Dear brothers and sisters,

Happy Ahn Shi Il, (for yesterday.) I hope you could have a good week. I want to give you an interesting perspective on the Global Peace Festival.  http://www.globalpeacefestival-uk.org

Firstly it really is global, and an incredible testimony to how God and True Parents have established a worldwide foundation, that goes far beyond the members of our Church. In many places the GPF has been taken up and pioneered by Ambassadors for Peace, especially in nations where there are few Blessed families. Also, Hyun Jin Nim has had an uncanny, clearly God given ability, to move and win over top political and social leaders who had not been sympathetic at the outset. He has brought on board even current Prime Ministers of some nations, Mega Church leaders, etc, because he genuinely exudes passion and commitment to the vision of one family under God.

If you listen (pls click the link below) to Sun Jin Nim’s recent message at the ‘HQs church’ she candidly expresses her gratitude to all of us, but especially all of you who have been walking with and attending True Parents and God all these many years. However it may seem to yourself, all of you have done so much through your life, to help realise the vision of one family under God. So, it would be sadly ironic if we cannot find a place for ourselves in this project.

http://tworiversvip.com/index.php?option=com_seyret&Itemid=243&task=videodirectlink&id=124

This global peace festival project really is a vehicle that gives us an opportunity to bring change and develop a culture through which God can work. Part of that change and development is also for our own Unification movement and family. But it really needs all of us to make that happen. Otherwise, we revert back into our standard operating procedure of top down direction, mobilisation for an event, etc.

I have seen signs that what we are doing this time round is very different from before. But, what we have to figure out is how to make it relevant for all of our lives. All of us, regardless of our position, can return to a previous era and miss this opportunity, if we so wish.

I am aware of the tension between the vision and expectation and the real day to day lives of our local communities. Even many of our pastors are out at work all day and then doing their mission after they clock off. I feel motivated to help figure out the solution that does exist to make this last 36 days towards November 22^nd a success.

It is a success if it is a launch for our movement to start to fly, rather than to fulfil an obligation towards making an event happen. It is a victory, if it means we start to feel free to really work with others beyond our faith community, rather than just doing everything on our own. Finally it is meaningful if through our volunteering efforts we grow spiritually, and become more mature in heart and fulfilled in our soul. Is that not what all people are ultimately and unconsciously craving for?

So please get in touch with your pastor and ask how you can help. Also, knowing that on a family level I stand in the same circumstance as many of you, I am asking myself what am I doing about it? I am making a plan with my family, (well, more with my wife, the kids are not so in to planning yet) to figure out as a family how we are going to contribute, who we are going to invite, write to, etc. I know I should have done this probably more than a few weeks ago, but better late than never!

I will write again soon, to keep you updated. (and feedback is gratefully received.)

(The keys to open this GPF door for all of us are initiative and creativity….hmmm  a personal challenge for all of us to use these qualities that we often keep locked away.)

God bless you, and thank you.

Simon

Dear brothers and sisters,

I hope you had a wonderful summer. Welcome to autumn and the start of the new school/academic year. Let us share in the beauty each season brings, and hopefully we can all experience the harvest that autumn is known for.

I would like to report to you and explain a bit what I have been doing over the last month since I last wrote towards the end of July.

Right now, I am in the Frankfurt airport lounge having just been at the Settlement Age Workshop graduation. I am sitting with Kenneth Read and Hijiri Barrett who happened to be on the same flight back to London. They have been working very hard over here the last few weeks, so they are catching up on some sleep: please see attached picture (permission was given.)

My main contribution was to the staff football team that traditionally plays all the participants on the final day, and we could win comfortably as is also the tradition. (The game is a bit rigged towards that result.) The culture on this workshop is really amazing. The dynamic between the participants, the team leaders and staff is very unique and inspired. One elder sister who was workshop mum shared in the final staff meeting how moved she was to receive some money at the end. She said it was the first time in 30 years to have such an experience. It was a healthy culture shock to be here with everyone even just for 48hours. Europe is the only place which has consistently continued to hold these workshops that Hyun Jin Nim initiated around 2000/2001. He established something very special through this very intense and challenging workshop and the staff members have been doing a great job trying to pass on the culture of heart that is the main theme and focus of the program. It is also now part of the registration process for those wanting to go to STF, and acts as a helpful spiritual stepping stone in the lives to all who come along. There were several UK members supporting as staff: Chris Chasseaud, Steven, Sean Greaves, and Chris Maloney. Tim Read also visited to give some of the Completed Testament Age lecture content.

