40 Years in America

Seminary Life

Bruce Sutchar
Divinity Class of 1985

I entered the 40-day pre-seminary workshop immediately after the 1982 blessing. One special story concerns the first time that Father visited the seminary during my tenure there. It was in the fall of 1982. He came and spoke to us in the Faculty Dining Room. He talked about how we had to be able to do five things at the same time. These included the ability to do church work, do political work, work with the media, teach Divine Principle and do financial work. I will never forget Father’s words from this speech.

Afterwards Father took some of the Korean leaders fishing on the Hudson River. It was a cold, rainy, windswept day and Father was fishing under the Kingston Bridge nearly all day. We went down to Father’s house at the river to wait for him, but of course he did not come back for many, many hours. Gradually, nearly all of the students returned to the seminary. Eventually only a handful of students remained along with Dr. Young Oon Kim. The hours that we waited were among the most valuable of my three years at UTS. Dr. Kim shared with us during these several hours, telling us so many stories about her years with True Parents.

Eventually, as nightfall approached, we could hear the motor from Father’s boat. We ran down to the shore and I had the blessing of being right there when Father’s boat approached the dock. The boat was filled with beautiful striped bass, which would soon become Father’s dinner. I was able to thrust out my hand and help Father out of the boat and help pull him up on the shore.

A second benefit I derived from this experience was that this day was the beginning of a very special relationship which I developed with Dr. Young Oon Kim over the next three years that I was to be at UTS. I consider my relationship with her, both as my teacher, my elder sister, my advisor and my friend, to be among the most valuable experiences which I was to have at UTS.

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