Articles from the September 1997 Unification News

I want to provide a brief report about the city-wide preparations in DC for the WCSF III, November 23 - 30, and specifically the 3.6 Million Couples blessing on November 29. That blessing will attract some 30,000 couples from the DC area, North America and around the world. Details of the program are still in planning stages, but it will be spectacular. On the ground, a ferment of activities are bubbling to the surface.

The theme of the DC campaign is "Rebuilding the family, Restoring the community, Renewing Washington." Last week I was fortunate enough to be present at a major presentation of the entire WCSF/Blessing ‘97 project to the city leaders. They responded with a balanced perception of the benefits which can come to their city and its citizens, and connected us with the relevant staff persons of the city government. We will be working in close cooperation.

We are forming a very large "welcoming committee." This is WCSF III, but it is also a Washington renaissance festival! The entire city will be transformed. And the intent is to make the impact a lasting one; not just to fold up our tents after Nov. 29. We want to create a foundation for the future and a model for the regeneration of our cities and nation, of which DC is a microcosm. What the members learn in DC can be transplanted everywhere in America.

Tribal Messiah mobilization. Our members are organized into communities. Each community is planning to set up a local office for coordination of all witnessing, ticket sales and transportation planning. There will be both work with pre-blessed couples and with new couples. They will work community building house to house, encouraging families to maintain their strong bonds of heart, and to live for the sake of the community and city.

Ministers mobilization. A team of twelve brothers is working together with churches, with Rev. Levy Daugherty as the central point. They will reach the black, white and Hispanic churches. There will be a special outreach of this type to the Muslim community, and to all the ethnic communities of DC. The response so far has been very, very favorable. The churches are strongly in favor of family building and youth ministry.

Pure Love Alliance. PLA will develop educational activities in high schools and church youth groups, holding marches and rallies, giving seminars for the sake of sexual abstinence among youth and unmarried adults. Also they are developing a sports tournament in the schools, to lead to the Han Ma Dong games. This will have incredible long-term impact. At the same time, there are plans for a gospel choir competition and an essay contest.

Activities on the 29th. One denomination which has many youth brass bands wants to offer them to play and march around the stadium on the 29th. Our True Parents want dancing inside the stadium, with lots of dance bands of all cultures, while the world’s greatest fireworks display is going off in the sky above the stadium. Father and Mother want to dance in joy with all the people. The spirit world wants to dance! God wants to dance!

So this will be a very significant campaign. Of course, the foundation is the grassroots, door-to-door, heart-to-heart life for the sake of others inside the beltway. That is our absolute contribution; it is what we can offer as no one else. But what is new, in America at least, is the preparation of the soil and the potential for important institutional revival, centered on marriage and family, beyond race, nation and religion. As Rev. Purnell Spicer put it, "we have the keys to the kingdom."

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