On behalf of True Mother, Sun-jin Moon, director general of the FFWPU International Headquarters, spoke on August 10, 2014, at the Millennium Seoul Hilton Hotel during the Opening Plenary: Global Assembly of the Universal Peace Federation’s World Summit 2014. She began by personally addressing the audience and then read the Founders’ Address.
Good morning, anyonghaseyo! Our family wishes to extend to each of you our sincere gratitude for your attendance and participation in this significant World Summit, dedicated to peace and human development. We are deeply moved to welcome and work with so many high-level leaders from virtually every field who have come here to Seoul despite your busy schedules.
No other cause or goal can surpass what we all know to be the single calling we have in our hearts today; that is, to realize a world of true peace, joy, and prosperity for all. We gather here united family under God on this historic day, commemorating the second anniversary of my father’s passing. In this way, we honor his legacy, his life’s mission, and his treasured teachings, which call us to build a world of harmony, kinship, service, and faith, and to commit ourselves in service to all of God’s children around the globe.
My father tirelessly dedicated every waking moment of his physical life to teaching us to work together to apply the principles of peace through true love. True love reaches out to everyone, globally, even to our enemies. The lifeline of this global consciousness eternally links us to our Creator.
It is what guides and calls us to live our lives for the sake of others and is the only force that can bring the entire world into balance. True love is our eternal quest, from the time of our birth, throughout our physical lives, and even beyond our earthly existence, until we attain everlasting peace.
Why, then, do we find ourselves during very trying and peaceful times?
Although we know in our hearts the peace and love we desire, it constantly evades us on a personal, family, tribal, national, and global level. Now more than ever we are faced with the impending disharmony of war, disease, famine, environmental destruction, greed, corruption, and human rights violations, throughout the globe, threatening all members of the human family.
Your Excellencies, religious leaders, ambassadors for peace, distinguished delegates from throughout the world, now more than ever, the world needs you.
Our family is absolutely and wholeheartedly committed to this cause, and we will do our utmost to stand side by side with every one of you and your families to create one peaceful world under God.
It was always my father’s tradition to deliver the Founders’ Address at the start of a major conference. My mother, Dr. Hak-Ja Han Moon, now takes up that task. Since my dear father’s passing in September 2012, my mother has led the way in carrying forward the development of our worldwide movement. I have witnessed her Stoic and unwavering efforts to reconcile, reorganize, restore, and recalibrate all the organizations of our worldwide movement to build a world of lasting peace.
As you can imagine, her responsibilities are overwhelming. As a result, she has asked me to assist her in various capacities as she leads our global movement and prepares for the second commemoration ceremony. Therefore, she has asked me to deliver the Founders’ Address today on her behalf.
We are eternally grateful for our mother who has walked down and survived this incredible path of service and true love with our father. She has been an unconditional source of love, healing, and encouragement, and a tower of strength for our movement, a true shining example of living for the sake of others.
I am sorry to be the one to deliver this speech this morning, as I could never do it justice, as my mother could. So please excuse the reader, and please take her words into your hearts and let them inspire the great change that is possible when we come together as one united family under God.
With this in mind, let me now deliver the Founders’ Address that she asked me to share with you today:
Your excellencies, distinguished religious leaders, ambassadors for peace, respected delegates from throughout the world, ladies and gentlemen:
Thank you for participating in the significant World Summit 2014, sponsored by the Universal Peace Federation, in partnership with the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, the Women’s Federation for World Peace, the Washington Times Foundation, and the Segye Times.
We have come together at this time to honor the life and legacy of my beloved husband, Dr. Sun Myung Moon, who ascended to the spiritual world two years ago. On this second anniversary of his seonghwa (ascension), I have commissioned a wide range of programs, such as the World Summit, not only to pay tribute to my husband and the providential work we have carried out together over many decades but to blaze a trail forward toward the fulfillment of God’s providence. I pray that we can work together to achieve this goal, which has been the hope of all the ages, and God’s hope.
