It  has been confirmed that our International President, Pastor Hyung Jin Nim and his wife, Yeon Ah Nim  will come to the UK on Monday 23rd August and spend  a few days here to meet brothers and sisters before going on to visit the rest of Europe.

I am sure you will all look forward to meet them with your families and guests, so let us all prepare well to receive them and inspire them.

FFWPU Annual Gathering at Cleeve House

We have decided to move the Annual Gathering in Cleeve House to Tuesday 24th August (originally set for Saturday 21st August) so that all our Blessed families can have a chance to meet with Pastor Hyung Jin Nim and Yeon Ah Nim in our own beautiful environment .
We did not want to miss our traditional summer Annual Gathering and it was thought  difficult to gather UK members from all over the nation twice within a few days, so it seemed a wonderful opportunity to ask Hyung Jin Nim to speak to everyone at Cleeve on 24th.  We have there facilities for the younger children to enjoy the bouncy castles, games, etc.
Please try to book time off work if you need to. More details will come soon.

I am on the flight back to London from Seoul and taking a bit of time to distil the last 4 or 5 days. It is essential for me to do this, in the context of sharing my thoughts with you, because I went on behalf of and to represent our UK church community. To post my conclusions here is important for me because I want to allow us to have a shared experience that articulates the vision for our church community over the next three years.

on the outside of the ground floor shrine for the 4 great saints

The world mission department staff did a great job taking care of all the national leaders. But when they asked for feedback on what to improve we gave them several suggestions. There was a severe case of information overload and by the end they also realised this. As a result of the multiple power points and case studies there was way too much talking at or to us rather than with us; generally there was a need to develop a more effective process of communication.

That was the toughest part for me to cope with and I regret that I was not more constructive in getting over those frustrations in the heat of the moment.

Aside from that I could salvage some interesting information which I will compile and send out over the next week or two.

Now here is what really made it all click into place:

morning devotion in the temple prayer room on Ahn Shi Il

We concluded our assembly this morning by attending the first Ahn Shil Il in the new ‘mega’ Unification Church temple. Hyung Jin and Yeon Ah Moon were there and he gave an almost one hour long message that washed away most of the frustrations from the previous days.

He spoke with a powerful honesty. Through charting for us his personal journey he cast a clear vision for the Unification Church.

He outlined the Unification Movement’s main problem: Insufficient faith in True Parents as the Lord of the Second Advent; a lack of personal daily awareness of how True Parents have saved our lives by dying for us again and again. He pointed to the fact that many members are not able to be openly proud of these truths as evidence of our need for deeper more personal faith. He pointed to the book of Acts as an example of the type of faith we should aspire to. He referred to himself as an apostle.

He outlined the solution to the problem with two elements: For each of us to get into a life of devotion which allows us to first see True Parents with our spiritual eyes, and secondly gives us the heart and conviction to bring people to accept True Parents as their saviour and lord.

But why us, and why now?

Father is 90 years old and is doing his very best to stick around and give us a chance to help him secure the future. It is us because True Parents have blessed us and given their lives for us more than for anyone else. In that way we are the bridge for True Parents to the world. If it is not us now, then who is it and when?

Pastor Hyung Jin Moon says thank you as he leaves

It is clear that pastor Hyung Jin Nim will keep on repeating this vision until is sticks. But what we must do is unpack it and bring it into a practical set of action steps for our community. We have to flesh it out so that we have a workable strategy and process which will empower each family member and give all of us the opportunity to fulfil the vision: Establishing True Parents as the Way, the Truth, and the Life for building the Kingdom.

I know we all have different approaches and styles of doing what we have got to get done. That is inevitable and fine. Nevertheless we need a recognisable rallying point for all of our efforts. The Sunday before I went to Korea I spoke about our HQ church’s main purpose. We need to focus on teaching the Divine Principle and bringing people to True Parents. We will do many things, but our clear and transparent objective and purpose should be to successfully do these two things.

Again this needs to be unpacked and articulated in more detail. But let us keep our eye on these two purposes and patiently, step by step, answer all the other questions that will spring up as we go along.

