The Words of the Davies Family |
UPF-NL Peace Festival
Christopher Davies
April 20, 2008
Huize Glory, Bergen aan Zee, Nord Holland
UPF-NL held its first Peace Festival of 2008 on April 20, starting 10.00am, in Huize Glory, Bergen aan Zee, Nord Holland.
After a group song, an invocation, and a solo, "Bless This House", by Eleanor Klerkx, MC Hans Campman introduced the guest speaker.
Sheik Abdul Aziz Bukhari, who lives in the old city of Jerusalem and has long been active in seeking to bring peace to that area and works closely with UPF on its Middle East Peace Initiative programs, spoke very easily and fulsomely about the importance of religious people working together for peace. He himself is very much involved in interfaith dialogue for peace and promoting the understanding that the children of Abraham are brothers and sisters, who should not fight. He said appreciated very much "Father Moon's" Middle East Peace Initiative and teachings, which focuses on reconciliation by reaching out to the heart of the people of Israel and Palestina and bringing them together for dialogue and service projects. The Sheik asked us to become like candles giving light. We need many candles and if all these candles combine their efforts, a strong light for peace will shine and change the world.
Sheik Bukhari asserted that God loved Jerusalem, but the people were suffering. "And everyone is suffering because of Jerusalem. Jerusalem is the heart of the world, and when the heart is sick, everyone is sick". He said there was so much suffering and bloodshed "and everything in the name of God".
"But God does not want this bloodshed, it is evil. Why does a brother kill his brother? To be in power or to get rich? But what about when you die? All your power and wealth will not help you. Everyone will have a Judgment Day. God will ask what you have done in your life. Death comes suddenly without telling you. God asks what you have done. You have no memo, no words come; but God knows. In this world, we lie to each other and ourselves, but God knows your purpose, there is no way you can lie to God. Truth always comes out. We forget what we are given to do for our next life. We live a short live here, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80 years, then on to the next life. When you travel somewhere, you normally prepare your bag, but, unfortunately, many people forget about the second life. You can’t live in this life just for yourself, you need to wish for others even more than you wish for yourself."
"It is difficult to hope for others more than you hope for yourself, but Father Moon has this vision. You are like the candle, burning yourself to give live to others. You need to be like a mother living for her baby. How often does a mother wake up to change the diapers, feed and look after her baby. That’s how we should be for others, not just our own children. Nobody wants to do that, but that’s what we should do."
"In old times, if a person knew his neighbor was without food, he would give; but no more, we are always busy, doing things for ourselves"
"To be an Ambassador for Peace is not for self, but for others."
"There’s a story of a person who was drowning. Another person, in a boat, said ‘if you don’t know how to swim, why did you jump in the water?’ We try to lecture others about right and wrong, without reaching out with our hands to help. The drowning man says, ‘Get me back on my feet, then you can lecture me.'"
"Everyone tells those in the Middle East what to do, without helping people get back on their feet. Father Moon comes to the Middle East and through MEPI holds conferences and other activities to get people back on their feet, helping others as Ambassadors for Peace."
"If I call you a bad name, I quickly make an enemy. But it takes much longer to make a friend. You must take time and listen. Father Moon’s trips make friends by the hundreds, because they reach for your heart, try to find the soft spot to be attached to. To lecture with a heavy voice, pretending you are smart, elegant, smart, will not go to the heart. Smiling is the key to opening the heart. You can’t reach someone with a hard, harsh heart, you need a soft voice. This we use to make contact with the enemy."
"Jews call Arabs the enemy -- and vice-versa. Go back 4,000 years. Father Abraham had two sons, Ishmael and Isaac. The two brothers separated, Ishmael went to Saudi Arabia, Isaac stayed in the Holy Land. They are the ancestors of the Arabs and Jews. In reality, they are brothers, but the reality is also that they harm and kill each other."
"We may think of God as full of power; but He is also full of love. We forget what love means. We must prepare ourselves to be Ambassadors for Peace. You must live for a good cause, for others, otherwise your life has no meaning or value, just to eat, work and die. That is not the purpose of God. We must be a messenger, to bring a message of love and peace, and that’s the true purpose for each person in this world. We want to be that person, to be somebody, to live and work for a vision."
