDG), centered on the principle of living for the sake of others.
Along with these three strategic initiatives, I have been preparing to hold Global Peace Festivals throughout the world from 2008 until 2012. These Global Peace Festivals will expand the global peace movement, uniting many kindred spirit organizations and people who embrace the ideal of one family under god. The Global Peace Festivals will also bring the international, intercultural Blessing Movement into the mainstream as the path to build a culture of world peace among all nations, races and religions.
Last October, True Parents expanded the scope of the Ambassadors for Peace, asking them to take on greater responsibilities. In order to do that, we developed the International Leadership Conference (ILC). In February, the first ILC was held in Washington DC, cosponsored by the Universal Peace Federation (UPF) and Youth Federation for World Peace (YFWP), gathering young leaders from the nations involved in the Six Party Talks about the Korean Peninsula.
We conducted numerous conferences, each time increasing the number of sitting parliamentarians in attendance, culminating in June with a gathering of five hundred world leaders in Hawaii. Participants testified they were greatly moved by the program.
The ILC has been developed to engage world leaders in discussion of the fundamentally unifying principles of peace building and to build an internal network of Ambassadors for Peace. Through these conferences, we are standardizing the content of our programs in preparation for ILCs to be held on national and local levels. As we observed in Europe recently, leading figures who have participated in the ILC and have become Ambassadors for Peace are taking ownership and establishing educational and service programs in their own local areas.
I was able to take part in two MEPI programs in the Middle East. These led me to deeply contemplate how to bring a solution to the conflict in the Middle East. Who has more concern for the peace issues in the Middle East than True Parents, and who has invested more in the Middle East than our True Parents over such a long period of time? Many political, religious and social movement leaders such as Martin Luther King III have been amazed by the true interfaith quality our True Parents' work brings to the Middle East.
MEPI is not a political organization, involved in political issues. It focuses on cooperation among the many religious traditions of the region, and that makes it an ally of both Jews and Palestinians. A peace process utilizing our inter-religious foundation is our unique strength and is an area the world has overlooked. I have guided MEPI to seek strategic partnerships with the UN and faith-related offices within the White House. We have built relationships over the years with the people of the Druze faith as well. They are inspired by the blessing and look forward to conducting a Blessing Ceremony for the entire Druze membership and to standing at the forefront of building peace in the Middle East.
Last year, in July, at a rally for twenty-five thousand young leaders in Korea, I announced that from 2008 I will visit each region of the world and hold youth rallies for up to a million people in each location. We created the name "Global Peace Festival" for these events. As explained earlier, the sole motivation for and goal of proclaiming such a project is to bring the peace movement centered on the vision of One Family Under God and the culture of the international marriage blessing into the mainstream on the worldwide level. In order to prepare for the 2008 events, in 2007, we are holding preliminary programs in Europe, Africa, Asia and the Middle East.
On the foundation True Parents have created through their devotion, this year the United States has been preparing to take its role as the elder son nation as central to the Pacific Rim Providence. American leaders have exhibited a level of ownership and teamwork they did not have before and are breaking through on many levels. The Washington media team and church leadership have achieved a newfound unity, creating strategies and cooperating on projects.
In January, under the slogan One Family under God and centering on the Peace Messages, I visited Christian churches in twelve cities and presented a new vision and hope for America's Christianity. True Parents' direction to visit the Christian churches was to breakthrough to a new level of the providence and allow America to inherit heavenly fortune. This could not have been done at a more opportune time. The American churches have been newly energized and the dwindling ACLC activities are being revived. In the future, the ACLC movement should not only be re-ignited in America but worldwide.
The leadership for evangelizing America lies in the hands of the large independent churches, the so-called "mega churches." In August, I visited some of America's mega churches and engaged in face-to-face conversation with their leaders. Many of these pastors expressed their respect for True Parents, having heard much about their work through local Ambassadors for Peace. None of them had a problem with our vision for ideal families and a broad, inter-religious movement. In fact, these churches grew by finding people who love God but don't belong to any one church.
The American Freedom Coalition (AFC) has been inspired by Korea's nationwide foundation of Ambassadors for Peace and is reinvigorating its organization. This is the age when we can reach out to prepared leaders and create a global network to stand at the forefront of a new providence.
Next year is an election year and the American membership must grab a hold of heavenly fortune and take responsibility to give rise to an American administration that Heaven desires. We have a strong media foundation through which to express our opinions on key social issues. The American Clergy Leadership Conference, which will be working independently of the AFC, interacts with our Christian brothers and sisters. Through this unity, we can offer spiritual guidance to our elected leaders.
