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Inter-Religious Federation for World Peace
On August 27, 1991, True Parents established the Inter-Religious Federation for World Peace (IRFWP) in Seoul at an event with 2,000 religious leaders from 34 countries. True Parents gave IRFWP the mission to unite religions and lead humanity on the path to peace.
Immediately thereafter, they gathered former and current presidents and prime ministers from 51 nations and founded the Federation for World Peace. True Parents stated that the Inter-Religious Federation for World Peace, which represented the religious realm, and the Federation for World Peace, which represented the political realm, must become one like mind and body and take the lead in realizing world peace.
1. In His providence to save the world, God founded different religions among people from different cultural backgrounds. Some are servant-type religions and others are child-type religions.
People have not understood this. These religions must become one with a parent-type religion. Therefore, the servant-type religion is required to teach us how to serve in the household. When the age of the parent-type religion comes, the child-type religion must teach us how to become one body with the parents in the household.
Therefore, we must come to attend God as our Parent. Serving eminent religious leaders is preparation for attending God as our Parent.
When you look at the doctrines of different religions, you see they have similar core principles. It is an error to think that the oldest religion is the best. The parent-type religion appears with the purpose of joining the people of the world.
Why do the faithful of each religion serve their founders? It is to gain training to serve the Parents. This teaching we are setting forth can lead to a revolution of higher dimension within the religious sphere.
With this, we have openly proclaimed that my wife and I are the ones who received the call of heaven as the representatives of the religion of the True Parents.
Religious leaders signed a statement launching the Inter-Religious Federation for World Peace. Until today, no one thought that religions could be combined into one framework. This is a historic occasion. (205-272, 1990/10/01)
2. Until now, politics and science have opposed religion, but now for the first time, the unification of human thought is possible centering on True Parents. The realms of religion, politics, and science are coming together.
We can see from an external viewpoint that communism and democracy, representing Cain and Abel, are fighting for control over the world of politics. We founded the Inter-Religious Federation for World Peace centering on the religious realm, and the Federation for World Peace centering on the political realm, to bring us into the age when Cain and Abel will end their conflict.
(215-065, 1991/02/06)
3. From the viewpoint of God's Will, most of the things I have to accomplish are done. The rest is to be done by the Federation for World Peace for the external world and the Inter-Religious Federation for World Peace for the internal world.
The IRFWP represents the standard by which the mind can bring about mind-body oneness. In God's providence, history progressed based on sacrifices made in wars involving religion and politics.
These two should strive to achieve oneness. The fulfillment of that purpose is close at hand. Who can bring together the religious and political worlds? There must be a nation and people in a position to do that.
This should be done either by a country or by a coalition of religious organizations. This task remains before us. (208-043, 1990/11/15)
4. Parents are necessary for the world's religions. Judaism has conflicts with Islam, Buddhism fights its rival religious groups, and Christian denominations fight with each other. We observe that people of those faiths will stop fighting when they attend events together and cultivate relationships.
However, if True Parents do not initiate meetings like this, such relationship-building is completely impossible. Therefore, renowned scholars and government leaders have realized that without True Parents nothing can be accomplished.
Focusing on this reality, we brought these leaders together, and on August 27, 1991, we created the worldwide institution called the Inter-Religious Federation for World Peace. (248-174, 1993/08/03)
5. Religions have developed from servant religions, adopted-child religions, stepchild religions, and child religions to a mother religion and the parent religion.
The mother religion is Christianity, and the parent religion is the Unification Church. It began as the religion of the father and then became the religion of the True Parents.
To teach the theory behind this, we gathered the leaders of religious groups to create the Inter-Religious Federation for World Peace. We must teach this theoretical viewpoint to everyone because countries and their leaders do not know how to advance.
Politics and religion conflict, reflecting the mind-body division wrought by the human Fall, with politics representing the body and religion the mind. Unless we can unite them, there will be no way to achieve world peace.
(236-220, 1992/11/08)
6. To end the division of the mind and body brought about by the Human Fall, True Parents emerged from the sphere of religion, representing the heart, and have now extended themselves into the sphere of politics.
On August 27, 1991, the Inter-Religious Federation for World Peace noted that politics traditionally has sacrificed religion, just as the body defies the mind.
It is said that until now, the world of the body has always dominated the world of the mind, but now the world of the mind must shape the world of the body. The era is dawning when the world of the mind can influence the world of the body.
Once we take control of our body with our mind as the center, the path to peace will unfold before our eyes. This must happen in the realm of our daily lives. Throughout history's course, religion, science, and politics could not be harmonized. We must be able to bring them into oneness. (219-227, 1991/09/08)
7. There should not be incongruent roads to world peace. Politics and religion must move in the same direction. It is a fundamental principle that the mind, guided by the religious realm, should control the body.
Therefore, religion must lead. The Inter-Religious Federation for World Peace was founded on August 27, 1991, and included 12 major religions. Next, religious representatives from more than 40 countries are to be included. We must set sail to a world of peace under the navigation of the Interreligious Federation for World Peace. (219-075, 1991/08/25)
8. To solve the bitter sorrow in history that resulted from the division of mind and body, we must connect the communist world to the democratic world and make them as one.
Religion represents the world of the mind and politics represents the world of the body. By clarifying the great moral principles of heavenly law and ending the fight between mind and body, centering on the mind, we will establish the absolute oneness of human nature and values and, centering on perfected Adam, who possesses those values, we will establish the perfection of Eve and a unified value perspective. This creates a peaceful order at the family level.
