Last Saturday (Feb 13th 2010)  in Bromley we held a Blessing Ceremony for five couples, although the room was filled with more than twenty people and it felt like a world gathering! In terms of religious background, we had two Hindu couples; a Jewish and Christian couple; a Muslim couple and a Buddhist gentleman. Additional support came from families and friends.

drinking the holy nectar/wine

Two families had all three generations present. This included a blessed family, Matthew and Emiko Cohn with their blessed daughter, her husband and her brother – in this instance it was the grandparents in their family, George and Peggy Cohn, who came for the Blessing. For them it was a long journey from Bournemouth, but for our movement in Britain we felt it had particular significance; George and Peggy Cohn carried out an amazing job running the ‘Parents’ Association’ back in the late seventies and early eighties when there was much media persecution and concern from parents over their adult children joining the Movement.

Mr and Mrs Cohen are on the far right

We began with lunch together and then shared the meaning of the Blessing through two, quite detailed presentations. After a moving ceremony, each couple was given a red rose and we shared a ‘wedding’ cake together. We want to thank all those who supported, and all those who worked hard to bring people to this historic event.

I am forcing myself to get round to reviewing the content of the Original Divine Principle workshop. How many times have I been to a seminar and then not looked back at the content, forgetting there is a process to learning. How much learning have I missed in my life, I don’t even want to start calculating it.

Well, if I decided to spend 50 hours sitting in Rev Yue’s lectures, I better get some value for money and time and allow some of that investment (by him speaking and me listening) to bare some fruit. Here goes:

one of my focused moments

As I go through the lecture guide, I get pretty stumped; the slides are sometimes not well developed, in places you get the feeling they have been thrown together at great speed.

And I realise that a lot of what grabbed me was to do with how Rev Yue poured out all his heart and soul. He made you feel like True Father was really in the room. The first lecture was on the theme of ‘the family’ and how the family pledge is the core and source of order for our family.

Here is a mix of  some of my notes and thoughts:

We should check ourselves daily by reciting the pledge, and find ways to make it a substantial reality in our daily life, step by step of course. To recite effectively needs our family to be able to stand together one in heart. So, getting each family member (in your family) onto the same page – holding the same page – could be seen as one big first step in making it real and meaning. Need to be on loving terms as a family. Perhaps as Jesus taught his Jewish audience that before you go to the temple to make your offering to God, resolve any arguments or conflicts with your brother. Sometimes the foundation of substance needs to come first.

Each of the pledges starts with a reference to being an owner. This is to encourage us to take genuine interest (because I am the owner!), to feel responsible, to want to protect and raise up my family and community.

In the first verse there is a reference to Cheon Il Guk, which is another way of talking about the Kingdom of Heaven, and the Korean expression describes a country built upon two people becoming one. That gives us a lot to reflect on. Who do I feel ‘one’ with?

Also in verse one it speaks of our homeland. Our homeland is where we find true love, that is what we seek.

It then mentions the original ideal of creation: a reference to be fruitful, multiply and have dominion – the 3 blessings.

There is a lot to reflect on here, but to be pragmatic, what do I actually decide to take away as an action step from studying about the family pledge?

Get our wild bunch into a ‘place’ where we can recite it all together, at the same time each morning. Accept that this will take time, and allow some jumping off sofas and other gymnastics to occur in the process. Be patient and generous as we move towards the calm straight synchronised line of all of us pledging together. Start with the big guys. Make time to talk to the little ones when they haven’t eaten any sweets, when they are not playing games on the computer, Wii, or my iphone, and when they are not tired and grumpy.

Bringing heaven down to earth needs a fair bit of dedication and focus, but there is nothing more beautiful than when you see God’s tradition being planted in your family so it’s worth way more than 50 hours of lectures, it’s worth a daily lifelong commitment.
Remember we are not running a 100 metre sprint, this spiritual journey we are on is more of the London marathon, like in the movie: Run, Fat boy, Run.

we are in it for the long haul: so as Soul to Soul sang back in 1989: Keep on moving

For earlier video blogs and pictures from the workshop click here: http://familyfireplace.org/?s=ODP

Robin Marsh
Lancaster Gate, London

Recently there was excellent cooperation between the brothers and sisters of STF, other second generation young people, Central London church, UPF Secretariat and Ambassadors for Peace, who came together to hold a Blessing Seminar, Ceremony and Entertainment.

Eleven couples were blessed amid a very beautiful atmosphere, even though in some cases only one of the couple could attend. While there were elements to improve for future occasions, it was an important stage in the development of a working system to educate and bless our contacts and Ambassadors for Peace.

