Yesterday I did the unusual thing of attending the HQ community Sunday morning worship service. As a Bromley regular, the reason for this trip away was the fact that I was collecting 4 passengers – 2 sisters from Lancaster Gate and 2 Parisians from St Pancras station – with whom I would drive to Cleeve House for the workshop starting that evening.

Along the M4, while most of the passengers were peacefully snoozing, I chewed on wine gums and reflected on my purpose for coming to Cleeve House. Why do we do workshops? What’s the point of coming to this workshop? I wasn’t questioning the educational philosophical of our workshop culture. No, I had done that a few weeks ago and reached some conclusions that I might share at a later stage: I was questioning MY PERSONAL PURPOSE for dedicating some time on this workshop. I know some people don’t like the word “retreat” (it sounds like surrendering) but I felt that I would benefit from a retreat from life in London, and dedicating some time to reflect on my personal life of faith. Of course I’ll make myself busy all week trying to help the staff and participants on this workshop have a good experience, but while I’m in the GLORIOUS environment of Cleeve House, I’m committing myself to focus on some constructive me-time.

That means turning my phone and laptop off occasionally and just speaking with God.

Among many things I intend to discuss with God this week, I’d like to ask Heavenly Father what I need to do to be a better disciple. Discipleship is something I’ve been reflecting on recently (what does it mean to be a disciple???) and through the inspiration and revelation on this workshop, I hope to return to London with some clarity and hopefully some answers.

The car I share with Farhad was broken into a couple of nights ago. Somebody smashed the front passenger door window and ripped out the radio/stereo. When I discovered the car in this state, the prevailing emotion was annoyance rather than anything else – I was annoyed that I’d have to sweep up the glass and get the window replaced.

Thank you Admiral for car insurance. I had to pay only the £70 excess and the window was already repaired on the evening of the same day.

In fact, I felt grateful that my car was broken into and not anyone else’s – it was as if my car was offered as the scapegoat on behalf of all the other cars on the street.

I’m not really bothered by the loss of the radio because it was a very simple machine and I wanted to replace it anyway with something that could play CDs or connect to an MP3 player. In a sense, this crime was a blessing in disguise.

I actually feel sorry for the person who did this to my car. I’m trying to imagine what their life is like… it must be very sad. This person stole a radio that’s practically worth nothing, when some expensive child car seats were left untouched – obviously this criminal was rather foolish.

In fact, I’d go as far to say that the person who broke into my car WAS the victim of crime, not me. They are a victim because this action will only perpetuate the problems in their life, whereas it was only a couple of hours inconvenience in mine.

Recently I have received several emails about concerns church members have regarding the disagreement and confrontation that took place in Sao Palo, Brazil, between Hyun Jin Moon and the the Continental Director for South America, Rev Shim, who is appointed by True Parents.

It is quite apparent that some members of True Parents’ family do not always see eye to eye. This is perfectly fine and normal in life, but the problem is when those differences spill out or are played out in the public arena. As in most conflicts things are rarely straight forward, so unless we are personally involved and able to help bring about a solution it is best not to start taking positions and developing theories of who is right and who is wrong.

As a Unificationist what is important is to offer our devotion to God and connect to the heart of True Parents that we can discover through studying the Principle and practising it in our day to day circumstances.

As a result of this incident in Brazil True Father has made an announcement and direction for all blessed family members. He has taken the significant step to write it by hand and sign it with his own signature. I take from this his desire that people believe and follow his guidance and understand what he wishes to clarify.

Please see below Father’s calligraphy and  also an English translation:

Translation:

No.1 says:

God is the one King of Kings.

There is only one set of True Parents.

All families are the people who share a single lineage, and are the children of one heavenly kingdom.

Moreover, the command center of cosmic peace and unity is the absolute and unique command center.

Its representative and heir is Hyung Jin Moon.

Anybody else [who claims such a position] would be a heretic and one who brings things to destruction.

The above content is True Parents’ proclamation.

