It’s our second week looking at being a community of faith.

“Your love for one another will prove to the world that you are my disciples.” (John 13:35)

We were down stairs cuz our main hall is under construction so half the congregation was in one room with the band and the MC etc and the other half was over in the new reception watching on the screen via Ustream.

Complicated, but an interesting experience. Isn’t it little challenges like this that make being a community more real?

Some people left almost before we got started, and somehow I caught up with them, and they told me it was down to sound and logistics…i said sorry. and that was fine in away, cuz we need some tension to get closer sometimes.

It was quite cool getting the congregation to speak to each other through the corridor, with the 5 second Ustream time delay.

main action step and conclusion: Each member of the congregation to think of ONE person, any other person in our congregation, and to make a commitment to PRAY for them through out the week.

Looking forward to hearing people’s experiences on that one. and the exciting about this is normally when we start to pray for people we start to do things for them too.

Have a great week, and join us next Sunday for “community of FAITH – part 3″.

Here are the other readings we had today:

“Life is about learning to love. We love because god first loved us.” 1john 4:19

“If I could speak in any language in heaven or on earth, but didn’t love others, I would only be making meaningless noise like a loud gong or a clanging cymbal.”

1 Corinthians 13:1

“Pay deep respect to all people, no matter what kind of person they may be. As a child, be respectful towards an elderly man. Think over your words three times before uttering them and always have a humble attitude.

Always share with others the best thing you have. Empty your pocketbook to give. Then you will deserve the best result. If you do not do good for your fellow man, you will have no sleep. If you have done good, then your mind will rest in peace.”

REVEREND SUN MYUNG MOON: ON HOW TO GAIN SPIRITUAL HELP (1978)

(last week we looked at what it means to walk together in faith, and how worshipping together as a community is a powerful way to touch God’s heart. )

we want to walk together, and one day fly together

There’s

an old Zambian proverb, ‘When you run alone, you run fast. But when you run together,

you run far.’ The life that you live is not a 100 metre sprint, it is a marathon and you want to

run far.

For example, for a week or so I have been sensing a cooling of tempers on some fronts. Simply being mindful of the delicate fragility of the Abel and Cain relationships in our lives is a good first step. Resisting one’s terrible urge to escort the other into the woods and whack him with the jawbone of an ass is an important second step. It’s a two-steps-forward-one-step-back kind of dance but I am sensing progress in me, in others. More sensing than seeing, and maybe the sun coming out today helped me peek around the corner. But it’s there, I tell you.

And speaking of the jawbone of an ass, I was talking with myself this morning. Another trend I am noticing is people getting in touch with their spiritual roots in a way they haven’t in quite a while. The opening lines of Divine Principle, “How is joy produced?” beckons to you and me. People want to rediscover what it was that made them drop everything and come running those many years ago. We want to reconnect with what makes us, us.

In the summer of ’74 I felt loved in Austin, Texas, and I was given an opportunity to give love back. Essential to this, God was involved, speaking and acting through others and through me. This is soooo not rocket science. It was deeply spiritual and deeply loving. It was all about the great news. In the afternoon we went to the park to find dinner guests. Members and leaders went together, arm-in-arm. We fed our guests a nice dinner, and for dessert, informed them that Christ had returned in their lifetime. This was reminiscent of brothers and sisters singing, dancing, praying, inspiring one another all night long in a too-small church in the Chungpa Dong neighborhood of Seoul in the mid-50s. It’s just down the street from the big church, that has also now become too small.

And so now we are moving into a newer bigger church in Seoul. If we speak boldly and truly believe what we tell others, and if there is love, this building also will quickly become too small. May all our churches be too small the very day the ribbon is cut.

It is human nature that the more complex things become, the more urgently we feel the need to weed the garden, yank out the brambles and grab hold of the roots of things that really matter. And so it is with our faith. When you are drowning, you realize how much extraneous crap in your life has no importance at all. On this last point, I ran into a friend I hadn’t seen in a long time. He has a strong spiritual orientation and he  had the hand tremors of Parkinson’s Disease and I asked him about it. He said, “Parkinson’s gave me my life back.” I didn’t have to ask what he meant.

