THE TRUTH HAS SET US FREE

Welcome Remarks of Rev. Byung Wooh Kim

Thanksgiving Celebration for Religious Freedom

Manila Polo Club

25 April 1998

 

 Rev. Byung Wooh Kim
 Mr. Speaker Jose De Venecia Jr., Reverend Kwak, Honored Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen:
In joy and gratitude -- and on behalf of the Unification Church -- I bid you all welcome. And I thank you for sharing this day with us.  As a religious congregation, we in the Unification Church gather often for all kinds of reasons and occasions. But perhaps there is none more special than what brings us here tonight.
Just a week ago, a huge cloud hung upon our church here in the Philippines. For more than two years, many of our leaders and members -- including our beloved founder and Holy Father Rev. Sun Myung Moon -- endured the humiliation of being investigated by government bodies and facing court charges for no other reason than that we practiced and lived our faith.


 

Now the cloud has been lifted. The words of the psalmist have beenfulfilled: " Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning."
As we always believed -- from the first day of our ordeal to the last -- we knew that this day of vindication would finally come.
We knew this day would come because God would never forsake those who were being persecuted for spreading His message of faith and hope. " Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free," says the Gospel of St. John. Those words never left us during our ordeal.
We also knew this day would come because here in the Philippines -- the only predominantly Christian country in Asia, and a famous citadel of democracy -- religious freedom is sacred. Righteous people would not allow the laws of this land to be perverted by a few. We have not been disappointed in that belief.
Those of you who are present here tonight have been our dear friends and supporters who worked tirelessly behind this victory.
The list of others who took part in the crusade for our rights contains many names. We can only regret the fact that they 

 

The accused together with Mrs. Kim (from Lt. to Rt)

Atty. Celso Talaba, Gen. Honesto Bumanglag, Mr. Federico V. Niduasa, Mrs. Cecile dy, Rev. Byung Wooh Kim, Rev. Chung Hwan Kwak, Atty. Gloria Larot, and Mr. Joseph Navalta

 
 

Rev. & Mrs. Byung Wooh Kim share moments of joy at thanksgiving Celebration

 
are not  here with us tonight. It includes men and women in the government -- such as President Fidel V. Ramos, Speaker Jose De Venecia Jr., and Justice Secretary Silvestre Bello III. It includes the leaders of other churches who sounded a ringing declaration on the sanctity of religious freedom. It includes men and women from academe like Brother Andrew Gonzales, who is here with us tonight. And it includes members of the media, without whose intercession our ordeal perhaps would not yet be over.
It is hard to find the words to thank each and everyone of you for your compassion and your caring. But perhaps the best way to show our gratitude is for us in the Unification Church to strive to be of even greater service to this country and to God. So this is what we pledge tonight.
And there is no better manifestation of this than the presence here tonight of Reverend Chung Hwan Kwak, President of Unification Church International and the Special Assistant of Reverend Moon. His coming here makes this day doubly proud and blessed for all of us.
Tonight, in this gathering of friends and brothers and sisters, we are conscious more than ever -- that we are part of something much bigger than ourselves. We are all members of the family of Christ, True Parents of all humankind. And nothing could inspire us more than His promise that what we give will be given back to us many times over.


May God bless and keep you always.
 
 

Download entire page and pages related to it in ZIP format
Table of Contents
Copyright Information
Tparents Home