[Signed] Sun Myung Moon

(Father wrote the character for “seal” indicating where his seal could be placed)

2010.4.23 by the heavenly calendar

No.2:

Special note: I recognize only the official memos from the World Mission Headquarters of

Tongilgyo of Heaven and Earth

Tongilgyo International.

[Signed] Sun Myung Moon

2010.4.23 by the heavenly calendar

June 5, 2010

Announced at Cheon Jeong Gung, Korea

I hope this helps you to know where True Father stands on any friction that may exist amongst leaders or members of his family. I think he also wants to dispel any ideas that memos go out to our international community with out his approval. He may be 90 years old, but he is fully in charge of charting the course of the Unification Movement and guiding those who take take public roles with in all its different organisations. His mind remains sharper than any razor you may use on your face or legs, so be cautious about being ageist.

Personally I feel it is a hopeful reality that issues of unity with in our movement can be addressed by Father directly while he is still with us. In that sense all that goes on in our community (good and bad) if dealt with in a principled way can only help to secure the future.

Of course we have been taught to love the family of our True Parents and we should continue to do so, but let us remember as Father has made clear there is only one God we worship and that is the invisible one.

There are times when we all feel that the leadership we experience does not inspire great confidence. That is always a good time to reinvigorate our own life of devotion to God so that we are able to ensure that we are spiritually healthy and full of blessings to share with others.

The Divine Principle is the rock on which Father has diligently built his life and ministry. He has only been able to consistently develop and expand his mission because of that fact.  It is also the foundation for all that is good and eternal in our life.

This week our regular “Wednesday’s evening prayer for healing” in 43LG will be dedicated to prayers for unity amongst our movements international leadership and also to give people a chance to express any concerns they have and ask questions. Please feel free to come along. 7.30pm – 8.30pm Wednesday 9th June.

On Thursday I am going to Korea to celebrate the upcoming Day of All True Things with True Parents and also to take part in a national leaders meeting which I am sure has partly been called to address the current friction that has just taken place.

I will keep you updated.

God bless.

Simon

Your Pastor

One of our assistant pastors, Steven Huish gave the message today. I kept wondering where his notes were. He just stood there, no podium, notes: “how does he do that?”

Definitely going to ask for some body language tips. He completely didn’t need the podium, when I tend to hang onto it for dear life. Reamonn introduced the wireless mike today so next time I think I will try that out.

A lot of good content, and as always when it is drawn from personal experience it rings true. He was sincere, honest, and direct.

His core message: to become spiritually rounded we need to relate to God and people in the right way, and make a daily foundation to experience the grace that comes from our saviour.

A few elders came up to me after the service and shared how they found it really helped them. One sister said “I was going to take 360 outreach cards, but after Steven’s message I think I will just take 50 and see how I go.” Another said he felt like he has done a lot of work on learning the theory but felt moved to work on his practice. I asked one of the teens and they said they were shocked and surprised at how short it was. I asked them what kind of surprised? They said: “Pleasantly surprised.”

Great lunch by Naomi and her team. And thank you to all who come and serve on a Sunday.

Beautiful song by Kathleen before the message

I jumped onto the DLR between Lewisham and Stratford yesterday to join some brothers doing some wintessing to promote an event taking place at midday this Saturday (at Ithaca House on the Romford Road, just in case you’d like to attend).  Any journey on the DLR tends to be more scenic than the underground, and as the train approached Stratford I was able to see the progress taking place to prepare for the London 2012 Olympics.

When I found Simon and Jeff, we agreed to do about 20 mins of leafletting and outreach before meeting to discuss some issues in McDonald’s.  Although I’ve been doing street-witnessing at least once a week for the past month or two, this morning I suddenly found myself struggling to get going.  I walked along the street just looking at people, always hesitating to make an approach.  Once I reached the corner of the road, I decided to sit on a public bench and gather my thoughts, or rather empty my thoughts.  I realised that my mind was overwhelmed with many thoughts and concerns, deadlines, people to call, jobs to do etc.  What I needed to do was realise that God accepts me and would accept any offering I make in that moment if I chose to offer it sincerely.  After all, none of my other concerns would be addressed there and then.