One of the joys of having an STF* team present is that they mingled with the wedding guests, brides and grooms, and sang to them to create the nice atmosphere. Chris and Catherine Moloney also sang at both the beginning and the end of the programme … in fact the singing caught on, and by the end of the Marriage Blessing Ambassadors for Peace too were singing and and dancing.

After interfaith prayers from Hindu, Christian, Buddhist and Islamic faiths, Bharat Koria, an Ambassador for Peace, spoke to the audience to say that Father Moon is the source of True Love that makes the Blessing possible. The  majority of couples were re-dedicating their marriages to each other, but one couple exchanged rings in what was their wedding ceremony.

Holy nectar/wine ceremony

The Moloneys sing for everyone

Simon Cooper and Robin Marsh gave a seminar on marriage values and the purpose of the Marriage Blessing, and Margaret Ali filled in any gaps in the event and introduced the interfaith prayers. Mr. Marsh was even able to talk about the Marriage Blessing on the radio show of one person who, at the last moment, was unable to attend and wanted other people to understand what it was all about.

The Hayashis – a well-respected elder Japanese couple were the officiators for the Holy Blessing ceremony. Our thanks must also go to Naomi Sato and Ann  Kobayashi for preparing the refreshments, and to Joyce Suda who took care of receiving the guests, grooms and brides.

*STF: Teams of young volunteers, usually on a gap-year.

Father is right, all this stuff about sibling rivalry or son against father, is beside the point. It all begins and ends with God. Just as it always has. Providence belongs to God; the Will of God is God’s. It’s God’s universe and vision. God created man so we could grow to be his sons and daughters, his adult children. Eventually to be indistinguishable from God. It’s a glorious, loving plan, so sharing, so inclusive and it has never changed.

After you know this, the path becomes blindingly clear. God appoints his representative leader, that leader appoints someone, and he/she appoints someone and so on. That’s the path.

The rest is distraction that, unfortunately, ends up consuming most of our time. The rebel son, the errant disciple, the ministries of the other children. Ourselves, our denial, our innermost hearts. All these things are judged by the spiritual truth of that crystal clear path God has given us. In the end, spiritual truth is the only truth. In the face of spiritual truth, the time for talking is over. In the realms of the social and political, there is no truth. At least nothing absolute. There are only positions. That’s why rumor rules those spheres.

So we have to stay on the path. The crystal clear path given to us by God, judges us all. Actually it doesn’t even judge. It just sits there. We judge ourselves. Could it get anymore fair than that?

What should we think about the rebel son and errant disciples? We can love them, and we should. Have to in fact, because real families don’t excommunicate. But we can’t leave the path ourselves. We think of God as being absolute, and he is about most things. But also God allows for forgiveness, and that’s a safety net God thought up, but which doesn’t really have to exist in order for the universe to function. And yet it does. This is God’s love weighing in to mitigate God’s truth. The mother advising the father on the logic of nurturing, softens his stance.

A man steals $10,000 and squanders it on the usual stuff. After sinking to the depths of human degradation and growing weary of his job tuning pianos in whorehouses, he returns to the father, to the path, with a remorseful heart and hands back the nine dollars and eighty-one cents left over. The father takes the money, embraces the son, and pulls him back onto the path. That’s not exactly absolute. It’s something different. But it’s a very, very good thing, and it’s the only reason some of us have any bacon left.

But still, I should count on the path, rather than forgiveness. It will save wear and tear on everyone if I remember the path. Everything I do, every single breath I take, is for this path God gave me.

Larry Moffitt
23 January, 2010

Seasons are like children in a large family. Each one is so different from the others, it is hard to imagine them coming from the same two finite parents.

Spring is the baby of the family, so easy to love, and is given license to be hot-tempered because its eyes are so big and its smile does such a number on your defenses.

Autumn too is nice to be around, talented and complex. Autumn is where life and death meet, where art and intellect make another attempt to occupy the same time and space. It speaks its mind and you never know what Autumn is going to say. There is a fragile intensity and a brilliance there; sometimes Autumn dies young. Nobody forgets Autumn.

Summer is a blue-eyed blonde. Being a born romantic, Summer can be the best child or the most troublesome. Seems like never in between.

Winter is easy to discount and put to one side. Winter seems sullen but that’s because what Winter offers is deep and hard to get to. Everyone hopes Winter will latch onto a path and destiny that won’t wreck the world. But there is a hero buried inside Winter that will emerge when the world needs it. Winter can melt your heart faster and more thoroughly than any of the others because the thoughtfulness is so unexpected, the utter selflessness so profound.

My son John is called “Phish” by everyone. Some people don’t even know what his real name is. The moniker has no reason for being except that his older brother gave him the nickname when he was 13 and it totally stuck.