At the time of our Holy Wedding in 1960, amidst a handful of followers in a humble house located not far from here, my husband and I pledged to God, our Heavenly Parent, to work day and night, until our dying breath, to build a world of peace and prosperity for all. I vividly remember that day, as if it were yesterday.
My husband and I had been brought together by heavenly providence for a sacred mission. As we began our marriage, we felt great hope and at the same time a sense of overwhelming responsibility.
God alone does not control the events or outcomes of history. Rather God seeks and raises individuals who understand and follow his will. The progress of God’s providence requires that each individual, and especially central figures, fulfill their portion of responsibility. Those who take up the call often find that the path is steep, treacherous, and painfully difficult.
Neither my husband nor I were naïve or unaware of the challenges we would face.
On the one hand, we each experienced directly the love, guidance, and protection of our Heavenly Parent in the most intimate and powerful ways, and this inspired our absolute faith, commitment, and determination. On the other hand, we also encountered extraordinary opposition and obstruction that defied rational explanation and that can only be called demonic. The forces of good and evil were ever present and palpable.
Korea itself was a battleground. We each had firsthand experience of the humiliation of colonial rule and the horrors of war right here on this peninsula, which to this day remains divided.
Forced to flee our hometowns, when a dictatorial communist regime took control of the territory north of the thirty-eighth parallel, neither of us was able to live in the cherished homes of our birth, among family, friends, and relatives.
As we started on our mission, Korea was a nation emerging from a devastating conflict, with our people still mourning the tragic loss of hundreds of thousands of men, women, and children.
Korea was then a small, impoverished country, known to many as the “hermit kingdom.” Our church headquarters was, at that time, about the size of a single hotel room. Our followers were few, and our resources meager. As if this were not enough, we faced prejudice, slander, and persecution from the established political and religious authorities.
Yet, by the grace of God, our movement grew, and grew, and grew! Who could have predicted that what is now a respected global movement, known throughout the world for its vision, principal, and best practices, could have arisen out of the ashes of war, abject poverty, and unfair persecution? God works in mighty and mysterious ways!
The essential ideal that has guided and sustained our work through thick and thin over so many difficult years is that God is truly our Heavenly Parent, and we are all sons or daughters of the one God, one family under God. All our efforts and the numerous peace organizations that we founded over many years have been entirely dedicated to the fulfillment of that vision.
By the grace of God, and through the blood, sweat tears, and tears of countless members, this vision is now blossoming like a flower of hope amid a world that otherwise seems on the brink of disaster.
Although we may be about to enter an era that resembles the Dark Ages, we are actually on the threshold of a new era of peace, if only we respond to God’s call. This World Summit is itself a response to God’s call.
Our world faces a multitude of challenges from climate change and poverty to geopolitical tension, terrorism, and interreligious conflict; from family breakdown and crime to moral and spiritual confusion. I am sure you encounter many of these same challenges in your nations and regions in the Americas, Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, or Oceania.
These problems cannot be solved through the instruments of government alone, for their root cause is not exclusively political or economic. Rather the root cause is buried deep in the human heart, in selfishness, and separation from God.
Dr. Sun Myung Moon
Ladies and gentlemen, for the sake of our nations and the world, we must open our hearts and minds to receive the guidance of God, our Heavenly Parent.
Interreligious cooperation
Among 7 billion people, well over two-thirds are religious. The great civilizations throughout history have endured because of their religious and spiritual foundations. Religion has always called us to examine the deeper, underlying reality of our existence to turn our eyes, our hearts, and our minds toward Heaven, and to listen to those Heaven has sent to earth.
However, while called into being by God’s direct intervention, religion, and religious believers often stray from the true path. As such, we witness a dark side of religion, expressed in narrow sectarianism, extremism, bigotry, and triumphalism. These deviations have led to serious disunity and even conflict among believers of various religions.
This reality undermines Heaven’s will and breaks God’s heart. That is why a movement to bring together leaders and believers from all spiritual traditions, with mutual respect and cooperation, is important. For more than fifty years, we have invested more of our resources in ecumenical and interfaith dialogue than in our church. It is that important!
