Indivisual; Expressing True Parents’ Style

We would like to invite you to the UKHARP Summer Workshop 2010, which has the motto “Indivisual; Expressing True Parents Style”, in accordance with the European HARP summer motto. Indivisual is a made up word, combining the words Individual and Visual, encouraging people to find their own individual faith in True Parents and be able to show and express that faith to the people around them. The aim for this workshop is for the participants to gain a deeper connection to True Parents, their mission and vision for the future and for the participants to gain the confidence to be able to show what they have gained to their family and friends back home.

Age: HARP members in High School years 7‐11 (born between September 1993 and August 1998)

Dates: Evening of the 15th of August – Morning of 21st of August

Venue: Cleeve House, Seend, Wiltshire

Cost: £110 per person (£100 for every other child from the same family after)

Application Deadline: Spaces are limited to 70, so early application is advised. Unfortunately we cannot guarantee you a place even if you apply within the deadline – but we will do our best.

Please apply by sending an email to ukharp@gmail.com – please include your name, date of birth, contact number, parents’ email address and your local church community.
If you want to inquire about helping out as staff, please send us an email and we will get back to you to discuss the possibilities.

After the application deadline we will send out a confirmation email to all the participants and in that we will detail things that you need to prepare, the code of conduct and any more information that will help you prepare for the Workshop.

We look forward to hearing from you.
The HARP committee

I had an interesting bank holiday weekend.

On Friday evening I drove to Birmingham to join the European Youth Department as they addressed an audience in the Earle family home. That same night I continued on to Hedben Hey, a scout centre in the Peak District not far from Halifax. I delivered a lecture to the participants of the workshop on the Saturday morning. There was a great atmosphere on the workshop. Things had been organised very capably by Jo Spencer, and there was a great team of staff working together to create a good programme for the HARP members participating. I returned to London that evening, leaving the workshop early, so that I could join the HARP Sunday Service in Lancaster Gate the next morning, which was followed by the London leg of the European Youth Department speaking tour.

On the bank holiday, my wife Natasha disallowed me from using my laptop so that I could dedicate my time to the family – quite right.

So, now it’s Tuesday, I can post a few photos and videos from the Peak District workshop. (Sorry for not editing them!) More pictures and a video from the workshop will become available on the family fireplace soon, so keep an eye out in the next few days for that…

Morning stretch before hoon dok hwe

The workshop participants preparing for their challenge day

A moment of creative inspiration

Jo doing a good job directing the workshop

HARP Director & Committee
Job Description

The UK FFWPU (registered Charity # 267917) is seeking to recruit a committee of volunteers, including a director, for the High School Association for the Research of the Principle (HARP). Working within the FFWPU youth ministry, the volunteers will coordinate pastoral care to the 233+ Unificationist youth in secondary education aged 12-18 living in the 9 spiritual communities of the UK. Essential qualifications include a sincere faith in God & True Parents and good use of the English language.

The purpose of the work should be to:

• Empower UK secondary students to discover and fulfil their unique calling to serve God and others
• Empower secondary students to develop a personal relationship with True Parents
• Support the research of the Divine Principle for secondary students
• Prepare secondary students for the marriage blessing and for a life of public service
• Build a spiritually secure community where secondary students can enjoy fellowship as one family

This should be achieved by:

• Offering sincere devotion
• Good communication with the national and European youth leadership and also with local regional youth or pastoral leadership
• Raising & investing into regional HARP leadership
• Disseminating relevant information to the specific target audience (e.g. workshop invitations)
• Coordinating the HARP Sunday worship services
• Reaching out to all existing HARP members and reaching out beyond to youth outside our church, inviting them to join different activities of varying commitment
• Executing workshops & programmes that deliver faith education
• Communicating & cooperating with parents of HARP members

If you are interested in applying for this job, please send an email to hq@ffwpu.org.uk.

The Il Shim; One Heart – One Mind programme aims to educate youth about purity. It is part of a new effort to establish ‘Rights of Passage’ for young people – beginning from early Sunday school lasting until the Blessing. It also aims to support youth through the ups and downs of growing up and educate and inspire them through each stage of development, nurturing their hearts and minds. The programme is divided into four parts to study which teaches about purity and the value of being single, this is studied at home with parents to bring unity between the first and second generation.

The seminar held on Nov 1st in South London was made up of  lectures which went into more detail than the study programme itself, such as information from the book by Josh Harris “I Kissed Dating Goodbye”, which includes the meaning and purpose of singleness. The seminar was also enhanced by Susan and Ashley Crosthwaite’s inspirations and care for the participants on the day. There were discussions and sharing on the day which gave the participants a chance to share what they learned from the programme and seminar. Afterwards 12 of the participants took part in the Purity Ring Ceremony where a money offering was given, the purity pledge was read and through full bows they expressed respect for their parents. This was representing their pledge to purity, service to God and preparation for the Blessing, finally ending with the Purity Rings being presented to each of the participants as a symbol of this pledge.

