2011

Simon Cooper
December 31, 2010

This is the first year we will experience "January 1st" without a holy day with in our community. So now we have about another month until February 3rd when we will celebrate God's day and True Parents' birthday. I guess that has now become the start of a new year in our religious calendar. Tonight we will have a New Year's Eve family party at 43LG. We have quite a lot of people coming and I have been doing my best to communicate with people the significance of having a social event, a party, together as a community, we can even invite our friends… sometimes feels like getting blood out of stone… Anyhow, I'll leave that topic for another blog.

There is also another group from our community who will be bringing in the New Year while taking part in the Original Divine Principle workshop down in Kent. One of the conclusions that can be drawn from the content packed program is that as blessed families we have a 'tribal messiah' mission to take up.

When we come together on a Sunday there should always be a growing sense of purpose and destiny. One of our main focuses in 2011 for our Lancaster Gate community church will be how we live as blessed families on the other 6 days of the week (Monday -- Saturday), how we are each able to make intentional steps towards taking up the 'tribal messiah' mission.

And that brings me to my next point of sharing:

On Saturday 22nd of January we have a very special program taking place in Livingstone House introducing people to the blessing and then on Sunday 23rd we will have a marriage blessing ceremony in Bromley, Kent. Please speak to someone about this program and pass on invitations in the next week. You can read the invitation here: www.marriageblessing.org/. Even if someone you invite can't make it, just having the conversation with people will be significant for their lives.

A friend of mine that I tried inviting last year, just broke up with her husband, and mentioned how she has another friend who also works in the city like her, and who broke up for the same reasons. They had both been meeting up for lunch over the last year, always telling each other how things at home with their husbands were fine, and never got round to sharing with each other about what she now realizes was a problem they could have supported each other over.

This is really at the heart of what True Parents come to do -- pass on God's blessing for people's marriages and families. The main question I have for myself is: "Can I get over myself, in order to be free to help them in this task; am I going to talk to anyone about it?" I am sure you may be asking yourself a similar question.

This program in January provides us with a very clear starting point for the year ahead. I hope in 2011 each of our families can make a plan for this mission we are all being encouraged to take up, and connect that into what is happening in our local community.

We have 881 family members in the UK and about 520 people pass through our worship services each Sunday. But lets say we are about 250 blessed families in the UK. Just imagine, for a crazy moment, if we were all to introduce one family, each year, over the next 10 years to a blessed life; and then imagine that each of those new families did the same because they got it into their heart that happiness comes from sharing God's blessing.

In 2020, the One True God would be present in our nation, in our families and in our relationships. As a movement we would have reached a tipping point of 128,000 families that acknowledge God's active presence in their lives and pledge their love for God, Nation and Family every day. They would bring joy to God by practicing a life of service and care for others in their family, community, and workplace.

How does that strike you as a vision? It is something that needs to be unpacked and discussed and debated, but for sure if we are to be a community that grows we need to buy into a shared vision.

As blessed families we want to teach people (our children, neighbors, friends, etc) how to discover their divinity and purpose; and we want to do that with more than simply words, but by reaching out in loving service.