Our efforts in the Middle East, and especially the Holy Land, are carried out by UPF through MEPI (Middle East Peace Initiative), and date back to my husband’s visit there in 1965. At that time, with a sincere prayer for unity among Jews, Christians, and Muslims, he dedicated a holy ground near the Garden of Gethsemane. He cried out to God, and Jesus, Moses, and Mohammad.
Since that day, not a year has passed without serious investment being made to promote harmony and cooperation among religions, and even among the various sects that are often disunited within each religious tradition.
In 2000, Father Moon and I spoke at the United Nations, calling for the UN to establish an interreligious council. This council would fill a gap in the United Nations, serving as a senate or “upper house” of spiritual and moral leaders. The members of the council would be expected to rise above sectarian or partisan interests, and advocate for the good of the whole human family, not merely one nation or religion.
The following year, when terrorists attacked the World Trade Towers and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, we responded immediately by convening, four weeks after the attacks, a major international interfaith conference in New York City aimed at stopping the spread of violence.
At that time, we conferred with Muslim leaders and planned a series of “Muslim Summits” to promote peace. Similar initiatives have been carried out over several decades in various places where interreligious discord feeds the potential for conflict.
Good government
Just as internal corruption and hostile relations among religions stand in the way of lasting peace, the same problems plague relations among nation-states. When the Cold War ended twenty-five years ago, we thought perhaps a new millennium of peace would emerge. However, we can see that many obstacles remain. The Middle East is now on fire with conflict. The crisis in Ukraine threatens the stability of the international order.
East Asia faces continuous threats, including those from increased militarization, complex disputes over island territories, and North Korea’s nuclear weapons program. Through the programs of UPF, WFWP, and other organizations, we have been actively engaged in seeking to resolve these conflicts, offering “soft power” alternatives to “hard power” politics, aggressive, on, and open conflict.
For example, we have been convening, over many years, a series of programs aimed at promoting peace in Northeast Asia. As a counterpart to MEPI, we call this series the Northeast Asia Peace Initiative (NEAPI).
We hold these programs continuously in Korea, Japan, the United States, and recently in Vladivostok, Russia. We are considering future programs for China, Mongolia, and even North Korea. Through dialogue, we can build trust, and mutual respect, and break down the barriers that stand in the way of cooperation.
During the Cold War, my husband and I were straightforwardly opposed to communist ideology, which advocated violent revolution, limited freedoms, and atheism. Our opposition to communism was based on an affirmation of religious freedom, limited government, rule of law, and open markets. These ideals were expressed through the organization we founded in 1980 called CAUSA.
We also convened an important international conference in Geneva, in 1985, sponsored by the Professors World Peace Academy, to discuss the imminent demise of the Soviet Union and the need to prepare for a post-Soviet world.
We never closed the door to dialogue. We made every effort to meet the leaders of the Soviet Union and North Korea. In 1990, we held a Summit in Moscow with the support and participation of President Gorbachev and his wife Raisa.
We did everything we could to promote a smooth transition from communism to democracy in Russia. We placed a strong emphasis on good governance, character education for youth, the strengthening of civil society, and religious freedom. In 1991, we traveled to North Korea to meet its president, Kim Il Sung, the grandfather of North Korea’s current leader, Kim Jong-un.
Despite our aversion to North Korean policies, including assassination attempts on my husband, we embraced President Kim and urged him to open the borders to dialogue, economic cooperation, and people-to-people exchange through sports, the arts, tourism, and humanitarian relief efforts. We have invested enormous resources in North Korea, to reduce tensions and build the trust that is necessary for peaceful reunification.
Over several decades, we invested in the Americas, and especially the United States. Our love for America was not based on nationalism or a lack of awareness of its flaws, but rather it was based on an understanding of America’s unique position and responsibility in the world.