Natania: “The day proved to me how this decision within the hearts of Blessed Children can really make an impact to their lives and the lives of others. As we all stood there, united in the decision to stay pure, I felt a deep connection with my fellow brothers and sisters and felt proud that I could help them make such an important choice in their lives. I really believe that this programme is a great way to unite with true Father’s core teachings of love, life and lineage; how we love each other, how we live our lives and how we keep and respect our lineage. This reflects purity through living pure lives, being our true selves and sharing in true love with one another. Our dear Aunty and Uncle gave us guidance on how to respond to life’s challenges and how to stay strong with our beliefs, faith and purity. I made the choice to pledge my purity many years ago, with half the conviction that these brothers and sisters have, and it changed my life.”

By Natania Squizzato and Susan Crosthwaite

30th October
By Lisa Hayashi

North London one day HARP workshop

In the half term North London HARP Reamonn Batemann organised a day of ‘heartwash’ where HARP kids could have a get together in Lancaster gate with a turnout of around 15 people from the North London and West London congregation. I thought it was a good opportunity from fresh HARP members to the elder second generation to interact. The schedule consisted of ice breakers from uncle mike’s (Mike Stout) legendary games and a comic video about relationship in marriage. We had a delicious meal made by Michael Franklin (and vegetable chopping from Erena Shaw) to give us enough energy for the day. We had a short talk by Matthew Huish who talked about important need-to know facts about purity, the main theme for Second generation this year, with valuable points in which levels we could relate to where I am sure everyone found motivating. In the afternoon we had another session of sports in Hyde park, both mentally and physically challenging (this time only a few scratches and bruises harhar).

In the evening we had another beautiful meal from Michael Franklin and we ended the day with a film, ‘Lady in the water’ by M Night Shyamalan- better known for The sixth sense. To be totally honest, I didn’t understand the film at all but it was no doubt interesting to see Shyamalan drowning in a bog of his own creative juices.

Overall the day was pretty awesome and it was good to be in the company of these barely credible people. The only down side was the attendance so hopefully if another opportunity comes along, people take it!

Credit to Reamonn B, Michael F, Erena S, Jonathan B, Mathhew H and Uncle mike for the day!

Jonathan Bateman’s story from the HARP summer workshop 2009.

Having come off the Divine Principle workshop just three days earlier I was super stoked for another HARP workshop and it was really encouraged from the beginning of the workshop that people get that ‘half-way-through-the-workshop’ feel; as it wasn’t a long workshop, it was essential that the most had to be got out of the time we had together.

I think this really set the tone for the workshop: the spirit was amazing, boundaries were broken, people aged from 11 or 12 were happily spending their free time with people over the age of 20. The same went for the Divine Principle workshop; they both had a very high and comfortable familial atmosphere, where people were free to be themselves. The activities and lectures only enhanced this; people could really understand what it means to be a ‘Rebel with a Cause’ by connecting with the lectures but also their roots that are the first generation and True Parents, the original rebels. In the end everyone really invested his or her utmost to make it a great and memorable experience and words on a page can only convey a glimpse of the time we had.

Here’s the trailer for the workshop:

Kenta Barrett telling his story from the recent HARP 7-Day Divine Principle Workshop (16^th-22^nd August 2009)

Arriving at Livingstone house, the atmosphere was already one of excitement. Usual to the first day, most of the participants were in groups of friends, slightly separated, with the few exceptions of people who came without knowing anyone. For a fair few it was their first workshop ever, let alone their first Divine Principle workshop, so nervousness was obvious in a fair few too. After this, there was the usual blur of dinner, orientation, bed, Hoon Dok Hae and receiving teams, in an order which has been lost to me.

Having the “perfect” team is a rare occurrence, mostly people have “fun” teams, or “loud” teams, or “good” teams, according to the end of workshop reflections anyway. But in this case we had six out of six perfect teams, each praising how they had some of the best team leaders ever, in which I agree. From receiving their teams, the participants would spend a majority of their meal times in their teams, talking, sharing and eating together, as they would try to spend as much time as a team. The schedule gave them a couple of hours a day to discuss lectures together as a team, but this was obviously not enough for them, so they spent their free time together too, which is always a very good thing, especially when you are discussing Divine Principle.

