The Words of the Moon Family

Seung Ryong Moon's Ascension

June 4, 2012


Father at right, Seung Ryong Moon holding the lid of the pot, and a mutual friend cook a meal together at their lodgings in Seoul, around 1939

True Father's grandfather Chi Gook Moon had two younger brothers. The youngest, Yoon Gook, was the famous patriot about whom we have heard True Father speak. The middle brother, Shin Gook, was the grandfather of Seung Ryong Moon, True Father's second cousin.

Just fourteen months younger than True Father, the two played together as children and attended the same schools, even studying together in Seoul in the late 1930s.

Seung Ryong Moon ascended to the spirit world on 4.15 (June 4, 2013) at the age of 91. He was one of five or six close relatives of True Father who ended up in South Korea following the Korean War. The Korean War scattered people across the peninsula; it was fortuitous that Seung Ryong rediscovered his older cousin in the mid-1950s in Seoul -- and eventually joined his church.

By that time, our church and its founder were already targets of persecution, and to associate with them was to risk everything. Seung Ryong Moon was already a deacon in his own Christian church and had a stable professional position. Even so, as he later testified to his son Jin Ho, he felt the atmosphere at the Unification Church was different and the prayers had a very different quality.

Whereas at his own church, prayers were mainly for God to grant favors or bestow material blessing, in Sun Myung Moon's church, prayers were mainly for the nation, the world and for the relief of human suffering. He took the leap and joined in 1957.

In 1961 he was blessed among the 36 couples. At that time, Father was developing our church's businesses in earnest. He asked his cousin to help him run the new ventures and Seung Ryong Moon devoted his life in their service. Their closeness of heart is reflected in the message True Father wrote: Congratulations on your Seonghwa and entry into the heavenly nation, blood brother of heavenly heart Chairman Seung Ryong Moon. 

Table of Contents

Tparents Home

Moon Family Page

Unification Library