Recently the squad of our community football team, Mind Body United met up with their coach/manager, Steven Huish, and team chairman, Chigo Ahunanya, for an end of season party and ceremony. Each player, even those who only made a couple of showings….like myself, received a beautiful certificate and the chance to take a picture with Stevo&Chigo.

We had the player of the year award which went to Seijin Thomas for his all round skill, commitment and team work.

Big congratulations to all the staff and team members who made the launch year for MBU a real adventure. They go into a new season this autumn with a level of trust, commitment, skill, and team spirit that will only result in them moving up the league table.

Pics below (sorry couldn’t get everyone’s) and a little video of Seijin’s player of the year speech.

(click on pic to double the size…if you want to check how handsome everyone is.)

Video insight: Seijin cracks a few…

As a team they even walked away with some league silver ware winning best sportsmanship of the year award. This is significant because part of the team’s mission statement involves team members being role models for other young people. Next season they’ve got their eye on a few other trophies.

Here is Father’s speech at the:

“Convention to Proclaim the Word that Firmly Establishes the Parents of Heaven, Earth and Humankind.”

July 8th 2010 proclamation full speech

View more documents from Family Federation.

And here are some pictures from some of us in Father’s event this morning, a brief personal account, and notes from Hyung Jin Moon’s talk a couple of hours ago:

Classic build up: lights went on at 3.45am (not sure why), had a nice naked wash and shave with a few others in the mens toilets, in the sink. Sat on a coach for 45 minutes, then it moved, went up the hill to the palace/museum. The time was 6am ish, the ‘convention to proclaim the word that firmly establishes the True Parents’ was due to start at 10am. Thankfully at the top of the mountain there was some breeze and the clouds were mercifully in front of the sun for some of the time.

arriving on the clouds, literally

Father was full of his usual poise and shared both deeply and humorously. He shared how he had just dyed his hair and how he always does before these occasions. I heard he had been up to 3.30am talking to his close disciples. As the sun grew stronger and I went to find the shade of a tree and take my jacket off in order to sweat less, I reminded myself that Father at 90 years old, had been standing at the podium for more than an hour in his suit.

Click on the pics to make them big.

Elisa Brann studying Father's speech as he reads and adds to it.

thirsty work

Keishin Barrett focusing on the Word

Jonathan and Alex study together on the wall.

After we had no buses so we (8000 people) had to walk down the mountain. Our calf muscles felt the gradient. And I was glad I had followed the advice of others and had not brought one of the boys with me. Not sure they would have handled the schedule and not sure how I would have managed carrying one of them down on my back….

Here are my notes from Hyung Jin Moon’s message to us this afternoon at the start of a 2 day Original Divine Principle seminar that father asked us all to join after the event today:

“True Father said today we should go back to our roots. Our unification movement tradition has a very short history of only 50 years and in that short time it has spread across the whole world, and of course as a result we have many limitations as well.

We want to go back to the core of True Parents revelation and the essence of the Divine Principle.

When I was in Brazil recently we read Father’s  autobiography in our morning study and we were discussing about our faith and our fate.

Our fate is connected to the path that we take. There are a series of decisions that we make that determine our future.

If you look back at your life you can see this reality.

WE MUST KNOW where we are heading. There is a biblical verse in Proverbs where king Solomon was looking out of a window and saw a young man walking on a path, and he could see that young man’s future. On one side of the path there was a very decadent town with a big red light district, towards which the young man was heading.

King Solomon compared him to a cow that is heading to the abattoir

However the young man did not see that future as he was thinking about something else, about happy thoughts of a very beautiful woman who had invited him to the town. So the young man was having a very sweet dream, but king Solomon had seen many men walking down this path and knew what fate he would have; that he would become trapped by this town of decadence. (this is somewhere in Proverbs apparently…no ref. was given…but William Haines helped me find it, he uses it in his lecture on the Human Fall. See the link to Proverbs 7 here: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Proverbs+7&version=NIV )

We can see from this that the path we are taking is always connected to our future. And when there is the opportunity to look down on that path with objectivity we can see where it will lead.

The reason I am telling you this story is that this young man did not realise that this choice he was making would effect his life so significantly.  There are many choices that come up in our life: these are essentially the paths that we chose to take in our life.

We have to always ask ourselves what is the path I am taking and where is it leading to. Brothers and sisters, we are seeking the eternal path. We are not seeking the transient or temporary path.

That is the path of seeking True Parents, which is eternal.  That is our bright and eternal future.

We are not to centre one generation or another. We have an eternal centre which is True Parents. If you look at Christianity, there have been many saints and church leaders, but they have always focused on Jesus’ eternal love, rather than their own significance.

If we forget that we will find ourselves going on the wrong path with out noticing it…

We will always be True Parents children….