As a direct result of this, there were no longer any groups, only a workshop. The atmosphere allowed anyone to approach anyone and start a conversation. It isn’t often that a twenty year old like me can approach a twelve year old and have a conversation about the significance of Jacob’s course without reservation or misunderstanding, and yet this would happen a lot, in between the many games of Werewolf, Jungle Speed and Slam that is.

David Hanna’s lectures were amazing, for want of a better word that can describe how amazing they were. Even though I have studied the Divine Principle a fair few times, I still received much, which makes me wonder how much the participants must have a received, which I know to be a lot. Even though they woke up early, slept late and had many mentally and physically tiring activities, they would rarely lose concentration, listening intently to Uncle David’s lectures. They would write daily reflections, to help them digest what they had experienced during the day, and each reflection was filled with praise for David Hanna’s lecturing style and the amount of content they received.

One morning we had a visit from Petra and Philip Hill, giving us a talk on the spiritual world and spiritual beings. This was very insightful, and informative to the participants. For the rest of the workshop people would talk about the different reading they had, comparing their guardian scientists with another person’s troop of nuns, and how to keep a spiritually healthy. Although I didn’t receive my own personal reading, it was an invaluable experience.

The workshop sped past, each lecture giving more and more insight into the True Fathers teachings, meal times filled with spiritually stimulating conversations and many fun games. The prayer evening allowed many people to open up, and talk to God sincerely, the first time for a few. The atmosphere stayed spiritually very high, and thus led us to Family evening and Graduation.

Family evenings on workshops are some of the best experiences of my life. Normally you get a few average sketches, one which is rather bad and making you cringe most of the way through, and many, if you are lucky, one exceptionally good one. This family evening was entirely different. Every time a team performed, I would think “That was hilarious, how can that be topped?” but the team that followed would easily match the team before. The individual performances were just as beautiful, songs and dances from many people, finishing with a good sing along song with Bernard Chellew.

By the end of the workshop, many didn’t want to leave. It was a workshop that was very hard to top, the love and unity between the participants was awesome and the amount of them that have really taken a part of the Divine Principle into their lives makes the workshop very successful. Some participants even said that it was “the best experience of their life”. So I would like to sincerely thank David and Patrick Hanna for organising and running the workshop, and investing so much into making it one of the best workshops ever.

Summer Workshop for UK HARP 2009 – “Rebels with a Cause” 25th-30th August 2009

85 Family members joined the rebellion at the UK HARP summer workshop 2009; with the motto ‘Rebels With a Cause’ we were able to create an amazing atmosphere of love, learning and energy in 4 ½ fully filled days together. One aspect of the workshop focused on our ‘Roots’; lectures by Uncle Tim Read on the course of True Parents and the 1st generation were reinforced by testimonies from our workshop parents, Uncle Andy Johnson and Aunty Tina Coombs – as well as archive footage of the origins of the worldwide and British movement. The other main aspect was Purity – how living a pure lifestyle is the key way that we as 2nd generation can rebel for the cause, and really grow and mature together. Through lectures from our elder sister Yoshiko Chellew, 2nd Gen testimonies, inspiring Hoon Dok Hae and discussions, we were able to greater realise that we have all have this cause to fight for. The workshop will also be memorable for the dramatic challenge day (filled with paintballing, war paint and torrential rain), and the exceptional team of Staff and Team leaders who took such good care of everyone and every aspect of the workshop (special thanks to Aunty Naomi Sato for her tireless efforts in the kitchen). However, it was the participants who really made it an unforgettable experience, and all that was achieved in such a short time was a great accomplishment. Here are a few snippets from the participants’ reflections:

“The motto for me, means that as a 2nd Generation, it’s my duty to uphold the standard of purity regardless of the pressures of society…The most precious moments of the workshop for me was the time spent with my team, whatever the activity; physical, mental, spiritual – it always felt like we were one unit – family!”

“The motto “Rebels with a Cause” didn’t mean much to me at all, but now I can understand it, and make it MY OWN. It means standing up for your beliefs, going against the fallen society and going the hard way even if we struggle”

“This workshop was a really amazing experience for me; I had so much fun. I made lots of new friends, met so many wonderful people and I could learn so much over the last 4 days…The motto ‘Rebels with a Cause’ to me means being the one to stand up against our corrupt society and to open up a new path for others to follow.”

It was an awesome way to begin the new academic year, and I would personally like to thank everyone for all their efforts. It really was unforgettable, and showed the huge potential inside everyone to give, love and grow.

At the start of the Easter holiday the HARP members have been putting some serious creative time into developing their talent for dance, art, music and media production at Cleeve House.

When we left cleeve house last night there was this incredible rainbow with a sunset to match. just kind of said it all really…the art workshop graduation was out of this world. Check out the link below to see something from the graduation:

Art w/s graduation