I had my video camera ready because I felt in that precious moment all of you needed to be there too!  Here is part 1 of Hyun Jin Nim’s talk at Ahn Shi Il:

On the bus to Incheon airport after leaving the temple this morning I realised we have to thank the Japanese church members for Hyung Jin Nim. It is because of his experience with their faith in True Parents that he is able to provide authentic spiritual leadership. That is why sincere, genuine, personal, mature faith counts. We need those adjectives to qualify the noun, but let us nevertheless remember that faith counts and trumps personality, local culture, and any other relative human factors.

UNfortunately my video camera battery died. But God bless my iPhone, just it doesn’t have a zoom yet. Here is part 2 and 3 of Hyung Jin Nim’s very personal morning message, u might need to turn up the volume or use some headphones for volume:

Last night was a long night. In a room with lots of elder european brothers. A few times in the night I really thought I could have been in a jungle with a bunch of lions and tigers growling. We got to the peace palace at 6am. After 1 hour sitting on the floor waiting for pledge to start at 8am decided to go and sit on the chairs in the back with Daniel Bessell and Jack Corley.  That was a saving grace. Big screen too so we could see everything fine and still walk by the time everything was finished.

True Parents looked well and happy. I had serious jet-lag still, but I do remember Father saying: “excuse me while I take some water. If I drink I am thirsty and if I smile it means I am happy. There, that is a short sermon.”

Barak Obamma sent a congratulatory message, and so did a number of other prominent people.

Later we had an early lunch down at Cheong Pyeong training centre. Most memorable bit: Kook Jin Moon was on the schedule to give  a toast. He got up and said: “I have a confession of faith to make. True Parents are  not only my physical parents but also my spiritual parents.” He went on to state clearly who they are as the returning Christ. Hyung Jin Moon did like wise in front of 1000 people. True Parents smiled, so I guess by what Father said in the morning this meant they were happy about this.

Hyung Jin Moon visits guests at True Parents birthday banquet

In the afternoon we had the opening session of the national leaders meeting. Kook Jin Moon, In Jin Moon, and Hyung Jin Moon all spoke. The spirit and message was strong and clear. Here are some of my notes:

“Our church policy is to declare True Parents for who they are, and if we do so perhaps Father will not feel the need to give marathon long talks, and then he can be more free to rest.”

“True Parents saved our life and that is why we declare them as our lord and saviour. We should get comfortable with that and start sharing that truth. I guarantee if you do, that it will change your life completely, and you will understand why people talk about being born again. Something changes inside of you, when you declare your faith.”

I could connect with the main message, but occasionally the case was not fully developed and some of the points were possibly not fully intended. Kook Jin Moon made the point that we are not here to be a social movement. But surely we want to be socially relevant. I think what he meant is that our primary purpose is to bring people to True Parents. Anyhow, that is when I started to feel v european. Talking with Daniel Bessel I realised that our default mode is to analyse, and when the rationale is woolly we get frustrated. My conclusion was that rather than get annoyed better to take on greater faith and then offer rational and thoughtful feedback.

One elder 2nd Generation Unificationist who must be around 30 now said to me in the bus that the denial of  our faith generally leads to people losing it. He said that many of his friends who grew up being encoraged by their parents not to let people know that they were followers of Rev Moon, and Unification Church members tended to eventually drift away. While those who were open and honest tended to find it easier to stick around.

The other thing I am experiencing here is culture shock. Was never so aware of that before. I always came to Korea thinking this is Father’s nation. But I think I have arrived at a point of separating the two out. So now I am becoming aware of how alien Asian culture is for me. I think it is an important step in coming to understand the people in a more real way.

There was the usual thing when we were waiting for the above mentioned speakers to arrive in the room. The shear number of people involved in getting the mics ready, calling on their mobiles up stairs to see when they were coming down, starting a song, rechecking the mics, etc. And on the 4th set of mansai’s today I was not giving it quite the 100%. Just all very alien to my cultural background. I am sure I could learn a thing or two if I open my mind to it. But, can’t imagine what it must have been like for True Parents to live in the West for so many years and raise their family there. I guess I realised Father is not Korean, he is the Son of God. Big difference.

Last night I had a dream:

My memory of the dream is sketchy – I only remembered having the dream during my morning run some time after waking up.  The significant feature of this dream was the presence of Hyun Jin Nim.  I think I bumped into him in a cafeteria during a conference at which I had presented a report about the interfaith work I have done.  We didn’t have a meaningful exchange, although he acknowledged my contribution to the conference.  I had the feeling Hyun Jin Nim had a lot on his mind, so I respectfully gave him some space, but I felt happy and comfortable to be in his presence.

