Hyung Jin Moon
October 5, 2008
Rev. Moon Hyung-jin presided over the first Peace Blessing Service at the Headquarters Church on Sunday, October 5, beginning at 5 PM -- the fourth and final service of the day. Hyung-jin nim is making intensive efforts to prepare for the time when large numbers of people experience this service (and others reminiscent of other faith traditions) in the World Peace and Unity Temple.
Peace Blessing Service is the name given to the Sunday service for the Unification Church members with a Catholic background, Catholics, and anyone who prefers a more ritualistic form of worship.
The following comes from what Hyung-jin nim said when he first conceived of this service and during the more than ten rehearsals carried out before the first Peace Blessing Service was held.
I received the mission to build a temple serving two hundred and ten thousand people, on August 17 this year. Being deeply concerned as to how to do this, I offered many conditions. At times, I had to fight with Satan, putting my life on the line. In the process of doing so, I received revelations that guided us in creating the content of the Peace Blessing Service.
As I prepared a service that would reach over the boundaries between religions, I received revelations from the spirit world. I received communications from my elder brothers Hyo-jin, Heung-jin and Young-jin. We will create a Sunday service culture at the perfection level, which can bring together the Old, New and Completed Testaments. Such trans-denominational services are possible only in the Unification Church. Only the Unification Church can bring the world's religions together under God.
I believe I now understand why True Parents had me experience Catholic and Buddhist cultures and study world religions at Harvard Divinity School. It was so that I might have a vision that goes beyond particular religious views. I have walked a path whereby I have been preparing for the World Peace and Unity Temple.
Through the temple, the words of the chapter five, Resurrection, will be fulfilled in substantial terms. Not only people on earth but also the founders of religions and their followers in the spirit world will come to the temple on earth to attend the services that coincide with their religious tradition.
Substance of the Peace Blessing Service
Through our Peace Blessing Service, participants receive love and spiritual blessings. It is a service through which not only spiritual benefits on the level of the Headquarters Church but also spiritual benefits from True Parents' sincere conditions are bequeathed.
It is a service in which participants receive blessings from True Parents. It is not a ceremony that derives its meaning from declaring something; it is a worship service. You will not inherit everything at once; rather, through the services, you will move closer to the devotion, love, peace and blessing of True Parents as each week passes.
Blessed families have inherited the missions formerly given to the central figures of the Old and New Testaments. They need to serve True Parents and complete the providence. To do so, the most important thing is for the blessed families to be reborn as the Third Israel. They need to inherit True Parents' love, life and lineage and march forward to fulfill an even greater will.
Though they know True Parents, have learned the Divine Principle and have received the blessing, as they lead their lives in the secular world, they may forget about their identity as the third Israel. Through the Peace Blessing Service, every week we can remember our mission as blessed families and go forward.
The Peace Blessing Service is not a ceremony through which you can rid yourself of your sins. The phrase, "Heavenly Father! Forgive us our sins!" suggests the theological viewpoint that God is a judge. From the viewpoint of Unification Theology, the one who is to judge you is none other than yourself. After you go to the spirit world, you are to judge yourselves according to whether you have lived according to the word and the will of God, or not.
All our sins are recorded in the spirit world. If you have done wrong or committed a sin, you need to set an appropriate indemnity condition to resolve it. Only when you have set a condition of indemnity fitting the gravity of your sin can that sin be cleaned away. If it is a small mistake, it is enough to pray, repent with a sincere heart, and set a condition that fits. According to how grave your mistake or sin is, you might make a material or money offering for example, or even carry out voluntary work for a service organization as your condition of indemnity.
Of course, you may pray, "Please forgive me the wrongs I have done and the sins I have committed in the past week." In order for your sins to be forgiven, However, you need to set a condition that matches their seriousness.
Prayer for those in the spirit world
We will pray for the family members of those in our church who have gone to the spirit world. They may not be living completely according to the will of Heaven in the spirit world. There may be those in your families who are in difficult places far away from God and the True Family. During the service, we will call out the names of all of your family members in the spirit world and pray for them. We will pave the way by which they can return to God and meet True Family members -- Hyo-jin nim, Heung-jin nim and Young-jin nim.
Church members should register their family members in the spirit world. For example, if a member of your family has passed away, register the date of his or her death. Every week we will pray for those who have passed away. This service will be one in which you can think of your departed family members in the spirit world and offer devotions on the dates of their death.