I breathed in (“I’m alive”) and then breathed out (“thank you”).  I counted my blessings (too many to count, actually) and remembered that I really want people to share what I have.  I spent the remaining ten minutes walking up and down the street rehearsing my approach in my head, so that once I finally start speaking with people, I’ll know where I want the discussion to lead.

Jeff bought me a coffee and chocolate brownie at McDonald’s (both of which were surprisingly good) during our meeting with Simon.  Jeff shared that witnessing was the hardest thing he’s done in the last decade, qualifying that statement by considering the spiritual challenge of reaching out to people’s hearts.  In my experience, it’s not very hard to stop a stranger on the street and have a jolly conversation; the difficulty is in sensing and addressing that person’s spiritual needs.

Back on the street, Simon asked me if we could approach people together.  The area in front of Stratford library was reasonably busy yet not too noisy, and now I was able to speak with people freely.  After handing out a few fliers, however, Simon confessed that now he needed a couple minutes to prayerfully reflect and get his mind together.  As he sat at the entrance to Morrison’s, I continued approaching people.  Very soon, Simon rediscovered his inspiration and purpose and we enjoyed the rest of the hour meeting some of the lovely people of Stratford.

With the national witnessing campaign coming up, I guess many of us will experience a moment or two of nervous apprehension, experienced by Simon and me today.  It happens to the best of us, eh?  I don’t think it’s a sign of doubt or faithlessness, rather it shows that we take witnessing seriously and, while we recognise our personal shortcomings, we’re willing to offer ourselves to Heavenly Father and the absolute good spirit world to work with us to reach people so they can also share the blessings we enjoy.

Feeling a bit like I need a day off, but tomorrow is Monday. You know when you just need something to lift you up and help you see the glass half full?

If you have had a long week and are not quite ready for the new one round the corner, then you could try listening to Marian Reynold’s version of the Mariah Carey song, Through the Rain.

She sang this before the message at our Lancaster Gate church. It’s always better when you are there rather than on a cheap camera, but I think this might just move you:

Also a big thank you to Kenta Barrett for making the back drop for our worship service, and to the music team for putting so much time in during the week to get things together. We had quite a few brothers and sisters join us online for worship which was inspiring. Thank you to Ajay and Réa for making that go fwd and develop.

We are still developing this so be patient with us, but here is the latest from our online worship. The sound doesn’t kick in for the first 20/30 seconds, and just before the second song the computer died cuz it wasn’t plugged in, so….., there is an awkward 2 minutes of dead time, while we got the lyrics back up on the screen. But the beauty of the live recording is that you can just click on the time line and go fwd a few minutes when it’s not gripping you.

The message was a bit long in my opinion, and my main take away is: reduce my notes by 70%, be more concise, and hopefully allow the important points to have more impact.

Main theme: you can only effectively come to God on His terms, because He designed you. And two qualities that make all the difference are when we are willing to trust and be humble: Genesis Ch.12 and 15 (Abraham believed the Lord), and Matthew Ch.18 (unless you change and become like little children). Incredibly challenging but so true.

I get to work with the coolest, most sincere, clever, generous, committed, honest, sometimes v organised, insightful, humble, passionate, deep, beautiful, hard working, loving, spiritual, skilful  people IN THE WORLD. And sometimes when my head is screwed on properly and my heart is hooked up I even get to work with God too. And I just want to say: thank you God for blessing and trusting me in this way and letting me work with and learn from all these amazing people. And I know that saying this here is not going to jinx me, cuz you are a generous, patient and loving God who only wishes the best for us.

After seeing how so many people, both staff and volunteers put things into place for our Sunday Worship, I just felt  the power that people who share a common vision have. And then through talking to a few different people on the phone this morning and going with one of our HQ staff for breakfast at Pret for a coffee, Proper Pret porridge (that’s a tongue twister…), a work review and an appraisal, I tasted what we can do, when we share our passion, and see each other’s potential.