That’s all – nothing terribly significant on the surface of it.  When I shared this dream with my wife, she then told me about a dream she had just had during the same morning:

Natasha was in a hospital bed being visited by many nurses although she was keen to be discharged.  All of a sudden, Hyung Jin Nim appeared with a tray of food, offering her something to eat and drink.  He encouraged her to rest and recover her strength.  Natasha asked him if he didn’t have any more important things to do, and although Hyung Jin Nim did not answer the question directly, he simply smiled and continued serving her,  wishing her a healthy recovery.

These dreams have been influenced by real-life situations: I recently sent a letter to Hyun Jin Nim, which perhaps has been read by now.  Natasha recently spent a few frustrating nights in a hospital after undergoing a Caesarian-section when our 3rd child was born.

Interesting.

Coincidentally, this morning after my run, I continued my reading of A Bald Head and a Strawberry, which I picked up again recently.  While I had many realisations in the few pages I read, these words jumped out of the page:

“If we hold the worldview that others are objects to satisfy our wants then fundamentally we poison our hearts. When they don’t give us any more satisfaction, we lose our interest, our compassion, our care for them. The relationship becomes conditional only on how well the other is pleasing us.

“This shows a fundamental ignorance to the fact that others, just like us, desire to find happiness and avoid pain.”

The last line in particular made me remember something.  Doesn’t it remind you of a very familiar line from the Divine Principle?  The first sentence, in fact, of the Exposition text reads “Everyone, without exception, is struggling to attain happiness and avoid misfortune”.  Having recently spent some time with the STF witnessing team, during which time I helped them study the Introduction, this connection revealed a new level of meaning to a phrase I have studied and repeated countless times.  Suddenly, the struggle to attain happiness and avoid misfortune was no longer MY struggle, but a struggle shared by every other human being.  How could I be so arrogant to not recognise that others are struggling just as much as I am?

The next step is to realise that the members of the True Family are also struggling in this pursuit, to “find happiness and avoid pain”.  I love Hyun Jin Nim and I love Hyung Jin Nim, or at least I want to love them.  I hope  the fact that Natasha and I are dreaming about these brothers demonstrates our passion for them and I hope we can serve and support them, and the entire True Family. As Hyun Jin Nim often encourages us:

“Together, we can dare to dream the greatest dream of all!  Let us own the dream to create One Family Under God.”

Recently we have all been watching Reverend Hyung Jin Moon’s ‘Taiwan’ message about testifying to True Parents and being open and proud about who we are.

My main conclusion was that this needs a very full personal response in terms of evaluating, and reflecting on our faith. He says if my faith is weak, then I need to assess and evaluate it. So, simply to watch the speech online, and be excited by Rev. Hyung Jin Moon’s conviction is not the whole point.
We need to let people know that True Parents are on Earth, but we should allow them to experience their love, their wisdom their guidance and concern for all our lives.We need to absorb and then radiate God’s love just as when the sun shines on this planet.

when the light shines

That means much more than just talking to people. It means serving them.

When you look at yourself remember that God only made one of you. He doesn’t make copies, only originals. Remember that too, when you look at your family and community.

This year can be the year when we discover that we are, and never will be God’s ‘plan B’, but instead God shaped every single member of our congregation and put them in His church for a specific reason, and to be part of His ‘plan A’.

The abilities that God planted in each of us can really shine when we realise how to develop them and how to use them to testify to True Parents’ mission and life.

As a community we just have to get better at empowering each other.

One way I know I can do a lot better at radiating God’s love is by preparing more in my work, paying attention to the details, and working on my different projects with a lot more thought and prayer so that what I create is well designed.

When I look at what Pastor Hyung Jin is doing with the temple in Korea, I can see his motivation is to be able to testify more powerfully to True Parents. If we make our Lancaster Gate HQ a place to receive people and care for our members and guests, we can start to see it as place that personifies True Parents.