UPF

I have been involved in helping to take our Global Peace Festival project forward. Especially in preparation towards 22^nd Nov. We now have a good focused team headed up by Mark Brann that is really helping to drive the preparations forward. Please have a read of the letter I wrote in the Home Town News this week that explains these developments in more detail. Recently we held a meeting with the policy and partnership department of Greenwich Council, and they are supporting our efforts towards the GPF program we will be holding in their town hall on the 13^th September.

FFWPU

IN HQs we prepared an annual report for our AGM, which we held in Cleeve House during the annual gathering. I am attaching this to the email. Please have a look through. I think it is good for us all to be up to date on what our Movement has been doing in the UK, especially for when we might want to explain to others what is going on. It is for public consumption, so please feel free to show it to anyone. Hopefully it is also something we will improve on and develop over time. Not many people normally come to the AGM, so we thought it would be good to print up a summary of the reports and put it together in one document to inform and report to our membership.

I am also trying to prepare for our next regional meeting on the 20^th September when all the pastors, Blessed Family Department, and others meet to report, discuss and plan together. Our key focus will be on reviewing the message and guidance we received recently from Dr Seuk and Rev Song: considering how to inherit from what Hyung Jin Nim has been doing in Korea with Kook Jin Nim.

I am planning to attend the Divine Principle workshop in Livingstone House from the 11^th – 17^th September. One of the reasons is that I want to be able to catch all the content from David Hanna’s power points that he has been developing, so that I can be able to use them myself. I keep hearing inspiring reports about his workshops and the investment he is making into reviving Divine Principle education is really needed.

Take care,

Simon

Dear Sisters,
Sometime ago I had an interesting experience. Our third son, Mark, was invited to his nursery class mate’s birthday party. We went along and there I saw a scene that I had never seen before. All the adults in the house were teenage parents. All the Mum’s were wearing very tight jeans and tops, and lots of makeup and big earrings. The Dad’s wore baggy jeans very low down, and some of them had big tattoos, ten earrings on one ear with very unique hairstyles.
They were chatting and dancing with the Bob the Builder dance track which was speeded up. I saw young parents on the street before, but I never had the chance to be with them, and here I was as a total stranger and Mark and I were holding our hands very tightly and sitting in the corner by ourselves, thinking we were ready to escape whenever we had a chance.
But after some time of feeling uncomfortable I thought there must be some reason we are here, and I must do something. I started to talk to the Mums who were sitting next to me and I started to discover they were very good people. It was me who was categorising people based on how they looked and separating people from myself, and now I am thinking how to involve them with the Global Peace Festival.
Today I want to talk about Barbeque since the weather is so nice and uplifting. I always feel happy when I am creating my own barbeque sauce which always comes out different. This is my basic recipe:
Soya sauce, honey or golden syrup, dark brown sugar, crushed garlic, and then you can add anything you like (Worcester sauce, chilli, sesame oil, ketchup, or Tai fish sauce.)
What I do is I take meat like Spare ribs or chicken and put them in the freezer bag and pour all the ingredients without worrying too much about the quantity into the bag (not too much soya sauce as this makes the taste too salty.) Shake the bag a bit and then leave the meat and sauce together in the bag in the fridge for a couple of hours or overnight. Then it is ready to cook. When I cook them in the oven the whole house starts to smell of this amazing aroma.
I hope you have a wonderful week.
Chieko

Dear brothers and sisters,

I hope you are well, and enjoying the good weather.

Over the last two weeks or so Chieko and I have visited  Scotland. We were able to spend a day together with the Blessed central families there and also share together with Paul and Ulrike Currie who are the regional leaders. As always it was really a blessing to meet with all the different family members, young and old, and to talk with them and gain inspiration from their heart and loyalty towards God and True Parents.

