by Svemir Brkic
I will share a few words about the Blessing '97 Ceremony held in Skopje, capitol of Macedonia on November 29. The event took place in the same hall as the inauguration of the FFWP almost exactly one year ago. After two short congratulation messages and musical performance by a classical trio, we started to follow the main Blessing ceremony.
We had a big screen showing the Washington event, but it was not by direct satellite transmission -we received it through normal TV antenna, since Macedonian national TV broadcast the whole satellite program from Washington! So even though there was only 20 to 30 pre-blessing couples (due to poor organization from our side) and 6 newly matched couples and some more guests, we think that many more pre-blessed couples could see and hear True Parents Blessing prayer through TV. This was the first time True Parents came to Macedonia so almost directly.
One of the new brides was from Albania, working in an embassy there. Her boss, the ambassador, traveled by car all the way from Albania to Skopje, together with his daughter and five more people-just to be at her wedding. We invited him to cut the cake together with that sister's couple and he said a few wonderful words with fatherly heart. He just came suddenly out of nowhere, made us all feel even more special and happy, and he disappeared again.
In the end, we invited everybody to the stage to take some photos, and when I saw them all together, I felt so happy, so beautiful.
A comment from an elderly lady who saw the Washington event on TV (without any understanding of English or our movement): "Well, there were many brides and grooms, and then the King and the Queen came..."