Few in this world are better qualified to address contemporary challenges to humankind than Reverend Chung Hwan Kwak. Reverend Kwak represents a unique blend of Eastern Spiritual foundations fused with first hand familiarity with an extensive array of world cultures, not the least of which is the radically occidental impulses rooted in the North American situation. In addition to a rare grasp of concrete particulars of the world's major and minor cultures, Reverend Kwak's training is also one which substantially embraces scientific and technological impulses with spiritual insights and sciences.

Reverend Kwak's family is renowned in Korea for its spirituality and heroism. The village of his birth boasts an unusually high number of monuments testifying to the status of his clan. Yet even from such origins, his own career exceeds the record of his ancestry.

Reverend Kwak was born in Korea in 1936, and from these roots forged a distinguished career, and a proud record of service to humankind. His education includes degrees in Law, and in Western Philosophy from Korean Universities, and a number of international honorary doctorates since.

Reverend Kwak's early years were spent in conditions of hardship and poverty, as he conducted pioneer missions for the Unification Church. The resulting intimacy with spiritual reality has served him well over the years of ever greater responsibilities for professional, educational, ecclesiastical, and cultural organizations and events. The attached, abbreviated CV, shows and array responsibilities as heavy and as diverse as publishing a major daily newspaper in a world capital (The Segye Ilbo, Seoul), to serving as International Director of World Missions for Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity (HSA UWC). Most recently, Reverend Kwak has served as Chairman of the Organizing Committee of the vast and historical World Culture and Sports Festivals (1992, and 1995), both attended by over 100,000 people in each festival.

This blend of the humble and saintly life of a pioneer missionary, to the hard-hitting competitive life of an urban newspaper publisher, together with his first hand familiarity with diverse cultures including Korea, Japan, The Americas (North, Central, and South), the Middle East, and Africa (all from direct, extensive, first hand experience), position him to speak intelligently and with sufficient breadth to global issues such as those addressed in recent United Nations Summits.

The Inter Religious Federation for World Peace, of which Reverend Kwak is one of six presidents, has introduced well-regarded documents on the Environment (in Rio De Janeiro), and on Population (in Cairo). (The Beijing Meeting was addressed instead by the sister organization of the IRFWP. the Women's Federation for World Peace -- WFWP --).

Reverend Kwak would address the United Nations Habitat II, City Summit, as Chairman of the Board of the International Religious Foundation, and President of the Inter Religious Federation for World Peace. The content of his discourse thus pairs the benefits of a multi-religious perspective with the theological, technological, and lifestyle knowledge derived from his cooperation with current Unification based projects in areas of extreme challenge regarding food, shelter, and education. These include leadership roles in current community and industrial projects on Alaskan Islands, Central Brazilian river dwelling, and African Famine situations (particularly Rwanda). This latter arena has been served primarily through the agency of the International Relief Friendship Foundation (IRFF), a long standing relief organization which has worked with Cambodian

Refugees, established health and medical facilities, and has worked with United Nations organizations for famine relief in Rwanda.

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