This last weekend we held a staff care and training seminar where we invited all regional leaders and HQs staff to come together to share, discuss, and also receive some different presentations. The topics were related to:

· more profoundly understanding our missions in God’s providence,

· reflecting on our working habits and reviewing our ‘job descriptions’,

· how to be creative in our work and family life,

· finally, but importantly getting to know each other better through spending time together,

Quite a few people expressed that they really liked it. Our goal is that we can develop the quality of this type of seminar over time, and continue to make it a fulfilling and joyful experience to work and volunteer within the UPF, FFWPU, and other affiliated organisations. I am grateful to all those who came to participate, and especially to all who helped volunteer as staff, and made it possible.

At the moment my main concern is finalising the venue for the celebration of our Global Peace Festival Project which will take place on the 14^th September (marking one of the staging posts towards 2012.) In HQs we have put a lot of energy into finalising this point, but we still have not got the result we want. We absolutely want to get the contracts signed with venues by very latest the 16^th May, which is 120 days before the event.

Work with our partners for the ongoing GPF projects is going well. Some brothers and sisters are developing very good partnerships and social projects through their UPF work or through other connected or related organisations. I was involved recently in one program which we organised with the Philippine Nursing Association where we could hold a forum together with the Philippine Embassy and His Excellency, the ambassador, on the topic of how migration affects traditional values. It was my first experience to give a public talk presenting the UPF perspective and to share a bit on the ‘5 core principles’. You can now start to see more news on all of these projects on the GPF website which our media and publication team have been working hard on. The address is: www.globalpeacefestival-uk.org. We will be continuing to develop this site over the coming months so that it can serve as a hub of information for our UPF flagship project. I hope you can all find away to get involved so that we can make this a truly national project that reaches far beyond the borders of our own small but blessed community.

Take care,

Simon.

Dear brothers and sisters,

Sorry this report is a few days late. What really comes to my mind is being: busy, busy, busy. I think probably for most of us there is only so fast we can go with our daily schedule, while effectively maintaining our soulfulness. (you can regard the grammar of the last sentence as an indication of my need to adjust my balance.)Anyway, it’s always good to challenge our limits and make improvements

Please find below a report on some of the things over the last week or so:

Thursday 6^th LG meeting with Tim Miller, David Hanna and David Franklin

One of the interesting topics we worked on was finding a better way to develop all the volunteering that goes on in our Movement both in the UPF and FFWPU.

Friday 7^th LG: worked on various areas, following up emails, and phone calls.

Saturday 8^th South London Region: Joined a local game of football between the fit youth and the talented others. The fit youth won, (I think they had some talent too) and I am still recovering. It was a really good experience on many levels and something we should do more of.

Sunday 9^th Chieko and I joined Hayashi San’s North London Region at LG, which is also our local region. After the service we had a meeting all together, to plan and also share about different topics. A strong theme seems to be ‘how much of a family are we?’ I guess it depends on one’s criteria. But, judging by the level of honesty and emotion, it is clear to me that we are a family, and considering all of our limitations we are also a generous one. There were also some good ideas for projects, and we also discussed local projects for the Global Peace Festival.

Monday 10^th 11am HQs Finance meeting/ 3pm UPF HQs meeting/ 6.30pm GPF partners’ introduction meeting:. Everyone was a bit late in the morning, due to the storm. British weather, it is so dramatic! Lot’s to say, but here is a v brief summary:

Finance: We will be giving a report to the regional leaders at the end of the month and sending a report out hopefully next month for all of our membership to give an overview and update on where we are.

UPF HQ’s fortnightly meeting: This was the first of our new style restructured HQs meeting which is different from the traditional HQs Dept. Leaders meeting which we have had for many years. Essentially we are separating out the FFWPU and UPF elements, to give our work stronger focus. We had an over ambitious agenda, and decided to meet again in a couple of days on some more urgent specific topics.

Introduction for new and potential GPF partners: This evening meeting was really incredible. It was not the power point and short video that witnessed to the GPF theme of ‘one family under God’, but it was the incredible rich and diverse group that attended, listened and shared with each other about their ideas and suggestions: Libyan diplomat, rape counsellor, refugee NGO, Christian minister who said he is not religious but…., Nectar Arts, people representing the environment issue, editor of Mystic Way magazine, Pakistan India Friendship Forum, student activists from UCL interfaith society, etc.