"You may want to be a doctor, but a doctor needs patients or he has no purpose. You must have a vision, have a purpose in life and live for it. Father Moon’s vision is to help others, to be the candle to help others see. But what is the effectiveness of one candle? If you have 100 candles, you are very strong. You cannot work for peace alone. As such, you are just one candle in a dark room. But when we are many, we can be seen by others. Working as a group, a community, we can make changes, as one family."
"I’m 60 years old; I don’t know how long I’ll last. Don’t count on us, we need fresh, strong blood to work for peace. Most groups come to my center in the old city, the Via Dolorosa, near the first Station of the Cross, everyone knows me. God Bless you and help you and keep well."
Hans Campman thanked Sheik Bukhari, "this touched us" and explained further how the Via Dolorosa was said to be the path that Jesus walked on the way to his crucifixion and a major part of the "Stations of the Cross".
UPF-NL Secretary General Wim Koetsier gave the main UPF Peace Address. Sheik Bukhari had "said it all already", he began, then explained he would like to convey something of Father Moon’s vision of how to bring true peace. UPF-NL was in the process of being registered; he responded to Sheik Bukhari’s remark that it was already registered (presumably he meant with God), "yes, but Caesar requires it; for God, all goodness is registered and He wants to take out evil, but that also requires our efforts". Much of his rich introduction to UPF was informed by the document UPF-NL is using for its registration in the Netherlands.
"UPF asserts that mankind is created to live as one family under God, the source of True Life and True Love. God is the source of ‘universal values’ which are taught by all religions and may in addition be observed in nature, also in our own bodies. The highest qualities of human beings are spiritual and moral. Certainly, we need economic growth for society to flourish, but we also, actually first, need spiritual growth: and that would also benefit the economy! The family, nuclear and extended, is the best school of love and peace. Education needs to include training for marriage and family life."
People often said that one should not mix religion and politics, even arguing that religion caused conflicts, but was that true? A Vietnamese fishing boat was sunk by a Chinese ship over a fishing dispute. Officially they were comrades, all citizens of atheistic countries, but putting aside religion did not avoid conflict. So-called left wing dictators tended to cling on to power more vigorously than military ‘right wing’ dictators. Mugabe was the latest example. The Chinese sent arms to support him and the South African government said they had no legal ways of stopping the ship carrying them. But the dockers refused to unload the cargo. The leader of the opposition party in Zimbabwe said it would have been better to send food! Conflict does not come fom religion, it comes from within me, the individual -- and religious teachers want to help solve that conflict -- if you really want to listen."
Our physical life was preparation for the spiritual world. In the womb. We were fed by the placenta, but that was discarded when we were born: our lungs and intestines had developed when we were still unborn and now enabled us to breathe and digest food. Rev. Moon said that on earth we needed to develop our spiritual lungs, to breathe love.
The history of Europe was full of fighting, but after World War Two, nations developed the vision of working together. France and Germany started practically, to limit their ability to develop their own arms industry by cooperating in the European Coal and Steel Community.
Maybe in the Middle East a canal could be dug from the Mediterranean to the Dead Sea. The difference in level would enable electricity to be generated. This would be of material benefit and could also be a project to unite the people in the region.
Rev. Moon proposed linking America and Russia across the Bering Strait. Why? Practically, it would help the development of Siberia, Alaska and Canada, where there were lots of minerals and energy. It would also be a project on which the US, Russia, China and Canada could work together. Indeed it would be a world project. It had been estimated that it would be a similar stimulus for development as the railroad had been in the early USA. Maybe this project would also be a way of benefiting from the effects of climate change. This was very much on politicians’ agendas now. Wars also created a lot of carbon dioxide -- and destroyed nature as well as people. Regarding the ongoing concern about energy, he commented that many thought energy was limited but scientists had mentioned that the sun gave us as much energy in one minute as we used in a year!
"We should worry more about how to follow the guidance of the Creator than about energy problems and climate change. God is a God of abundance! If we follow his guidance prosperity and peace will come. Now everything has been prepared to leap forward into the society God intended. Let us work together to fulfill God's dream!"