God wants to see you become someone who makes a unique contribution, based on your character, life experience, and abilities. God calls us all to serve. As we learn to serve, God comes to trust us and lets us see more of who we are and how we can fulfil our potential.

sunset tree, by Matthew Sawl. let us absorb God's love and radiate in our own special way

This is our FFWPU statement of purpose that we established around 12 months ago:

Statement of Purpose »

1. We share God’s blessing and True Parents’ message with others.

2. We create a spiritually secure community where people can enjoy fellowship as one family.

3. We empower people to discover and fulfil their calling to serve God and others.

It’s a work in progress…

It is hard when you have been misunderstood for a long time to have a Christian attitude towards others, to not be sceptical of journalists who you don’t know, and of course  we must not forget Jesus also said to be wise as a serpent, i.e. don’t be naive.

Having said that it would be wise for us to embrace the media and view them as our friends, and help them to get a better picture of who we are. That is one of the purposes of this website: to let people see what we actually do, say, and think as a community.

healthy communication - takes two to tango

The work that started with Tim Read and many others in years gone by and that has been carried on by our current media duo (Richard Biddlecombe and Nancy Jubb) has proven that when you reach out to people, even journalists, you build a healthy relationship.

I was surprised at one or two of the instant reactions on Facebook to the recent BBC article by Christopher Landau who interviewed Hyung Jin Moon recently. Despite the article having been objective and also helpful towards getting our actual message out to the public, there was an assumption that the journalist must have twisted some of his words.

No, I don’t think so. Personally, I want to thank Mr Landau for quoting our founder’s son so much and on so many different points. He didn’t have to do that, but he did.

I wouldn’t say he got the perfect angle or really hit the nail on the head when he mentioned the use of christian songs, as many of what we see as our holy songs are anyhow Korean christian hymns. But hey, its not my article.

At a time when we are trying to figure out what kind of movement we are, what True Parents’ legacy will be, what kind of a religious movement we are, etc, then to have an inquisitive and relatively objective media is only healthy and helpful. It actually forces us to be clear, articulate, and reflective.

"someone who seems determined to establish the faith founded by his father as a credible part of the religious landscape " BBC Quote.

He mentions in the article how Hyung Jin Nim is not afraid to bring in practices from already established religious traditions. This is a key point for us to first consider for ourselves and then to explain to others: we are nothing with out all the established traditions and what they have done for humanity over the millennium, and we honour all the saints of history whether they be Jewish, Budhist, Christian, or Muslim. True Father, Rev Moon’s, starting point was to respond to Jesus. The Divine Principle, our core teaching, is also born out of the Judeo-Christian scriptures. And there is the point for reflection: how many of us especially younger or more recent disciples like me have actually read the Old and New Testament?

So going back to the start. As disciples of True Parents when last did any of us contact our local media to let them know what we are doing in our work, in our community? If you would like to support our UK media team on the local level, get in touch. There is so much more we could be sharing about if we make the first step, and so much we will also learn about who we are when we start that give and take.

If you want to see the facebook conversation:

http://www.facebook.com/posted.php?id=598500267&share_id=188779971223&comments=1#s188779971223

The day after the Annual Gathering was Ahn Shi Il. (Here’s a video of Michael Jenkins giving an explanation about Ahn Shi Il.)

My little family had spent the previous night in my parents’ home after my mum drove us back to London from Cleeve House. Natasha and I had agreed to wake up before 5am to attend the pledge service led by my parents. David had been sick on the day of the annual gathering, so after of an exhausting day of travelling, both my children slept heavily and the night was thankfully undisturbed. Nevertheless, waking up the next morning wasn’t easy (is it ever?)

After turning off my alarm, I rolled over to wake up my wife. She rarely gets up enthusiastically, so I wasn’t surprised by her resistance to leave her peaceful rest. After I got dressed in my smart clothes, Natasha was at least sitting up, so I went downstairs confident that Natasha would complete the waking-up process by herself.

As 5 o’clock arrived, I stood with my parents and my sister to offer the family pledge, but Natasha was embarrassingly absent. At first I thought she might just be late, hoping that she’d appear any minute to join us as we recited the Korean part of the pledge. As we began the English recitation, I conceded that she would not appear, imagining that she reclined after I had left the room and drifted back to sleep. The feeling of disappointment distracted my focus – I recited the words of the pledge but my heart wasn’t behind their meaning. It was after the fifth pledge that I became conscious of my hypocrisy: Although my body was attending the pledge service, my mind was as absent as Natasha.