….After my elder brother past away I started to doubt whether God existed, and with that kind of mind I started studying religion, and then I started training……

When I go before True Parents I do not go as an adult, regardless of however many responsibilities and positions he has bestowed on me. When I go into the room, Father does not see an international president, but he sees his youngest son, and that is when I feel the greatest freedom and love. I don’t feel the need to have to prove anything to them and this is the most precious quality time for me.

We should get rid of thoughts we have that put us in the context of some official position when we are in front of True Parents. Of course it is important to be mature in our actions and in our words, but as Jesus said in order to go to the Kingdom of Heaven we need the heart of a child.

Through this important proclamation today there are a lot of expectations….

It is because of this 120 day workshop which has just been completed that a war could be prevented between the North and South Korea. Even the sinking of the naval ship did not bring about war. Because these leaders who went through the 120 day workshop and united with True Parents and continued through out the 120 days faithfully (from UK: Constance Rennie and Haesul Fagcang) an important condition could be set by True Parents.

We do not know what conditions are being set by this 2 day workshop that we are starting now on Father’s request, we do not know how big a condition can be made by even the offering of a pigeon.

If we can think like that we will go down one path, if we look cynically and with disinterest we will go down another path. How we take this short workshop is a decision we will make.

That young man thought he was going to be with the beautiful woman for just one night and he did not realise how that one night would have a big effect on his life course, …for us this one night , and two days workshop will also involve us making a decision that will effect our path and our future. Let has have that kind of awareness and heart.

Let us look into our hearts and either have king Solomon’s perspective , or the blissfully unaware perspective of the young man who was oblivious to the choices that he was making regarding his future.

Let us go on a path of seeking True Parents in our life.”

We headed straight out and over to Hyde Park after worship on Sunday morning. Well, it’s never straight over when your a big crowd and there are small babies to feed etc. but we all congregated eventually at our holy ground by the plain tree.

here’s a short video with a sound track from one of my favourite old tribe called quest tracks:

The message this week and I guess for the next few weeks is about ‘developing spiritual maturity’. We started to look at what it means to become a disciple and how that path is first a choice, secondly requires commitment, and thirdly is experienced through a relationship

Here is the power point:

and if you want more of the content, here is the message on our Ustream archive:

It was a good to see our momentum building through the summer which is normally a difficult time for church development as we all head off for different projects and holidays.

I can see we still have a lot to do, and however well things go, somewhere in me I get the feeling something is still missing, like we are not there yet. Quite a few people came an hour early for worship today cuz I sent an email out about getting together to pray. I felt like; “this is our first service in the 2nd half of 2010, and we’ve got to do something to let God know that we know we have 6 months to the end of the year, and that we want to get our plans together with his.

So we prayed for all our family members, for their lives, and for our community’s goals and hopes. We know that in order to grow in number we have to be more concerned to grow closer together through fellowship, and becoming a channel for each other to experience God’s love.

A big thank you to all who helped out in all those different ways. Especially the people who were taking on roles from staff who were away. Thank you for making it work! One HARP member came all the way in from Collingdale to set up the sound and mikes on Saturday evening, and then came in again for 9am on Sunday to do a sound test with Chris and George. That’s commitment.

Forgotten? Well – lets do something about that!

Here’s the article from the SUN newspaper today (readership of 7.6 million):

click to view - and zoom in - or right click to download

“It was a nice coincidence when I met Emma Cox the journalist that we found out we both studied English Lit. at Newcastle, just I finished two years before she arrived there. I think she has done a good job of creating a narrative through simply telling the story of two couples.

There is so much incredible content to share from The Divine Principle and True Parents life, so we should keep on working on how to communicate it.” (Simon Cooper)

…in their lunch break. Franklin Fortune was explaining how you can tell all the good players in the World CUp because they have been trained by Man. Utd. We had our monthly get together. It was good.

There were a lot of inspiring testimonies from different people that spanned from:

- someone paying Simon Rosselli’s kids £20 to NOT wash their car as they went on a house to house fundraiser

-to a member in North London who couldn’t sleep one night and went out early at 4.30am to put outreach flyers through her neighbours’ doors. One of them had also found it hard to sleep and had been up praying at 5am; when the flyer with True Parents picture came through the door. She went to our site and found out that there was a prayer evening in LG and came along the same day with her husband to take part.

We discussed the arrival of Father’s biography in a week or so and organising a book launch. And a long list of other topics…

After lunch we had a short presentation on a seminar I had attended on practical time management. I think the concept of learning how to delegate well was an attractive one for all of us. Basically we want to skill up our staff more and organise more training, this was a step towards that:

We meet on Wednesdays now because there is always just too much going on in the communities on the weekend these days. It’s a good sign.

Here are some more pictures:

hello familyfireplace community

getting down to business

(he missed the group pic.) Mind Body United chairman: Chigo gave a good update on the team. They got some silver for best sportsmanship.

Recently I have received several emails about concerns church members have regarding the disagreement and confrontation that took place in Sao Palo, Brazil, between Hyun Jin Moon and the the Continental Director for South America, Rev Shim, who is appointed by True Parents.

It is quite apparent that some members of True Parents’ family do not always see eye to eye. This is perfectly fine and normal in life, but the problem is when those differences spill out or are played out in the public arena. As in most conflicts things are rarely straight forward, so unless we are personally involved and able to help bring about a solution it is best not to start taking positions and developing theories of who is right and who is wrong.

As a Unificationist what is important is to offer our devotion to God and connect to the heart of True Parents that we can discover through studying the Principle and practising it in our day to day circumstances.

As a result of this incident in Brazil True Father has made an announcement and direction for all blessed family members. He has taken the significant step to write it by hand and sign it with his own signature. I take from this his desire that people believe and follow his guidance and understand what he wishes to clarify.

Please see below Father’s calligraphy and  also an English translation:

No.1 Father's proclamation explaining from where authority begins in the organisation of the Unification Movement.

No.2 Father's perception on official international memos in the UM

Translation:

No.1 says:

God is the one King of Kings.

There is only one set of True Parents.

All families are the people who share a single lineage, and are the children of one heavenly kingdom.

Moreover, the command center of cosmic peace and unity is the absolute and unique command center.

Its representative and heir is Hyung Jin Moon.

Anybody else [who claims such a position] would be a heretic and one who brings things to destruction.

The above content is True Parents’ proclamation.

[Signed] Sun Myung Moon

(Father wrote the character for “seal” indicating where his seal could be placed)

2010.4.23 by the heavenly calendar

No.2:

Special note: I recognize only the official memos from the World Mission Headquarters of

Tongilgyo of Heaven and Earth

Tongilgyo International.

[Signed] Sun Myung Moon

2010.4.23 by the heavenly calendar

June 5, 2010

Announced at Cheon Jeong Gung, Korea

I hope this helps you to know where True Father stands on any friction that may exist amongst leaders or members of his family. I think he also wants to dispel any ideas that memos go out to our international community with out his approval. He may be 90 years old, but he is fully in charge of charting the course of the Unification Movement and guiding those who take take public roles with in all its different organisations. His mind remains sharper than any razor you may use on your face or legs, so be cautious about being ageist.

Personally I feel it is a hopeful reality that issues of unity with in our movement can be addressed by Father directly while he is still with us. In that sense all that goes on in our community (good and bad) if dealt with in a principled way can only help to secure the future.

Of course we have been taught to love the family of our True Parents and we should continue to do so, but let us remember as Father has made clear there is only one God we worship and that is the invisible one.

There are times when we all feel that the leadership we experience does not inspire great confidence. That is always a good time to reinvigorate our own life of devotion to God so that we are able to ensure that we are spiritually healthy and full of blessings to share with others.

The Divine Principle is the rock on which Father has diligently built his life and ministry. He has only been able to consistently develop and expand his mission because of that fact.  It is also the foundation for all that is good and eternal in our life.

This week our regular “Wednesday’s evening prayer for healing” in 43LG will be dedicated to prayers for unity amongst our movements international leadership and also to give people a chance to express any concerns they have and ask questions. Please feel free to come along. 7.30pm – 8.30pm Wednesday 9th June.

On Thursday I am going to Korea to celebrate the upcoming Day of All True Things with True Parents and also to take part in a national leaders meeting which I am sure has partly been called to address the current friction that has just taken place.

I will keep you updated.

God bless.

Simon

Your Pastor

Next Saturday 12th June is one of our main Unificationist holy days of the year. I know South London and Bromley will have holy day arrangements. But just want to invite everyone else who would like to join us in Lancaster Gate to feel very welcome and invited to come along to celebrate. Why not make a day of it?

a holy day that will be a holiday

• If you are driving please be aware that there is NO congestion charge, but you WILL need to pay for parking up to lunch time. That will cost you about £10.

• The sport planned is baseball. We will make teams up on the day. But I am sure there will be some football too. Play, be a spectator, or wander around Hyde Park.

• Bring a picnic, or otherwise pop down to the local Tesco and put one together in the moment.

• South Korea, Argentina, and then ENGLAND are all playing in the PM so there will be lots of world cup action on the big screen in the new reception area.

• But most of all it’s a great chance to be a community, share food, stories, catch up, meet old friends, and make new ones.

• If you want to bring guests for all or part of the day that is also totally fine. EVERYONE is welcome.

Since I started working in our Unification Movement HQ at 43, Lancaster Gate two years ago I have been on a little road of discovery. In the last year it has dawned on me how precious this place is, how it was established by some very committed and selfless people and how this building (if we listen to its soul) is telling us how it wants to offer our community an opportunity to grow and thrive.

Imagine for a moment that we did not have anywhere in central London for our movement. (Like several other European Unificationist communities). And then imagine we wished for a multi million pound property in the heart of West London next to London’s most famous park, on several bus routes, a stones throw from the Central Line, with all the fast food you could ever want (except of course for Subway, which we would be better off without) just 10 minutes walk away in Queensway, an historical grade 2 listed building smartly placed in the corner of a well known London square. A place where True Parents have taught and blessed many of their disciples.

It would be beyond our wildest dreams. Well, it wasn’t beyond the dreams of those who made it happen 30/40 years ago.

So for those of us who are a bit younger and still under 40 this place is a miracle, it has landed in our lap like a gift from God. Ok, it needs some restoration, and a good bit of refurbishment, but hey, it belongs to us!

The front reception refurbishment should be completed before the end of April

So what are we going to do with it?

The vision of our relatively new Lancaster Gate church which we inaugurated in November 09 is to teach a Divine Principle and bring people to True Parents. Yes, the building does provide some much needed income for managing our FFWPU charity, but in the end this building is first a church; which means it is a place for a congregation of people who want to worship God. Getting that purpose to be at the heart of what goes on here is our exciting challenge.
It involves a whole range of issues from people figuring out who True Parents are in their life to building a healthy creative culture through which God can feel confident to work. Basically we have to find the confidence to live by God’s divine principles.

This is happening more and more, and with a range of new programs over different days of the week we are finding our spiritual feet. We are also in the process of raising £21,000 to make this place beautiful on the inside. We then want to raise whatever it takes to make it shine on the outside too.

the new general affairs office at the back of 43,

LG does seem to have some magical magnetic force, and over the last few years it has become a very popular place for young people blessed by True Parents to come and live and hang out. Like I said we have been renting out rooms. More recently though we decided to ask people when they move in to agree to a few guidelines.
This was definitely a positive step and helped to clarify for blessed members what it means to live here. But as more and more people are asking about accommodation here its common sense to make things clearer about the vision and purpose. I don’t want to go into details here, but I think it will help people if they get a sense of the culture we are aiming for.

If you are passionate about wanting to build a vibrant, growing, church congregation here at 43, Lancaster Gate and for that reason you would like to rent a room then please get in touch. If you want to come and live here mainly because you think it would be convenient for your personal life, then it is probably not the best choice for you. And of course you don’t need to live here either to still get involved in the vision.

Mitty Thoma, WFWP President

Kathleen Moloney, music ministry volunteer

We want to keep on developing this place so it is easy for people to come and connect to God and True Parents in as many ways as possible, whether through seminars, worship, culture, art, or music. We have a way to go, but when you start to believe in something it starts to materialise, and I think some of us just started believing.

waiting to record

Last month Chipmunk’s manager, Vash, from Playhard Ents, called me up and asked if we could help put together a choir of children for Scorcher’s new crossover single. So I called around a few of our church members, and some of the kids from our boys’ school to find some singers.

They all worked hard and sang well – let’s hope Scorcher does well with this new single.

This is just some clips from the day in the studio and it looks like they want to ask them to come back for another day to make a proper music video.

“it’s my time and nothing gonna get in my way…”

(thank U to Réa for fitting the editing into his v long To Do list!)

and then from 6 minutes 20 seconds in to 7mins 17secs in Kritikal’s mini documentary you can check out a bit more what the children sound like once they have had all their voices properly recorded and mixed. (if you watch prior or after the above times you may find some bad language)

recording

I get to work with the coolest, most sincere, clever, generous, committed, honest, sometimes v organised, insightful, humble, passionate, deep, beautiful, hard working, loving, spiritual, skilful  people IN THE WORLD. And sometimes when my head is screwed on properly and my heart is hooked up I even get to work with God too. And I just want to say: thank you God for blessing and trusting me in this way and letting me work with and learn from all these amazing people. And I know that saying this here is not going to jinx me, cuz you are a generous, patient and loving God who only wishes the best for us.

After seeing how so many people, both staff and volunteers put things into place for our Sunday Worship, I just felt  the power that people who share a common vision have. And then through talking to a few different people on the phone this morning and going with one of our HQ staff for breakfast at Pret for a coffee, Proper Pret porridge (that’s a tongue twister…), a work review and an appraisal, I tasted what we can do, when we share our passion, and see each other’s potential.

proper porridge

Actually I want to say thank you to Colin Turfus who as one of our new trustees was sharing about how in his work he conducts work appraisals, and how unless you schedule them in they don’t happen… and gave me the feeling I should really start doing that more often. I guess this is what it feels like when based on faith we have the right give and take dynamic in our lives; it’s just a divine principle.