On June 26th, Master’s degrees were conferred upon 37 graduates, 30 men and seven women of the class of 1999. Seminary President, Dr. Shimmyo urged the graduates not to forget their original, precious commitment to God no matter what challenges they may face. "Continue to have it until you completely liberate God from his suffering heart and also until you completely liberate our fellow humans in the world from their bondage of misery", he said. "If you continue to commit yourself to God's will until the end, God will eventually visit you to sustain you and make you shine in the world. That way, people of the world will become attracted to you and come to you to learn heavenly tradition from you. Through you, the world will start changing." "Even though we may be separate from each other physically and geographically, we will be one spiritually in this sense."

Rev. Chank Shik Yang (class of ‘97), the new continental leader for North America, read the founder’s address on behalf of Rev. Moon. "I launched my public ministry here in America in 1972 in order to tackle the problem of the decline of Christianity and in 1975, I founded the Unification Theological Seminary in Barrytown, investing a lot of money and selecting a good number of students. Earlier in that year, 120 capable American members had already been sent out as missionaries to 120 nations in the world; so, selecting a good number of students for the Seminary meant to sacrifice our Church in America. Yet I had a dream of reviving Christianity even by sacrificing ourselves How many times I came to this property to pray before deciding to purchase it for the founding of this Seminary! To that degree I was serious about reviving Christianity and saving the nation of America and the world through the Unification Theological Seminary."

"Today, therefore, I would like to strongly encourage the graduates of this year to go out to Christendom and the world to meet with Christian leaders, other religious leaders and various other leaders in society to tell them with conviction that the time has come when God's ideal creation is going to be completely established. I also encourage you to reach out to many young people through those leaders and invite them to the marriage of blessing. Let us establish the Kingdom of God where God and all humanity can meet face to face as true parents, true spouses, and true children. That way, let us wipe away the tears of God and also the tears of humanity."

Mr. Claude Perrotet, Divinity Class President (who graduated summa cum laude), gave the student response noting that, "because this place was founded out of love, it was founded for love, and therefore, our own heart should never allow us to betray its spirit. And because this place was created with love, it was made in such a way as to be able to equip us with all the necessary abilities to offer this society the guidance it needs." He pointed out that this was the final graduating class of the millennium and that the true "graduation day" for each of them will be the day that they are put to use.

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