The previous day, during the annual gathering Sunday Service, one of the points I took from Simon Cooper’s sermon was a question about what it means to be unconditional: Do I expect others to be religious just because I have chosen to be religious? In my relationship with Natasha, I should be cautious of applying the same religious expectations on Natasha as I do to myself. Conversely, I mustn’t blame Natasha if I fail to perform my responsibilities in the religious commitments I have made.

So after digesting my disappointment, I concluded that Natasha would be more tired than me because of her pregnancy, and even if she failed to come down to pledge this particular morning, I should be patient and allow her to come of her own volition while offering my own pledge to Heavenly Father with sincerity.

After the pledge service and a brief period of hoon dok hwe, I returned to the bedroom to get some more rest. There I found Natasha, dressed in her smart clothes and fully awake, indicating to me to be quiet as I entered the room. Natasha then explained in whispered words how, shortly after I had left the room, our daughter Olivia had woken up and that Natasha had spent all the time I was away putting her back to sleep. She fully intended to join the pledge service and was really disappointed that she couldn’t attend. I had been judging her all along when the reality was in fact entirely different!

Nevertheless, I had learned something through this experience and resolved to be more humble in my expectations of others. I know very well that I am NOT unconditional. I struggle to imagine loving people the way True Parents love people. Am I prepared to die 7 times (as described by Hyung Jin Nim) for the sake of my children? Of course we don’t deserve it, but True Parents do it anyway out of a parental heart. That is the standard to which I aspire, although I’m sure it will take a LONG time to get there.

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.

Dear brothers and sister,

Happy Ahn Shi Il. I hope you have a good week ahead of you. I want to report to you. As we all experience, reporting is not always an easy thing to do. However, if we don’t communicate regularly with the people in our life we end up as an island, and that will always be our own doing, not someone else’s. It’s all the more ironic if we live on an island, as you and I do.

As it is over a month since I wrote any communication, please forgive me for missing out a lot of stuff.

Attending the 7 day Divine Principle workshop in September reminded me to always try to be a beginner in my attitude towards learning. I went originally to take some notes from the power point slides so that I can use them more effectively. I also wanted to support what I think is an important project which David Hanna is developing through the education department. However, I realised eventually that actually I was mainly there to participate and to go through my own spiritual journey, which is what happens when we actively listen to God’s word. It helped me to take a better look at myself. If you would like to go there is another 7 days just before Christmas (15^th Dec- 21^st Dec.)It is different.

I have been keeping my commitment to the small group study program some of us hold in our HQs in Lancaster Gate. We study a chapter of Hyung Jin Nim’s new book each week, practice the exercises that he outlines, and then discuss our progress. The advantage that regular study brings is that it allows us to start applying what we learn in our daily life. And if we do that with other people,  we are able to create fellowship in our life: a social experience where we hear God’s gentle voice, and feel his warm embrace.

Last week at Sunday Service I realised how if we don’t have other structures and processes established for our community Sunday can become a hub for all information. I have been researching what Hyung Jin Nim is doing and discussing and planning with our regional pastors how we can establish small group programs where we can share our faith with each other, and also with friends, and neighbours, colleagues, etc. Would you like to feel the church coming back into your home? If not then it is probably good to get out and visit other people’s places of worship. Either way it is important to experience fellowship in our life.

I had my interfaith rebirth experience recently when I was invited to give a talk at the UCL interfaith society, which was pioneered by some of our recent CARP students. Talking to the new society president, who is a Hindu, we found out we went to the same school many years ago, well at least many years ago for me. I had a power point that I had used in Paraguay and many of the ideas were sourced from a talk my genius Muslim friend, Zishan, had given at a Faithlink weekend. I hadn’t realised he had also been invited to speak on this occasion. As I got to speak first I warned everyone that any content that Zishan gave which repeated what I had just said was probably originally from him. What a great way to compliment a friend!

Over all I would like to report one key lesson from the last month or so: I am realising what I am good at and where I experience confidence. I am also much more aware of many areas in which I am weak, lacking, and not confident.  Both these matters are down to things like my character, my experience, my aptitude, etc. But most of all I am grateful for the ability to become more aware and the opportunity that awareness gives me to grow. Thank you to all of you for your kind words when I meet you, your understanding, and encouragement. It is an honour to be part of your community.

I would like to say quite a lot to you about November 22nd. But I will try to do that next time, hopefully v soon. Take care, and God bless you.

Simon