Actually I want to say thank you to Colin Turfus who as one of our new trustees was sharing about how in his work he conducts work appraisals, and how unless you schedule them in they don’t happen… and gave me the feeling I should really start doing that more often. I guess this is what it feels like when based on faith we have the right give and take dynamic in our lives; it’s just a divine principle.

Did you ever experience the sweet taste of freedom in a moment, when you grabbed hold of your responsibility and just did what you knew to be true and right? The moment when our intellect, emotion and will power all sync together with our conscience is an incredibly liberating feeling.

Our freedom grows out of becoming more responsible, and in a world that is often full of irresponsibility, whether it is social, moral, personal, professional, or collective, it takes a conscious decision to become an owner and create an environment of freedom.

This was my favourite passage from our morning devotion today:

“Human beings are in a midway position where they must determine whether they belong to the side of goodness or to the side of evil. A person cannot receive help from a third party to decide whether he is heading in the direction of goodness or evil; he must decide this by himself.” Cheon Seong Gyeong, pg 1219

Yes of course you can get encouragement, good will, advice, care, and love from your parents, friends, pastors, and God, but in the end it is you who makes the choice and makes the decisions about following your conscience and your original mind.

That is the sweet and sometimes bitter truth of freedom. Good luck with your decisions today. I hope you find the freedom that lets you fly high.

“Surely God is good to Israel,
to those who are pure in heart.

But as for me, my feet had almost slipped;
I had nearly lost my foothold.”

(Psalm 73)

That is a bit how I felt one week after the intense and uplifting Original Divine Principle (ODP) seminar in San Marino. We really could build in more to our education to practically prepare and support each other for the next step of putting things into practice. Inevitably the failure to step up purposefully to greater commitment does leave one a fraction spiritually disorientated. By yesterday I was reminding myself of the spiritually bedraggled psalmist who wrote the brilliant psalm 73.

The first line affirms his faith but the reality is he is not feeling it. It is a tough place to be. I stayed on in our LG HQ after our early morning devotion, to prepare for Sunday worship, but then spent 45 minutes of that time watching an episode of the Channel 4 popular drama, Skins, on YouTube TV; got me thinking about the next part of the psalm:

“From their callous hearts comes iniquity;…

…They scoff, and speak with malice;”

Skins: not exactly a source of spiritual inspiration.

It’s a strange phenomena when you ‘have’ faith but not the will to fulfil it.

All of this reminds me of the Ukrainian Jew Tevje’s sentiments (Fiddler on the Roof) who argues with himself on the meaning of tradition and holding onto it, and who challenges  God with his humour when warned by the local policeman of an imminent pogrom:

“I know, God, that we are your people, but can’t we, just for this time, not be yours?”

By Sunday afternoon and after having been asked to teach the introduction to the Divine Principle to a guest I was in better shape. Couple of more hiccups back at home when I got upset with the kids and was forced to reflect on my parenting commitments; but then the day ended with a practical task of collecting some of the boys’ forgotten homework from my Dad half way between Wimbledon and ours, on the South side of Putney bridge, we took a night walk along  the river down to Leaders Gardens and walked up to 42 Festing Road, where we spent the first 10 years of my life.

It’s Monday morning, and this is my answer to last week’s stupor:  make the necessary conditions so that I can end this new week like the psalm ends:

“But as for me, it is good to be near God.
I have made the Sovereign LORD my refuge;
I will tell of all your deeds.”

Listening to the Divine Principle all day long has reminded me how our scripture casts a bright light on my life putting everything into context. God’s word is a judgement, but at the same time refreshing. I guess because it is systematic the Principle makes life clear and shows me when my priorities are in the wrong order.

Listening to the Fall of Man lecture today really got me thinking about how amazing it is that True Father could not only figure out what is wrong with humanity, but also, together with Mother, be able to re establish God’s lineage on Earth after thousands of years and provide a model of how a husband and wife should live and develop a family with God. I suddenly in a moment caught how incredible that fact is.

Here is the video blog with a few clips of the snow and the singing: