Œ03 Commencement: Our 27th, will take place at 11 a.m. this Saturday, June 28, and all are welcome. UTS will bestow an honorary doctorate upon Pastor T. L. Barrett, Jr., of the Life Center Church of God in Christ, Chicago. Following the ceremony will be an outdoor entertainment program under a tent with music and dance East and West. All are more than welcome. A splendid time is guaranteed.

The Class Gift is a class gift: The 2003 class gift is worth noting. It is a 10' gazebo that arrived this morning. It is situated in the park north of the building, and is a superb addition to the grounds.

Father's Dwelling Place Prayer Ministry: Students are enjoying a spiritual and heartistic experience in fellowship late every Thursday night at the pond fireplace, under the moon and stars with a roaring fire, quacking ducks and chirping crickets. (The gnawing beaver has transitioned to a better place than here.)

Labyrinth: Our "labyrinth at UTS," the labor of love from Gillian and Chris Corcoran, is attracting the type who like to walk around in circles intentionally. Which I do at times, to be honest. It grows on you. Nearby along the axis of the labyrinth is a lovely prayer sanctuary created by neighbors on behalf of Andrew Byrne.

First Annual Voluntary Service Award: UTS has inaugurated a tradition to honor the student whose voluntary service and sacrifice made the greatest impact for good within the UTS community. This year's winner is Š sorry, the announcement will come at Commencement. But the person definitely deserves it and more.

Speaking of music: The UTS worship band has some recordings of our worship music (live) up on the web, thanks to lead guitarist Akira Ishiyama and his friend. Check it out at http://ilbonbu.tongil.or.kr/Ishiyama/Ishiyama.html. It ain't Mozart, but it ain't your 17 millionth time of singing song #6 either.

And, while I'm on the subject, the NewJerseyFamilyChurch.com Band sent me a CD of some of their live worship music. It talks, walks and rocks. Way to go New Jersey! I'm proud of y'all. Mr. Ishiyama will get that CD onto his web site a bit later.

Well, alumni, how's your local worship music?

Scholarly Research: A student here, Suichi Miyazaki, did a survey of our local Family Church on May 25, 2003, during worship, to see what the congregation thought about church music and what our band was doing. His conclusions: 90% said the number of songs (6) was just right or that there should be more. Regarding the volume, which is loud, okay? LOUD!, 80% said it is just right and "should be loud." 77% want a mixture of songs to sing and songs just to listen to. The congregation likes a variety of sources for the songs (holy songs 33%, American church songs 22%, traditional Christian songs 20%, contemporary Christian songs 13%, adapted rock songs 12%). Over half prefer "rock" as the style, with 23% preferring "just piano," 13% preferring no instruments at all, and 12% "other." I suspect the "other" includes what is called "unplugged" or "wooden" instrumentation. Mr. Miyazaki had 90 responses and controlled for age, gender and "Korean or non-Korean," but he did little analysis isolating those variables. For more information on the research, contact Suichi at miyashu21@hotmail.com.

More Research: Sang Pil Moon, a student here, carried out another interesting research project entitled "Survey About How They Come Into Our Church." The poll was taken of the Red Hook congregation on May 18, 2003, and he received 45 responses. Among his findings: 42% of Unification Church members joined through a relative or friend, 33% through a "stranger," 16% through a church leader, 5% on their own, and 8% "other." (Of interest is the result to the same question for general Christians, which reveals that 90% joined through a relative or friend and 0% through a "stranger.") Mr. Moon's opinion is that we dislike witnessing to our relatives and friends because of the negative public view of our church and because we do not want to subject those close to us to our "really hard way." The first exposure event for our members was a lecture (25%), Sunday Service (23%), evening program (17%), workshop (17%), "other" (15%), and True Father's speech (2%). The number of encounters with a member or program before joining was 6-10 (48%), more than 10 (32%), 1-2 (13%) and 3-5 (10%). Mr. Moon's observation is that it takes time, patience, love, prayer and conditions to convert people. The number of people who influenced our members to join was 3-5 (47%), 1-2 (38%), more than 10 (8%) and 6-10 (6%). His conclusion here is that spiritual parents need support from other members, such as in a small group. The "kind of church program" the member "connected with" was workshops (55%), a witnessing outreach program (12%), video center (12%), newspaper ad (6%) and Reverend Moon's speech (4%). Mr. Moon's observation is that the workshop is still important, but that we need other programs to support the new members' spiritual growth. Mr. Moon did not control for age, gender or nationality.

Mr. Moon carried out this research in connection with our visiting professor, Dr. Young Hwan Gil's lecture series entitled "Strategy for Hoondok Family Cell Explosion." Dr. Gil is carrying on impressive research and development in the arena of growing our church out of Sun Moon School of Theology, based upon research through graduates of his courses who are working throughout the world. He has published two books on the subject in Korean, and I have encouraged him to bring out translations.

Social science marches on. Typical successful ministers, by the way, say they glean their church growth strategies from sociology, not from theology.

Alumni Transfers: As was well publicized, World CARP leadership went through some transitions a couple of months ago, including UTS alums Jin Man Kwak, Tony Devine, Michael Balcomb. On the church side, the Regional Directors of Washington, DC, New York and New Jersey have rotated, with UTS alums Rev. Jeong Phyo Hong going to DC, Rev. In Hoi Lee to New York and Rev. Dong Woo Kim to New Jersey. Congratulations to all!

Summer Slate: A full round of building projects is online for the summer break, including restoration of the burned-out house at 199E, renovation of another dorm, rebuilding the Gate House roof, repair of the sewage treatment plant, and restoring walls of the small chapel and student lounge that have been damaged by a steam leak and seepage.

Recruitment Rapid Rewards: We have launched a program by which alumni (or anyone, for that matter) who send us a new person who submits an application form will receive a token of our gratitude amounting to $25, and if the applicant enrolls and completes a term, the finder will receive another $475. Call Godwin D'Silva or Gillian Corcoran, at 845-752-3000 ext 200.

That's it for now. Barrytown is beautiful, we have 8 students from the Extension Center graduating‹the first group to do so‹and we look forward to seeing you Saturday, at least in spirit, floating above the gazebo.

Sincerely, Tyler Hendricks

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