The United States, as the leading nation of the free world, represents ideals of freedom, religious liberty, human rights, democratic government, and the rule of law. Many countries around the world have admired and emulated the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution of the United States. America was blessed by God and was called to a sacred mission.
Dr. Sun Myung Moon
But with that blessing came great responsibility, the responsibility to share the blessing and serve other nations to establish a world of true love and lasting peace. Unfortunately, beginning in the 1960s, many people in the United States began to lose sight of that truth. We began to see the spread of drug abuse, free sex, individualism, and materialism. Thus began a trend toward spiritual and moral decline.
Beginning with our arrival in the United States in 1971, my husband and I sought to bring about a great awakening through a grassroots movement dedicated to spiritual and moral renewal. My husband always said that God had called us to serve “in the role of a doctor or firefighter.” We had come to heal the nation, and to put out the fire of selfishness and corruption.
The United States had lost its way and needed to rekindle the God-centered spirit that had prevailed at the time of its founding. This was the message that my husband and I conveyed to Presidents Eisenhower, Nixon, Reagan, and Bush, to hundreds of members of Congress in the U.S. Capitol, and to many millions of ordinary Americans from every religion, race, and cultural background.
In April 2008, my husband and I convened the “Americas Summit” in Washington, D.C., under the sponsorship of the UPF, and dedicated to the theme, “Toward a New Paradigm of Leadership and Good Governance for Development and Peace in the Americas.” The former U.S. president, George H. W. Bush, and former Uruguayan president, Julio María Sanguinetti, made substantial contributions to the success of this important meeting. My husband and I encouraged both of these leaders to work for the unity of the Americas.
In Jardim, Brazil, we established the Ideal Family Education Headquarters for World Peace and attracted people from around the world who aspired to create an ideal community. We also established a farm there—New Hope Farm—and invited people to come there to work the land, live together, and learn with people from around the world. Thus began a movement to build a model, an ideal community, that agreeing the environment.
In the Pantanal region, as well, centering on Puerto Leda in the Paraguay River basin, we have worked to build an ideal village, with international volunteers living and working together agreeing to nature. We established a farm there with the vision of developing resources for the people of the world. In addition, we launched a fish-farming project.
Fish farming is necessary because in the future it will be difficult to supply enough fish from what can be harvested from the open sea. In May last year, we were successful in raising our first batch of pace. We were honored at that time with a visit from then-Paraguayan President Federico Franco and other government officials. Many other major oceanic, fishery, and boat-building initiatives have been undertaken over the past forty years from Kodiak, Alaska, to Antarctica, and from Yeosu, Korea to Gloucester, Massachusetts.
Dr. Sun Myung Moon
Proper stewardship and care for the environment is essential at this time. Climate change, rising sea levels, deforestation, desertification, an inadequate supply of clean water, malnutrition, and the rising cost of food products require our immediate attention. God created us to love and care for the Earth and all its blessings.
Conclusion
Beloved World Summit participants! My husband and I have lived our lives according to the guidance of Heaven. Called by God to embrace all humanity with the heart of True Parents, we have invested our entire beings for the sake of God’s liberation, the salvation of humankind, and the realization of a peaceful world. We have faced many challenges and tribulations on this path, but we have been undeterred in carrying out our heavenly mission.
I pray that we work together in this great mission to build a unified world of peace and prosperity, as one family under God. Please do everything possible to renew and transform your nations and build a world of lasting peace, as envisioned by God from the beginning of time.
Such a world goes beyond the divisions of religion, race, ethnicity, and nationality. God’s ideal world is a borderless world of freedom, peace, unity, and happiness.
I pray that the World Summit will serve as an important turning point for all the people of the world. Next year, at World Summit 2015, we will present the Sun Hak Peace Award to an individual or institution that best embodies the principles of peace that my husband and I have espoused by God’s will. Your input and recommendations would be most welcome.
I invite you all to take up this challenge of building a new world of universal peace. Let us all stand together as one and build one family under God. May God’s blessings be with every one of you, your families, and your nations. Thank you very much.
Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon
