Next Saturday on the 24th October in the evening we will be having a worship service that will look at how we deal positively with our problems. If you want to be a problem solver please come along. It’s going to be fun (includes good music, food and fellowship.)

Problems are and always will be part of life:

1. problems are inevitable
2. problems are unpredictable
3. problems come in all shapes and sizes
4. how we deal with problems helps to define our character, our destiny and our ability to find deeper happiness in our life.

making good weather conditions for the life you live

How do you get things to work out the way you want in your life? When I look at all the aspects of my life (my wife, children, career, my mission, different projects, etc) there are so many hopes that I have, environments to create, and atmospheres I would like to experience. Recently I have been reminded how much my life is determined by my spiritual condition and the condition of those around me.

I am aware, that there is an imbalance in my life between investing in to tangibles, (things that can satisfy my desire for a certain type of success and achievement) and the intangible (making space to reflect, study, and offer a sincere prayer). You can make your own guess about which side of the scales are light.

I am so grateful to those around me, whose lives have a good spiritual condition. I realised how I receive protection and blessing because of them. I benefit from their atmosphere. Then on a completely different level I am grateful to God for the incredible conditions he makes for my life, and the willingness he has to offer me so much insight and guidance in return for what I can only say are a meagre amount of study and prayer. God is the most generous.

this is not prayer....

Lastly, I realised that my desire to improve my life and also give others more opportunity to improve their lives really requires me to do much more to readdress the balance in my life. No amount of busyness, no number of meetings, or emails, etc, can replace those still and powerful moments when we can grab hold of God’s hand and take those steps into a clearer, brighter reality.

We sometimes see in ourselves and others a dryness, which results in a fading of our faith.

It is not obvious for most of us that in order to have good spiritual weather in our life we need to actually make that environment, and create the right conditions. Do something this weekend to remind yourself of this fact.

Let us be grateful to those friends and family whose spiritual condition protects our lives, and to God who is waiting for our personal conditions which allow him to pour down his blessing on us.

True Parents will be in Europe in two weeks, and though we do not know their plans yet, it is a great opportunity to prepare in our spiritual life, so that while they are in Europe we can feel in our bones that we are connected.

I picked up a book at Sunday service called ‘Studying the Principle with Mom and Dad: A Textbook for the Education of Second Generation Principle Hoondok Lecturers’. A quick perusal though left me rather disappointed. The first thing I noticed were the many blue boxes giving one line contrasts between the “Principle” and “Christianity” on the topic being presented. I for one don’t think we need to define ourselves over and against Christianity. For one thing we are Christians (or at least I am having joined the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity) and not a new religion. For another it emphasises differences and creates barriers – a them and us mentality, the saved and the damned etc. whereas I prefer the idea that we are all one family and that on judgement day it won’t make any difference which religion one belongs to. Jesus’s parable of the Good Samaritan taught that one gains eternal life by loving God and one’s neighbour and not by belonging to the ‘right’ religion, race or nationality (unless you’re English of course in which case you get a free pass). This approach is also rather arrogant as it gives the impression that ‘we’ are better than they are because ‘we’ have the truth. I guess this is why the version of Christianity presented is a caricature, a straw man and certainly not representative of its breadth and diversity. Should we be encouraging our 2G to look down on Christians? It is also rather primitive – do we want our children to inherit the petty sectarian spirit that has so often bedeviled religions? Do we want to be another denomination amongst many or even a new religion? I think we should just be presenting the Principle and its interpretation of the Bible by itself without ridiculing a particular literalistic fundamentalist version of Christianity. One doesn’t need to put someone else down so as to push oneself up. Finally it makes it very uncomfortable for a Christian to listen to, let alone accept, the Principle because they feel attacked and will tend to become defensive, even to the point of feeling they have to defend something they don’t believe in. This whole thing irritates me because I am a Christian but don’t, and have never, believed the representation of Christianity presented in this book. When I first heard the Principle my reaction was ‘this is what Jesus taught.’ The Principle is Christian or it is nothing. Well, actually it is more Jewish than Christian because Jesus was a Jew.

So having got beyond the blue boxes I thought I’d better have a closer look at the rest of the book. It is quite a substantial book – 170 pages – but the Principle of Creation is dealt with in 5 pages (the purpose of creation which doesn’t mention the 3 blessings is 6 lines long). Most of the book is about the providence for restoration with half the book dedicated to the history parallels and last 400 years. This is rather surprising as the book is supposed to be for 12-14 year olds who probably have little knowledge about such things and probably even less interest. Anyone 13 year old out there for an analysis of Deism or Strauss’s ground breaking book on the Life of Jesus? So all in all I don’t think the title of the book is an accurate representation of the contents. In fact, being an arrogant kind of person, I think I could probably do a better job myself.

Dear brothers and sisters,

Here are a few things from last week:

Family

Am having a lot more interaction with the kids as Chieko is away on the 7 day Divine Principle workshop. Doing all the waking up and putting to bed. Got quite cross and grumpy with them, and was aware that this didn’t make them behave better. Next day realised that I was spending all my time reacting, rather than taking a more subjective role and being creative and giving them positive options. So, second I got back from work there was about an hour of day light left, and I asked Damon if he wanted to go and ride his bike in the park, as I know he has been wanting to. Of, course the rest one by one all said they wanted to come. It’s so much easier to manage four boys in the outdoors, than inside a terraced house. Despite the very kind help from some sisters, as always it made me deeply grateful to all that my wife does for our family.

Work

Met with Juan Pique who is responsible for the Youth Department. I had written a draft job description and we realised that in certain areas although i had created an over all framework it was a bit vague. We discussed a whole range of youth related issues. One action step we made together was to get something out this month to inform everyone about opportunities to volunteer this summer as we build up towards our Global Peace Festival in September. As always the youth issue is a priority for our movement’s success. Firstly our membership is largely under 30 years of age now. But more important than the numbers is the more profound issue of what tradition is being passed on from one generation to the next. For God this is really the essential matter that went wrong originally with Adam and Eve. They could not pass on God’s culture of heart and a tradition of attendance to heaven, to their children. For all of us as Blessed family members this is what I believe we want to be able to pass onto our children (or future children if we do not have a family yet): some very substantial and active relationship with God and deep and genuine connection to our True Parents.

Sent out a list to our regional leaders to pass onto our membership regarding all the people who went as participants to the International Leadership Conference in Korea. The main intention was to inform a wider group about what is going on internationally as I met several members who did not know the ILC was coming up.

Got an email from Zishan Jiwa (Cambridge University Faith Forum founders), one of those who is in Korea at the ILC. Looks like things were going well over there.

Did some work with our UPF Secretariat in David Franklin’s office to prepare our GPF proposal and budget forecast for the international office in New York. There is now some money available for projects that have social impact and involve working together in partnership with others who share the vision of one family under God. So, we need to state clearly how we will make this money serve our society and help raise awareness effectively about the Global Peace Festival vision.

Friday: After 12 and ½ years and four different national leaders Stephen and Renata Parker have finished their mission as the regional leaders of Wales. (Interestingly as they are completing this particular mission, Renata’s spiritual son has just been asked to start a new mission as National leader of our Polish Unification Movement.) They have shown an incredible example of dedication and loyalty to God and True Parents through their work which often went far beyond Wales. Ron and Catherine German have taken up the mission as the new regional leader couple with a very beautiful heart not just to work as pastors but to really invest their energy with the rest of the membership into serving and reaching out to the people of Wales. We had a very warm and joyful change over ceremony in the home of Jason and Yuka Parson’s, which is really cool, like a kind of estate really: off the road down a track, an outhouse with koi (fish), dogs, etc. Peter Kong as always was a very engaging MC – humorous and yet also catching the seriousness and importance of the occasion. Every time I go to Wales I just want to stay longer.

On Saturday, went to the Divine Principle 7 day graduation. It was very moving to see how uplifted all the participants were. There was a very beautiful spirit also amongst all the staff.

Sunday we celebrated True Parents Day in Lancaster Gate HQs. Many members came and the place was full. After played football in the snow in Hyde Park with some pros.

Take care,

Simon

Dear Blessed family members,

Happy Ahn Shi Il.

Location: I am waiting in Girona airport in Spain for my delayed Ryan where (is the plane?) flight. Sitting here with the Celtic fans (Barcelona: 1 Celtic: 0) who are not happy about the 10 hour wait for our flight, especially because of missing their London connection to Glasgow. Lots of strong Glaswegian humour, making me nostalgic for my old MFT days and late night rose runs.

After the initial shock about the delay I could embraced the time and duty free space and started to review  the material from the last week and try and take it in a bit more. Our 6am flight eventually left at 17.30, ended up really appreciating the wait.

We have just finished the WCARP HQs alignment workshop which came on the back of the European Cheon Il Guk Leaders Assembly. So I have been in the same hotel for a week and probably put on about 2 kilos. Chieko was here for two and a half days, and that was very good, to be here together. She also really appreciated coming and having a chance to meet so many people. Also, I have spoken to the boys 2 or 3 times, and they sound like they are doing well.  I had a long conversation with what sounded like Lenny (5 and a half), who kept answering my questions with “yea”, only to find out after it had been Eddie (2).

27^th February: Went to Barcelona for European Regional Leaders Meeting. (As UK national leader I should also take responsibility as a regional leader for Ireland, Iceland, and Malta. Still figuring out what that really means.) Basically spent the whole day travelling: arrived at the hotel around 9pm.

28^th February: Regional leaders meeting with President Song.

One of the things we discussed was last year’s Otocec Resolution which is basically the goals and objectives for our movement   during 2007. It was set up at last year’s European Cheon Il Guk Assembly which took place in Slovenia, Otocec.

President Song asked us to discuss and review the objectives. The main objective last year had been to remove the Shengen ban on True Parents’ entry into Europe. This was successfully achieved!

There was a lot of feedback. One key point was that if the resolution is something we want to all read on a daily basis as a determination and have as a focus for all of our prayers, it should be shorter, and more motivational. President Song asked four or five people to make a committee and work on reforming the concept a bit. They focused late into the evening trying to get the wording and over all vision for the resolution clear. It was simplified and reduced from 6 points to 4.

To make more space for creativity, an invitation at the end of the four points was added:  for us to all make personal goals and action plans and express our own passion for God’s Providence in Europe in 2008. You should receive it soon through your regional FFWPU chapter.

29^th February: Everyone arrived for the well attended assembly with a large contingent from the UK made up of HQs and regional staff from UPF and FFWPU, WFWP, CARP, HARP, SFP, and Ambassadors for Peace. (Sorry for all the acronyms.)

Over all the assembly was constructive in helping everyone catch an over view of all our movement’s developments and also giving people a chance to discuss in focus groups on different topics and areas of expertise. There were enough breaks in the schedule to allow people to network and spend time together.

2^nd March, Sunday: Most people left after lunch and about 50 or so stayed on for the workshop with the WCARP HQs staff. A lot of national leaders and CARP leaders from Europe stayed. President Song also joined and took part in all the lectures, which I think really helped to create a very special spirit of unity between WCARP and UPF/FFWPU.  Together with the others who attended from UK I want to pass on the content, over the next few months. Some of the elder brothers and sisters who were hearing this content for the first time felt it was really revolutionary. Since Hyun Jin Nim started his public mission in 1998 he has been consistently developing a very clear vision for our movement through sharing his understanding of God’s Providence as a son of True Parents. Starting with the inheritance and development tour in 2000, then the Settlement Age Workshops, and now through the WCARP HQs staff he is giving us again a deeper insight into where we are heading  over these five years leading up to 2012. They have been visiting all the continental ‘regions’ of our worldwide movement: Africa, South America, Asia, ‘North East Continent’, etc.

It was really a chance to catch a profound perspective on our lives as Blessed families. To see how we fit into God’s dream to make one family, and to understand our past experience and our current role, and the type of culture we can now create. We could consider the opportunities that are in front of us and reflect on our openness as families and as a movement to shed our old skin and catch the spirit of the era after the coming of heaven that we are now in. I really wonder what you all make of some of this content and how much for some of us it sometimes or often sounds like a theory, and at other times for some of us we can reach out and touch it, and it is very real.

It was very difficult in the beginning of the workshop for me to have an open heart. Cheon Il Guk Assembly finishing on same day as we started the Alignment Workshop was a contributing factor to my initial restlessness. Never the less, as I started to evaluate myself, I started to feel that this is not just part of my job to attend this workshop, but actually there are some very deep points of Principle through which God wants to educate me.

Also a lot of the UK youth department were there and I was very moved by how they not only participated but also helped to facilitate the whole program by jumping in at the last minute, and serving the whole group by helping as the MC or with the general affairs.

Take care, and I hope you have a good week.

Simon