Tuesday 11^th took care of kids in the morning, so Chieko could do some shopping, hospital: i had an appointment organised by my GP from a long time ago – bit redundant now as I am ok, but thought I would go anyway. Also, while I was ‘taking care’ of the two little ones Eddie had climbed up something and fallen on his cheek and cut his face, so Chieko and Eddie and Mark came with me to the hospital and we got Eddie’s face looked at, they put some magic glue on it to close the cut, he was brave, and is fine now.  worked at home in the afternoon, LG in the evening for the Civil and Religious Law event which had some really eloquent speakers, and raised some very interesting questions about how there is a secular trend in our ‘human rights laws’ that has a disregard  for our freedom to practice our faith. Please see the HTN for a full report.

Wednesday 12^th Business/property Meeting in Cleeve House, people present: most of those responsible for running our properties. Again lots to say, but an overall impression for me was being impressed and moved by the seriousness and dedication of all those involved to take on the very big job of continually bringing our external foundations up to a higher and higher standard.

Thursday 13^th Breakfast (good word to include, sounds more civilised.) telephone conference with HQs, regions, and President Song, regarding preparations to send 20 participants to the UPF International Leadership Conference in Korea around the time of True Parents Day (3^rd – 7^th April.)

UPF HQs meeting about GPF assembly in September; we decided to have a change of environment from LG, so we met in a cafe in Kensington Gdns. It was hard work but we got a decent draft plan together.

Took Damon and Lenny to their Kumon class. It’s an out of school maths and English study thing that originates from Japan, but has become popular internationally. They love it and hate it.

Evening: Faithlink event at UCL: this was in partnership with the UCL student interfaith society, Matthew Huish chaired the discussion. There were 3 speakers: an Anglican priest form East London University, a lawyer, and the President of the UCL Jewish Society. Really good group of people there, who through each event are coming closer and closer together, and helping to build one family under God.

Friday 14^th Environment Conference meeting in St Albans with Jeff Bateman and a group of environmental activists who want to hold an environment conference in conjunction with GPF in September. Again, lots to say, but maybe another time. Just I was thinking to not go to the meeting because of being too busy, but was really glad I decided to go. There were a lot of developments and action steps and the concept really came together. I guess when I am not sure about something the secret is to take a risk and put in a bit more effort and try to keep those commitments that I have made with others.

Dear brothers and sisters, thank you for reading. I hope you have a good weekend, and whatever you do, I hope it goes well.

Take care,

Simon

Dear brothers and sisters,

I hope you had a good Ahn Shi Il. (we have decided we will put the  calendar on the fridge door in our kitchen so we can prepare better, the eight day week takes a while getting used to. Here are my reports and thoughts for you over the last week and a half.

Church Leaders Meeting (regional leaders)

Chieko and I had our first meeting with all the regional leaders (local church leaders). It was very good to meet them all and hear from their perspective about our work and the initiatives that they are developing. We only had from 11am – 5pm, but we could discuss a lot of things and listen to each other’s ideas and opinions. Strong impression: need to develop the HQs and local FFWPU and UPF chapter’s relationship. Especially for those beyond London, we should find a way to communicate more regularly. Having been a Londoner since my birth and lived here for most of my life I know how easy it is to become London centric.

In Jerusalem

Having just got back from Korea it was not easy to go away again just a few days later. But we had planned this Faithlink (EMME- Europe meets middle east) project from a while back, before I got my new mission. This time we were working together with Service for Peace Austria and also Religious Youth Service.  Different organisations working together as a team, it makes such a difference to the quality of the program.

It was very good for me to have this internal journey with the participants, and also refreshing to be out of meetings for a bit.

While in Jerusalem, I was considering my experience within the context of my mission back in UK: as we went through the RYS education, developed friendships across many religious and cultural borders, and met with people living in complicated and challenging circumstances my thoughts came back again and again to our work in the UK.

I hope we would all agree on the following: we need to change a lot about ourselves first, and then make changes in the way we live together as Blessed families, and also in how we relate to our society as members of the Universal Peace Federation or FFWPU.

As we embark on the vision of the Global Peace Festival  5 year project which has as its theme: “one family under God”, it could be also the right moment to start to make a lot of basic changes to our own community of Blessed families: have our own ‘internal’ 5 year community project. The Global Peace Festival is a project with a long term goal that we will work towards over five years. It has a rational of building consistency and long term partnerships with others in a framework where we do not jump from direction to direction but work according to a plan of action that allows us to feel more ownership for God’s providence.