The American movement is continuously working to expand and settle the hoondok family church. Currently there are close to four hundred active groups. One Colombian-Filipino couple works during the day and uses evenings and weekends to serve the local community and convey True Parents' guidance. As a result, they have created over three hundred blessed families, and they oversee many projects. At the most recent leadership meeting, we decided that hoondok family church leaders should gather to share their best practices and standardize hoondok family churches. With standardized educational materials, we can raise leaders who help America's hoondok family churches develop a strong grassroots foundation.
With True Parents' permission, at every holy day and major event, I have convened regional chair meetings, where we plan how each region can be aligned with God's will and the worldwide providence. I have paid special attention to the Family Federation in the three providential nations of Korea, Japan and the United States, visiting both the headquarters and the field to help leaders and members establish a clear vision and goals.
We are creating guidelines and measurable standards for Family Federation activities worldwide. After God's Day, I visited Japan and spoke to the Japanese members. I am working closely with the leaders, guiding and encouraging them on the foundation of many years of True Parents' investment.
During the recent Global Peace Festival tour of Europe, I saw how our members are being revived by seeing Ambassadors for Peace come without being pushed, because they are moved by Parents' message. The members have repented, and this became a new start for Europe.
During the recent events in New York, I was able to take time to speak to regional leaders individually. I received detailed reports on the hopeful activities that are taking place worldwide, taking time to look at our worldwide strategy and help our leaders align themselves with it. This was also a time to understand the difficult situations on the local levels and our brothers and sisters' needs and to encourage the hard work of these leaders that True Parents have long guided. Their request was that leaders who can harvest the fruit of this providential time be sent to their regions. This was a time to reconfirm the importance and urgency of a comprehensive system to raise and manage leaders.
To achieve the unification of North and South Korea, as True Parents desire, we must first redirect North and South America and Japan, in the Pacific Rim sphere. The European nations centered on the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic also come into play. Ultimately, we must move Russia, India and China. Through the Global Peace Festivals and through continually touring the regions, I will continue to educate the leaders, young and old, and encourage the Ambassadors for Peace to become owners of the providence. We will help our members recapture the fiery spirit of the early days of the movement. In the latter half of this year, I will tour Japan, Africa and Asia. Please look forward to the advancement that will take place in these regions.
CARP currently is focused on accomplishing four goals:
1. By 2008, CARP will establish chapters in 192 nations.
2. At the same time, in each nation, CARP will establish clubs in every university in the nation in order to establish a global collegiate foundation for service and education.
3. Through strengthening the traditional seventy-day educational system,' CARP will raise the standard of core members worldwide and standardize this system.
4. Finally, CARP will create a new collegiate student peace movement through organizing and educating Collegiate Ambassadors for Peace.
In order to expand CARP's worldwide foundation, we absolutely need trained leaders in each region and leadership training. In Africa, we held workshops in Benin and the Democratic Republic of Congo, educating over four hundred leaders from seventeen nations. Later this year, CARP will go to Oceania and South America.
Thanks to CARP and STF training, second-generation leaders are being sent out as world missionaries to pioneer CARP. Currently fourteen couples have received missionary training and are preparing to go to their missionary nations. In the Philippines, for example, CARP has a goal to establish itself on 400 university campuses by the end of 2008. They plan to be on 120 campuses by the end of this year.
In the first part of this year, Japan's excellent witnessing-education system was used as the model system to build a witnessing system for college students and has been upgraded further. In Korea, Japan, Thailand, Nepal and the Philippines, CARP has carried out various seminars, forums and peace projects, receiving support from governments and university administrations in major regions of each nation.
Special Task Force (STF) education is entering its sixth year and is beginning to be recognized internationally as setting the educational standard for second-generation leaders. The first year of fund-raising education, the second year of witnessing education and the third year of missionary activities, followed by four years of CARP activities on the college campus is the model seven-year public course for those in the second generation to challenge in order to prepare to be leaders.
Already close to two thousand second generation members have gone through the gates of STF and are stepping into central roles in CARP activities on campuses. STF education is raising our blessed children and is spiritually reviving their parents. This year, in order to raise the standard of STF education, the qualifications of candidates wishing to join the STF program are being checked through a selection process. Those who do not pass the selection process receive education through a general program and are given an opportunity to try for STF later.
Currently four hundred and fifty members are receiving education through STF programs in Korea, Japan, America, Europe, South America, and so on. Through this program, CARP and UTS second-generation youth will become top-level leaders for the Unification Movement.
In Korea, the newly launched Sunghwa Department (for the second generation) has begun raising leaders from the elementary school level. They have launched the I-STF program as a model program with twelve and thirteen-year old second-generation members. Parents have been actively supporting the program. In the past three years, we have invested in the Jr. STF program, which is expanding in Korea, Japan, America and Europe. Currently, about seven hundred middle and high school members pass the selection process and receive training. The Sunghwa Department, following True Parents' guidance, has launched the Kids Ambassadors for Peace, which recently held its kick-off ceremony in Korea.