Larry Moffitt
25 January, 2010

Three cars arrived at Westmead just after 2pm. As soon as we settled in, Marshall de Souza introduced our group and the aims of the FFWPU charity to the residents who were seated around the room, after which we began singing Christmas carols.

We had rehearsed eight carols at Lancaster Gate, under the direction of George Ostapko; however, in the spirit of Christmas, we accepted requests from an attentive audience, increasing our repertoire to twelve – one for “each day of Christmas!”
Around 3pm, we organised ourselves in serving tea, coffee and mince pies (the latter – all 100 of them – an offering to the home from FFWPU). Following that, we took time to talk to the residents, even going downstairs to meet those who could not make it to the hall above! Naomi Sato prepared a small gift for each resident; also, we all signed a Christmas card for each of them.

I really feel that this was a lovely thing to do – offering our love and service to our elder brothers and sisters in the community. In fact, one of the residents is a former Korean War veteran, and good contact of David Franklin. The manager mentioned that she would like us to come again, perhaps to have a talk and discussion on a pertinent subject. We left feeling happy and uplifted!

(Report by Marshall de Souza)

After watching last night’s “controversial” Question Time featuring Nick Griffin of the BNP party, I have to say that I was disappointed. Not one person mentioned the root of the problem, the reason why the BNP got elected in the first place.

The issue is not that the BNP are gaining support. The real under-lying issue here is that people are becoming so disillusioned from politics that they are altogether refraining from voting. If the majority of people out there who COULD vote, actually exercised their right as a British citizen and did it, I highly doubt that the BNP would have even come close to landing a seat in the European Parliament.

Doesn’t #2 of the Cheon Il Guk pledge say “…we pledge to perfect the dutiful family way of… patriots in our nation“? It’s our responsibility as Unificationists to become active and contributing members of society. How can we expect to bring up the standards of society if we don’t engage with it? This includes exercising the basic right of voting, as a bare minimum, in order to ensure that nut-cases like Nick Griffin don’t end up leading this country. (Although I have far too much faith in the general British population to believe that something like that would actually happen.)

If you’re not registered on the electoral poll, do your duty and visit this link to find out how: http://local.direct.gov.uk/LDGRedirect/index.jsp?LGSL=364&LGIL=0

It’s 4:51AM and Matthew and I just took part in the live web-cast of the Oct. 14th Blessing ceremony from Korea. My back-to-school essay called “Why I decided to take part in the Blessing ceremony even though it was hard for me to understand why” will be for another blog post. This one is dedicated to one of my favorite subjects in the world: FASHION.

I knew that this ceremony was going to be special for me and Matthew, for our own personal reasons so I decided to get a new dress. (Also, being 5 months pregnant, I didn’t have any white dresses that I could fit into anymore.) Whilst browsing online to find an affordable but still stylish outfit to wear, it occurred to me that I wasn’t just buying this dress for this special occasion alone.

This would be a worthwhile investment of my money because it is a staple of the Unificationist’s wardrobe. How many times have we been asked over the course of our lives to “wear a white dress” for an event officiated by True Parents? (I’m referring to the ladies of course.) As a child, I think my father knew the importance of this and both he and my mother insisted that my sisters and I ALWAYS have a nice white dress which was used especially for greeting God, both at pledge service and at special occasions. Looking back on it, it’s a beautiful (and practical!) tradition that I would like to carry on in our (soon-to-be) family.

So, I would like to put a call-to-action out there for all the ladies, both elder and younger, of the Unification Church: Have that special white dress (or suit) in your wardrobe that makes you feel special in front of God. No more rummaging around in your closet to find whatever bits of white and cream that you can throw together at the last minute! No, we just won’t stand for shoddy style anymore! Gentlemen, treat the ladies in your lives to a beautiful outfit that they can stand proudly in. Ladies, indulge yourself the luxury of being presentable for God and True Parents.

After all, what’s more beautiful that an outfit dedicated to our Heavenly Father?

hot chocolate, coffee and good conversation

This is a relatively new initiative, the idea started by William Haines  and Matthew Huish and our FFWPU Youth Ministry. As other faith groups offer a chaplaincy service for their students when studying at university we felt it would be good to support our youth more, and give them an opportunity to meet up with someone in the role of a chaplain who they can have lunch with and experience fellowship.