We will be much more successful if we see the necessary change as a process of moving forward as a whole community; coming to a point of maturity together through a clear time period. (Getting away from the experience where we are given a direction from outside ourselves to change or perform, but instead starting to develop more strongly that direction from within us.)

None of us welcome change on a superficial level, where we end up having to act symbolically. However genuine and real change requires us all to commit to a long term consistent endeavour. It has to be a plan that we all relate to and feel a part of.

So how about 2012 as a defining point in our life which we all work towards? Five years is a good time frame and would give us an opportunity to bring a real development not only organisationally through UPF, but more fundamentally to our community. The thing about community which ever angle you take it from it comes down to personal life style and personal relationship. That means it comes down to you and me.

The goal of the Global Peace Festival will only be successful if the heart of our movement is healthy. So as much as the UPF will have its long term strategic project, we need our own long term community project. So, anyway, just wanted you to know I am thinking about this. One experience stood out for me on the EMME project when someone who had personally been through very tough and impossible times spoke to those present who are currently going through what feels like a hopeless situation:

During one of our visits to Palestine we were discussing with a youth group about their town. A short talk from one young ambassador for peace, and friend of mine, Johnson, moved me deeply (he is 28, doing a Ph. D. at Northampton University):

“I grew up as an untouchable in Southern India, my home was a shack on the beach, as a small child my mother had to pick me up and move me when the tide came in. At 7,8,9 years old I had to go fishing at sea during the night and still do school in the day. Everyone told me I could never go anywhere in life being outside the cast system. But the bigger the obstacles that came my way, the bigger my determination became. No one ever told me or inspired me to seek something for my future, but I told myself and always believed that I had the capacity to do something greater in my life. Is that not why we believe in God? I can’t understand why many people say they believe in God, but cannot believe in themselves or the possibility of greater capacity. I am not sharing this because I want your sympathy, I don’t need that. I just want to say whatever complicated circumstance we face we do have the capacity to go over those challenges and achieve something great.”

I have not met for a long time someone who had such a razor sharp intellect and also such a generous heart. Definitely an inspirational combination!

Universal Peace Federation HQs

We are currently in the process of restructuring our HQs operations in order to deal with the considerable growth in our UPF work. Especially this involves looking at how we interact more strongly with partner organisations, but also how we develop a professional secretariat that can grow out of our traditional General Affairs office run by David Franklin. Our General Affairs Office covers so many areas and keeps our movements overall operations running smoothly. But, we have reached a point where we have so much outreach going on  and such a vast network of contacts and Ambassadors for Peace that we need to rethink things, and ultimately find away to develop our human resources in HQs. At least David F. now has Maniyer Olson and David Freeland as part of his full time staff. Will keep you updated.

So, I will be leaving the country tomorrow to go to Spain for the European Cheon Il Guk leaders meeting, and staying on to help with the workshop that WCARP HQs is running for CARP leaders and national leaders.

I will be back on 6^th March and hoping that I will have done my quota of travelling outside the UK for a few months. Chieko and I are planning from March to start visiting all the local FFWPU and UPF chapters. I hope you are can experiencing faith and hope in your week ahead.

Take care,

Simon

Dear all

I want to write once a week to all our brothers and sisters/members to tell you what I have been doing and also share some of my thoughts, feelings and experiences. It will help me first of all to remember the importance of being accountable to all of you as the national leader for our United Kingdom Unification Movement, and I hope also it will allow me to build a relationship with all of you.

Week 1 :

The change over ceremony two Sundays ago was a very special experience. To feel supported and encouraged by so many brothers and sisters of our Blessed Central families in our new mission made me feel very privileged. What was a real surprise was when three of the Faithlink committee members from the Muslim community also reportedly representing the Islam Channel, turned up and presented a shiny bronze plate, inscribed with the 99 names of God, as an expression of their support.

Monday 28^th Jan in the morning I was at Tim Read’s house where we held a finance meeting with Tim Miller (now finance director) David Hannah (assistant national leader) and Juan Pique (Youth Dept. Director.) I felt it was important to have someone representing the youth in the meeting as they are an ever growing majority in our community and need to be more involved in the decisions of how we grow and develop our movement.