Chapter 2 The Unification Movement in Korea

 

 

 

 

 

1990 - The Unification of My Country

 

 

Reverend Moon, who had walked an unprecedentedly lonely and thorny path, celebrated his seventieth birthday on February 1, 1990.

After praying at midnight to mark the beginning of the new year, Reverend Moon wrote the motto The Unification of My Country in Chinese calligraphy and offered the following explanation:

"Today, the world, neither democratic nor communist, has been facing an era without an owner since the day the cruel and entrenched dividing line centered on East and West Germany was broken. Now North and South Korea as well as Kim Il Sung are standing in an excruciatingly difficult position because of the atmosphere of freedom sweeping the Eastern block. They know that they have to reaffirm their position and that their foundation is shaking. The South, which is prepared for this, is facing the same destiny."

Reverend Moon had returned to Korea on December 23, 1989. Greeting the new year, he said,

"We should establish a universal perspective, a national perspective, a perspective as a people, a tribal perspective, and a family perspective centered on God, together with repentance and the unification of our mind and body."

Reverend Moon held a national church leaders meeting at the International Training Center on January 20, and explained how to develop the church. He earnestly entreated members to fulfill their tribal messiah responsibility when they returned to their hometown province, to hang up the unification flag, and to strengthen and educate the local government leaders as soon as possible.

Reverend Moon's seventieth birthday was celebrated with a variety events from February 1 to 6. These included the Second Summit Council for World Peace (SCWP), the Eighth Conference of the Association for the Unity of Latin America (AULA), an Invitational Scholars Overseas Academic Conference, a cultural evening in honor of Reverend Moon's seventieth birthday, and a special performance of Giselle by the Universal Ballet. In addition, a collection of books celebrating Reverend Moon's birthday was published (in Korean).

They were: Vol. 1 God's Will and Man's responsibility, Vol. 2: Godism and the Ideal World, Vol. 3: Reverend Moon's Prayers, Vol. 4: Sun Myung Moon and His Achievements, Vol. 5: The Unification Church in the World, Vol. 6: The Unification Church in the World, Vol. 7: Sun Myung Moon and the Religious Federation Movement, Vol. 8: Sun Myung Moon and Unification Thought, Vol. 9: Sun Myung Moon and the International Federation for Victory Over Communism, Vol. 10: Sun Myung Moon and Korean Intellectual Society, Vol. 11: The College Principle Movement, Vol. 12: A Collection of Reverend Moon's Slogans in Chinese Calligraphy, and Vol. 13: Taking the Taeguk Flag (The National Flag of Korea) to the World (An illustrated work).

According to the flow of the providence, meetings to "Welcome True Parents," celebrating Reverend and Mrs. Moon as the True Parents in this era, were held in major cities throughout America. The meetings took place, in  grand style, in six cities between February 20 and 25. Church leaders, IFVOC leaders, and representatives of each eup (town), myon (village), and dong (ward) of five provinces in North Korea, overseas members mobilized in Korea, branch managers of the Segye Ilbo, and Tong-Il Group executives including those from Il Hwa Company participated.

Reverend Moon returned to America on February 28. Meeting to "Welcome True Parents" were held in San Francisco on March 2 and in New York on March 31, attended by audiences totaling five thousand.

Climbing step by step toward the summit of the providence, Reverend Moon visited Moscow, the capital of the Soviet Union. There, he held the 11th World Media Conference, the 3rd Summit Council for World Peace, and the 9th Conference of the Association for the Unity of Latin America simultaneously, with six hundred distinguished participants from the world of media, and forty present and former heads of government. Reverend Moon met personally with President Mikhail Gorbachev at the Kremlin, and they had sincere discussions on the fundamental problems facing humankind, including the opening of diplomatic relations and economic cooperation between the Soviet Union and Korea, the unification of North and South Korea, and the issue of religious freedom.

Rallies welcoming Reverend and Mrs. Moon on their victorious return from Moscow were held in twelve cities throughout Korea during the month of May, before audiences totaling 3000,000, and, capturing the momentum, Reverend Moon established the Federation for World Peace in Washington DC on June 1, as an organization for the realization of permanent peace for humanity. Seeing that humankind, who had been yearning for lasting world peace throughout history, now realized that it was a possibility, Reverend Moon proposed the establishment of the Federation for World Peace, asserting that such task had to be achieved in the last decade of the twentieth century.

Reverend Moon also reached an agreement with the Soviet authorities to educate Soviet students in America, and regular Principle-based seminars (International Leadership Seminars) were held for students from the Soviet Union From July 1, 1990. This was the period of time when what Reverend Moon had said in his God's Day speech- that there was no owner for either the democratic or the communist world-was clearly illustrated. Twenty-nine professors and 351 college students chosen from forty-six universities from across the Soviet Union participated in the International Leadership Seminars for college students. Four seminars were held in the United States between July 1 and August 20. Principle training, sponsored by both APN (Agentstvo Pechati Novosti) and CARP, was carried out from the end of October.

On July 13, meanwhile, the church in Korea dispatched missionaries on a large scale for the first time in its history. They volunteered to be missionaries on October 17, 1989 following a direction from Reverend Moon, in a speech at Hannam-dong official residence, that the Korean church leaders should be sent out as missionaries to convey God's will and the heart of True Parents, to be queath the tradition, and to develop the missions. From that day on they made preparations to go out to their new mission countries.

The Second Assembly of the World's Religions was held in San Francisco from August 16 with five hundred participants including religious leaders, scholars, and dignitaries from seventy nations. Reverend Moon clarified the way forward in his keynote founder's address:

"Now is the time to develop within each religion true love, which is the origin and basic element of world peace, and by practicing in faithfully, to deploy and all-encompassing movement, the Inter-Religious Federation for World Peace."

Leadership rallies in preparation for combined North and South Korean elections were held throughout Korea from November 11. These rallies, which continued until June 1991, were held to prepare for the crucial unification of the Koran peninsula at the time when the wave of the providence was moving to ward the Pacific Rim, and the Korean peninsula in particular, following the unification of East and West Germany and the restructuring and opening of the Soviet and Eastern Bloc.

Reverend Moon returned to Korea on October 1, presided over a number of events, and departed for America on October 13. Returning to Korea again, he carried out personnel changes including appointing Sung-pyo Hang as president of the church in Korea and Young-whi Kim, chairman of the Citizens Federation for the Unification of the Fatherland and of IFVOC, to the post of chairman of the board of the HSA-UWC Foundation. Wanting a young and vital church, Reverend Moon assigned CARP president Bong-tae Kim as a vice-president of the church in charge of the Student Department. Meanwhile, Reverend Moon replaced the district church leaders with young church leaders and appointed former district leaders to lead other organizations within the movement. From this time, therefore, the age of the Second Generation began in earnest.

Notable events this year included:

March 15: Unification Church in Taiwan received legal recognition after fifteen years underground.

April 3: Inaugural Ceremony of Japanese mobile witnessing team.

May 23-26: Korean-Japanese Security Council's one hundredth meeting.

July 22: Unification Church in Japan held student rally of ten thousand.

August 20 to September 16, October 12 to November 4: Large-scale Korean leaders' training in America.

 

 

 

 

 

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