His talk was followed by communal singing of "Song of the Banquet", inspired by the ideals and aims of UPF.
Six members of Youth Service Initiative (YSI), a training program for young people, talked of their experiences in Ghana, West Africa, supplementing their speaking with a slide-show.
Yebuny Chandler explained the YSI was a peace project and one basic thing she had realized was that peace was not a thing, but about relationship, an attitude, a way of life. We heard of what went wrong with Cain and Abel and Isaac and Ishmael, our challenge was to try and help, save the drowning person, first in our team then try to inspire others, especially other young people, creating a "youth culture of service".
YSI is based in Utrecht and has participated in projects in Israel/Palestine, with Faith Link, and more recently in Ghana, West Africa. They are now each developing their own projects, working with new partners. They hope to create Youth Service Initiators.
In Ghana, they worked on two projects in late March and early April. On the first, they had worked with Religious Youth Service (RYS), 25 altogether, with a trainer from the US and a Ghanaian organizer (Yebuny was impressed that while many young Ghanaians wanted to seek a better life in another country, this young man wanted to stay in Ghana, to do what he could to make things better). Christians, Moslems and Unificationists worked together for two weeks to lay the foundation for a village canteen and library.
Flora Robertson particularly loved the streets being full of music and the children calling ‘eboni’ (white man) when they saw them, she would like to go back for a few months to help looking after children.
Yebuny said the experience had helped her understand Rev. Moon's exhortation "think globally, act locally" and had given her more ‘oomph’ (energy, power, commitment) to carry on with work at home. The people they met had a difficult life, they had to work hard, but their relationships were a central point. "We think we Westerners can help Africa, but we can learn so much from them."
Though the status of women is still generally rather low, the chief of the village was actually a woman, and she had made Yebuny a Sub Queen Chief, with the title Queen of Friendship. For a day, she had been waited on, not allowed to do anything, she was glad it was at the end of their visit! Through the relationship, friendship, you could really build something.
Following the YSI presentation, Christopher Davies sang his "Sparkle Song" and Wim Koetsier announced upcoming UPF activities in the Netherlands and abroad. Referring to MEPI, he mentioned that Rev. Moon initiated many projects, though aware of UPF’s limitations, hoping others would join in and support and carry on. Thinking of Huize Glory’s location on the sea, he suggested we follow Sheik Bukhari’s image of candles, to join together so we might be a lighthouse or a 2,000 candle power beamer for world peace. With the cooperation of people like Martin Luther King III, he felt we were helping people realize we need to develop more vision, not just economic plans.
After a Toast to World Peace, Eleanor Klerkx sang "Last Night I had the Strangest Dream", followed by William Blake’s "Jerusalem" in honor of Sheikh Bukhari, and everyone enjoyed an excellent lunch.
Ambassadors for Peace attending included Henna Linger, who is the founder of Sentinelzorg, a social help agency with a difference. She recently spoke at UPF-NL’s centre in Amsterdam; Bruce Cerew, from Africa, who announced his soon to be published book "War Child"; and Sayed Taheri, chairman of Stichting Nasr which supports projects in his native Afghanistan, who was very happy to meet Sheikh Abdul Aziz Bukhari, who invited him to visit him in his home. Commenting on Sheikh Bukhari talking of 100 candles being strong, and the more individualistic culture of the Netherlands being rather lonely compared with the communal, extended family culture of Afghanistan, Sayed Taheri mentioned that in Afghanistan "we say God is one, but humans need to live with others."
Of course, Rev. Moon says, more explicitly than most other teachers that God also needs company, most especially that of humans. Fariba Hessabi and Ferry Wever, two of the many AfPs working for democracy in Iran, were unable to attend but they sent their best wishes. Also present, from Almere, were members of the Sufi group Association Internationale Soufie Alawiya (AISA), based in France and headed by Sheik Khaled Bentounes, who was interviewed by Wim Koetsier for UPF-NL and awarded an Ambassador for Peace certificate when he visited his congregation in Utrecht, who had been asked to greet Sheik Bukhari on behalf of their spiritual master.