John B. Moffitt, John the Boy, Phish, Pescado got his learner’s permit a month ago, late at age 18. The upside is that he is lightyears more mature than he was at 16. He was also a much better driver the first time he got behind the wheel than his brother or his sisters before him. That’s because he practiced in his mind for two years.

I Picked him up tonight at the karate dojo where he works after school. It was dark and rainy. He wanted to drive home.

I told him, “I think I should drive, you don’t know how to drive in the rain at night.”

“How am I supposed to learn if I don’t do it?”

Good point.

So he drove, did a good job, and we stopped at the supermarket on the way home. Normally I reach over and take the keys whenever we get out of the car. I didn’t this time. I didn’t say anything because I wondered if he would think it kind of neat to park the car, keep the keys, buy milk and bread, and then get back in the car and drive away. It was much better than neat.

I thought it might be because for two seconds as we pulled up to the supermarket I remembered my own first drives back in Midland, Texas at the dawn of time. Get in the car, drive somewhere, get out and do something. Something adult, independent. Then come back to the car where you left it. Put your hand lightly atop the door. “Whoa, easy there, big fella.” Unlock it, start it and drive — anywhere you want. Go do another errand. Drive west until you run out of west. Or just drive home.

All that was filling up his heart as we walked into the store. We got the shopping cart and were pushing it through the produce section. John was grinning like a raccoon with rabies as he jingled the keys dangling from his fingers.

“Why don’t you put the keys in your pocket so you don’t lose them?”

“If I carry ‘em people know I’m driving.”

That’s how new this is for him. To let him carry the keys around is something it wouldn’t have occurred to me to even think about except for that fortunate flashback as we drove up. But it was huge for John and a reminder for me. Raising kids is all about nuances, a game of inches. Between fathers and sons, every word, touch, glance matters.

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?

Just heard this morning from our FFWPU European Office that True Parents* will be arriving a few days early before the Peace Cup with Real Madrid etc.

arriving in Europe Friday 17th July

I went over to Livingstone House to meet with Rev and Mrs Song and others to discuss the preparations.

The plan is that initially before they arrive to open the Peace Cup they are able to have some quiet time visiting some nice part of Europe. Father is over 90 now.

Of course as a community we want to be able to welcome them properly and host them in a way that can reflect our heart. That is why we are encouraging all Blessed families to offer a donation to support their visit. That is where the budget will come from. It’s a chance to make an offering. (Cheques payable to FFWPU, and send to 43, Lancaster Gate, W2 3NA).

Got home and by bed time ended up reflecting on my heart as a parent. Wasn’t intending to, but circumstances dictated it: As we were putting the boys to bed, and trying to have our new tradition of a closing meeting, one of the boys started really playing up and waking up the youngest, and so I took him out of the room. But I was too rough. I let him get to me. I ended up sitting in the garden and left Chieko to finish up. Thought a lot about his behaviour and then about mine and noticed I might be bigger and stronger, but maybe not that much more mature. At least not enough to fully command his respect.

Heard him sneaking around downstairs. I decided I wanted to apologise and ended up having a talk, he told me how he felt, and I tried to discuss things a bit more broadly. He didn’t really feel able to say sorry for his behaviour, but he did let me teach him how to cure his hiccups, by drinking from a glass backwards. So, I guess that can count.

*Point of  information: Unificationists call the founders of the Unification tradition, (Reverend Moon and Hak ja Han Moon), ‘True Parents’. See the link below to find out why:

http://familyfireplace.org/index.php/questions/answer/who_are_true_parents/

Chieko and I went up on Sunday to Newcastle to meet the Family Federation community there. It was so good to see them and join them for a worship service and a very top of the range BBQ: burgers, lamb kebabs, steaks, vegetarian kebabs, etc…)

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.

Prayer
Originally uploaded by hyunju21

It’s not secret that hubby and I are hoping for kids in the future and it’s made me more aware of what it means to be a parent. I’ve been feeling a little broody about kids, observing other parents in their parenting styles, avidly watching SuperNanny (she’s changed my whole perspective on parenting methods), and reflecting on what it means to be a parent.

There is one parenting technique that I know that I will NOT adopt into our regime and that’s using prayer as punishment. As a pre-teen, I once observed a parent who forced their child to go pray in front of True Parents’ picture because they were caught stealing. Even from the age of 12 I recognized that this was going to breed problems later. Forcing children to pray when they’re being punished will only reinforce negative associations with prayer and might even plant or nurture seeds of resentment in the child’s heart.

Prayer is such an important part of our faith, a time for us to have alone with God to reach out and try to understand His heart. For 90% of the day, we more or less are unaware of Him so we set aside some time to really try and reach and connect. It’s a precious thing and I hope that Matthew and I will eventually be able to convey the value and heart behind it.

I know that you’re busy, but if you can, take just 1 minute to reach out and touch God’s heart right now.