Centering on the worldwide perspective, which is connected to the national perspective, and the national perspective, which is connected to the people perspective, and the people perspective, which is connected to the tribal perspective, and the tribal perspective, which is centered upon the subject-partner perspective of that peaceful family, we are going to bind together the cosmos utilizing actual relationships of love.
When such a world and cosmos are a reality, we naturally will live by the public laws, regulations and social systems of love and true freedom.
(208-152, 1990/11/17)
Interreligious and International Federation for World Peace
True Parents founded the Interreligious and International Federation for World Peace (IIFWP) on February 6, 1999, to connect our international foundation, centered on the UN, with our interreligious foundation.
The interreligious and international visions were merged into one through the establishment of organizations to elevate the work of the UN, with the founding of the Interreligious and International Peace Council (IIPC) on October 3, 2003, and of the Universal Peace Federation (UPF) on September 12, 2005.
9. True Parents have not had even one day of rest. We are working to restore even the United Nations. We received a global commendation called the World Peace Award from a global association of non-governmental organizations (NGOs).
As a result of its research into our 40 years of work, that association came to respect True Parents and its personnel volunteered to attend the IIFWP conference at the UN on August 17 of this year.
The term “interreligious” in its name means “beyond religious,” calling us to establish a standard that transcends religion. The term “international” likewise means “transnational,” as it calls the UN to operate beyond nationality.
Accordingly, True Parents have the desire to gather and edify the world's most eminent religious figures and political leaders. By doing so, we certainly will help them excel in their callings. (331-231, 2000/09/03)
10. The term “interreligious” does not fit with religions as they have existed up to now. We must present a new global pathway for religions. The term “international,” or “transnational,” is a term that does not fit with the political climate of the UN as it has been up to now.
These words mean “transcending nationality and religion.” In the same vein, I have been preparing an institution that will take us beyond the present media and financial structures to impact the direction of the world.
With this in mind, we have created an institution to link to the UN, which we have named the Interreligious and International Federation for World Peace.
Now we must gather the NGOs in various fields and elevate the work of the UN. UN member nations have welcomed our assemblies and our arts and science conferences; they know the UN needs these insights. $ (324-165, 2000/06/23)
11. It is clear that the UN requires a deliberative body made up of religious leaders as an upper house, and a deliberative body of political leaders as a lower house. Their role would be to cooperate, not to confront each other as though they were a ruling party and an opposition party.
Currently, there is a clear separation between religion and politics. If we create an upper house and a lower house in the UN, the religious realm naturally will participate in guiding the political realm.
In the future, we will surpass the current dysfunctional system of elections. Through good education, we can go beyond the conflicts rooted in religious factions and political corruption.
Our ideal transcends religions and nations. Religions and nations are not in the position of enemies but must love each other and achieve harmony.
(329-217, 2000/08/09)
12. Presently, the UN cannot shed the environment of nationalism, and this means that the UN also cannot transcend religious boundaries. It needs the thought of True Parents, reflecting Godism and head-wing thought. In the future, a UN that cannot go beyond nationalism and religious boundaries will fail miserably.
For the UN to transcend these limitations, it requires our help. This is why I established the Abel-type Federation of Island Nations for World Peace, Federation of Peninsular Nations for World Peace,e and Federation of Continental Nations for World Peace. Centering on these, I am creating the Abel UN.
(326-257, 2000/07/14)
13. The American motto “One Nation under God” must be elevated by the Abel UN to “One World under God.” If this happens, everything can be included naturally.
“One Nation Under God” still allows for the potential for nationalism and the domination of weaker nations by stronger ones.
The post-Second World War international system tried to influence the world with a system based on the viewpoint of the war's victors. However, because the system was defined by those countries, it could not develop to transcend nationality with a transnational worldview.
Accordingly, we founded the Interreligious and International Federation for World Peace.
We must transcend even the current UN. This is the idea behind the World Association of Non-Governmental Organizations (WANGO).
The UN should function as an extended family. It should become on sign of family morality and ethics, which God formed as the ideal of creation. Our teaching will connect all of this. (341-094, 2000/12/31)
14. With the start of the new millennium, we are rapidly heading toward one world. We are leaving behind the era of “One Nation under God” and going toward “One Cosmos under God.”
The world of one great family and one global village, which I explained already, is emerging. However, there are two serious obstacles to realizing this ideal: racial discrimination and religious discord.
In particular, conflicts among religions represent the most serious impediment to a peaceful world. God did not create denominations and sects. Religion itself is a byproduct of the Fall.
The movement to break down all varieties of national boundaries and head to a world of peace, which I already clarified at the UN, is rapidly developing.
The IIFWP is taking the lead, and on that foundation, the WANGO is rapidly expanding its influence from the UN headquarters across five continents and six oceans. (347-169, 2001/07/04)
15. There are thousands of NGOs in the world. Any given country might have more than 3,000. So the IIFWP can organize general meetings and mobilize the NGOs. WANGO is a global network that transcends the UN.
The Women's Federation for World Peace (WFWP) was the first of four organizations through which provided education in the 2000s. No nations will oppose the direction of WANGO, the IIFWP, the WFWP, and the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification.
These organizations are in more than 160 countries. We have broken through normal limitations, and no one can deny that. (343-035, 2001/01/15)
Sun Myung Moon