With a rally of twenty-five thousand in Korea and our intention to hold rallies of a million young people in each world region, the Youth Federation for World Peace (YFWP) has seen tremendous growth and expansion of activities in the first half of the year.
YFWP has a newly established international headquarters, as well as chapters in fifty-four nations. They have appointed eleven thousand youth Ambassadors for Peace.
At the most recent World Sports and Cultural Festival, they successfully organized an event at the National Assembly Building and a Peace Festival in front of Seoul City Hall. A major rally was also held in Bangkok, Thailand with the participation of the Deputy Prime Minister of Thailand. The Asia Youth Ambassadors for Peace Council was initiated at that time at the Asia UN Headquarters, in Bangkok.
In the latter half of the year, we will expand the Youth Federation in Asia, hoping to revive our youth movement in Japan.
Widely recognized and influential in the service world in the United States, Service For Peace is partnering with Martin Luther King Jr. Seasons of Service 2007, which is being conducted throughout America and involves more than sixty-six thousand participants in 857 different projects.
Service for Peace has been recognized as one of the top six service organizations in America. The UN has recognized Service For Peace as meeting the standards of an NGO, which qualifies it to apply for grants from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID). Of the tens of thousands of NGOs in America, only three hundred organizations have this status.
Service For Peace also shares service goals in common with Points of Light Foundation (supported by both Presidents Bush), and the public service work of Wal-Mart and similar corporations.
On the international stage, Service For Peace has worked alongside UN organizations in the Dominican Republic and Central America. Service work in the Middle East has led, this year, to the opening of a Service For Peace chapter in Israel.
Service for Peace was the first not-for-profit service organization to bring South Korean volunteers to North Korea and to do service activities with North Koreans (helping build homes and heating systems). South Korean municipalities are now expressing interest in partnering with us to finally link up cities and citizens of our long-divided country
From the first half of this year, through 2013 and by its fortieth anniversary in 2015, UTS has a vision to become the world's top interfaith seminary. UTS seeks to become the premiere institution for raising interfaith peace leaders who can apply their leadership to the universal ideal of one family under God, which is God's dream.
UTS enrollment is increasing. The school has opened its doors to the Ambassadors for Peace and has been preparing to receive leaders from every faith tradition, so they can study our interfaith vision and principles and go back to the field and network with international leaders. Last summer, eighty students applied from fifty nations, of which the top forty-two were accepted. Among them, thirty leaders from twenty-one nations have already received their U.S. visas and entered UTS in September.
Among the new students is the niece of a former prime minister of Zimbabwe. This opens the possibility for UTS to receive the children of famous Ambassadors for Peace and religious leaders who will come, study and deeply research True Parents' ideology. The UTS extension center is currently in Manhattan, New York. UTS is further developing programs intended for Christian ministers.
In the future, the leaders who graduate from UTS will become pioneers for our global inter-religious movement. Through this challenge, they will drive the spirit of our Unification Movement. UTS will become the base for producing standardized educational material and programs.
With the establishment of the Abel UN, from now on, the Unification Movement must get rid of its church-centered framework and reconnect with its original roots as the model of an inter-religious, international, interracial movement that can unite all religions, nations and NGOs within the "One Family Under God, Aju!" peace movement. Moreover, centered on clear goals and a core strategy, we must realign and reorganize our profit and nonprofit areas and our activities that have been carried out by regions and through each providential organization.
In order to carry out this type of movement organizationally, the Abel UN, under UPF -- as the highest providential organization in our sphere -- will need to have both the necessary authority and capacity. We must establish proper vertical order between UPF and each providential organization. Under the direction and supervision of the UPF international headquarters, each providential organization must carry out its specialized activities with the motivation of bringing integration and cooperation, centered on the overall goals and strategy. To bring about teamwork between the regions, beginning with the three providential nations, and the providential organizations, an organized meeting system and regular reporting and evaluation system must be set up.
In the future, to coordinate mid and long-term capacity building and the strategic placement of human resources centered on UPF, we will need to receive information from throughout the world on our main human resources and to manage this comprehensively at the headquarters level.
For the sake of accomplishing our providential goals, we must manage our many foundations and businesses, and the properties and economic foundations we have invested in worldwide. We must take responsibility for financially supporting providential activities. In addition, the international foundation is also directing and auditing the financial operations and management of key providential activities and organizations according to their priority.
My loving parents, though the works of God will remain for eternity, the earthly lives of our True Parents are limited, and you have lived every moment of your lives in order to bring about complete victory for the will of God on earth. Those families that have received the blessing have been engrafted to True Parents' lineage physically and spiritually; constituting the extended True Family, as your children, they must know what the true way of filial piety toward our True Parents is the greatest way to be filial to our True Parents is to absolutely accomplish God's will by 2013.
Knowing this, I hope, together with all my brothers and sisters and with all blessed families, that we can become one and continue to march forward.