The Words of the Marion Family |
A UPF International Leadership Conference on “The Significance of Marriage and Family for Peace in the 21st Century” took place as part of the World Culture and Sports Festival and Blessing in Korea on October 12-15. The Conference focused on family issues around the world. The presenters addressed many topics concluding that lasting peace starts from a strong family and a good family originates in a harmonious individual. The Eurasian delegation included people from Armenia, Azerbaijan, Estonia, Latvia, Mongolia, People's Republic of China, Russia, Ukraine, and Uzbekistan.
The conference touched upon “God’s Original Ideal of Peace,” “Causes of Human Conflict,” and “Blessing for Peace.” A number of couples who attended the Blessing in the past gave their testimonies. The Holy Wine Ceremony took place on October 13.
The Eurasian Group had a Regional Meeting on October 12. This was beautiful to see husbands and wives together introducing each other. Dr. Katsumi Ohtsuka, the Eurasian Regional Chair, addressed the group about the importance of the Blessing movement and the need to uphold the family in the countries of Eurasia.
The next day, all delegates went to Sun Moon University and participated in the Blessing ceremonies. Dr. Vladimir Petrovsky from Moscow, who has been teaching at Sun Moon University, joined the group along with his daughter.
The Blessing ceremony was a wonderful event. All were uplifted to join 10.000 couples on the campus grounds. The participants wore beautiful white scarves. H.E. Rahim Huseynov brought the photo of his wife, who passed away several years ago. He said later that he put a scarf over the photo as well. He wanted to include his wife on that day. The ceremony itself and Rev. Kwak’s earlier intimate testimony about the spirit world and Blessing were very moving for him. Mr. and Mrs. Azizyan from Armenia, the enemy nation to Azerbaijan, later shared that they sat with him at the ceremony and observed the attitude of Rahim Huseynov towards his wife, and both cried. His love for her touched them.
On October 15, Rev. Moon invited all Ambassadors for Peace and their spouses who had participated in the conference to the Peace Palace. Interrupting the schedule, he immediately started to speak and continued for five hours. A few people became quite restless during such a long speech. Mr. Huseynov, took a seat very close to the stage, and when Rev. Moon went to the stage, they nodded to each other. Mr. Huseynov remained attentive throughout the speech, taking the content to heart.
At first glance, Rev. Moon touched on many unrelated topics, and his speech did not seem systematic. Nevertheless, as participants returned to the hotel, they expressed amazement at some of the content and at his style of delivery. A medical doctor from Latvia said that Rev. Moon gave surprisingly precise medical facts about human bones that are only known by professionals, and furthermore, he spoke about some of the newest developments in medical equipment. Her husband pointed out that Rev. Moon’s way of “finger counting” actually relates well to contemporary numerological science. A distinguished Ukrainian leader was fascinated by the way Rev. Moon related with individuals in the audience, about the way he is leading the peace movement, and his quick memory. A Russian compared his own age to Rev. Moon’s and was taken aback by the physical stamina of someone his age and the relaxed way he related with the audience.