With a growing mobile membership (people between the age of 18 – 30 mainly) who move around geographically quite frequently, we are faced with the challenge of successfully pastoring to our members, and responding to their circumstances.

Back in the day when I was studying law and was responsible for our student group (CARP) and we had a relatively small student population with the CARP houses we probably focused too much on ‘activity’ and not enough on appreciating people for who they were. I guess we put the cart before the horse a bit…you live and learn.

Over all as a whole FFWPU community in the UK in 2009 we have been putting a consistent emphasis on small group fellowship. I personally feel that if we continue to create opportunities for more intimate fellowship God will be more present in our lives and our faith will develop, and deepen:

“For where two or three have gathered together in My name, I am there in their midst.” Matthew 18.

Going back to my groups first meeting: we basically had a really good chat. I liked them and I got the impression they could relate to me ok, and we could discuss a whole range of topics. Young people have got so much positive energy, and of course youth is a state of mind

( If you are a student and you want information about our Unificationist student chaplaincy write to youthministry@familyfireplace.org )

Didn’t feel very sociable when I arrived, but by the end I was waking up at the crack of dawn, walking to the shower room with a light heart and glistening eyes. I was moved, and I need a bit of time to really take it in.

the grass above the beach

One thing that touched me was the experience of all the different ages being together: toddlers, nursery age, primary school, teenagers, young parents, older parents….making a schedule for such a diverse age group is no simple matter, but the staff did an almost perfect job of it.

tough competition in the go kart races

Plus there was that Californian buzz that some of the staff have kept from the days when they met the Divine Principle all those years ago back on Karma Hill.

Watch the video to “feel the lurv…”

Personally it gave me a chance to love my family more. There was a good spiritual atmosphere and that is no easy matter in this world. I felt that is a challenge we all face everyday and we all try our best to find that good atmosphere. The obvious conclusion for me is we could do more to help each other find that spirit we all desire.

A big thank you from us to all of you there for your warm welcome, …oh, and for the Newcastle fridge magnets – that was such a cool present! The web and phone are powerful communication tools, but nothing will ever replace human face to face contact. I really appreciated the chance to talk with brothers and sisters on a personal level.

If you want to see what a quality BBQ is check out the short clip below – and maybe meet some new faces:

The other nice experience on my part was the chance to visit the city where I studied English Lit. (Newcastle University), we could drive through Fenham and past the house I used to live in and the student flats…even the wall against which we used to kick a football. It’s good to reminisce sometimes. The other treat was travelling on the train with my wife, although I am not sure how easy it is for her to sit still for so many hours…I guess she is used to a more active life than me.

Matthew, my husband, and I became Boo-boo Buddies last night. We both have a small white square band-aid (a.k.a. plaster) on our left arm, just below the crook of our elbows. Why? Because we went and donated blood.

Donating blood was always one of those Unificationist urban myths that I had heard from friends. “True Father said that we shouldn’t donate blood because we’re from a pure blood lineage.” It kinda made sense on the one hand, but then again, didn’t that go against our principle of living for the sake of others? We could be helping so many people by donating blood.

It wasn’t until recently when Matthew decided to do it that he cleared up the confusion. He showed me this:

Book of Tradition 1 – Page 199

Blood Transfusions

If a blessed member must, for any reason, receive a blood transfusion, it is appropriate that he or she receive blood (according to his or her blood type) from the blood bank of a hospital or clinic. It is not
imperative that a member receive blood only from another blessed member.

Donating Blood

There are no restrictions on either single or blessed members donating blood to a national organization, hospital, or clinic during a local blood drive, at a time of emergency, etc. It is good to sacrifice for others in this way.

It makes me wonder, where did this wrong interpretation come from? Is something that was confused with the Jehovah’s Witnesses (where blood transfusions and blood donation are against their religious beliefs)? Was it someone who misinterpreted Father’s words?

What other Unificationist urban legends are out there? Please share them in the comments and we’ll see if we can’t debunk a few.

NOTE: I’d also like to encourage anyone reading this to sign up with the NHS and donate blood! It’s one of the simplest ways to really practice living for others and help so many at the same time. Let’s be productive members of society and contribute in any way that we can.