Unification Church
On August 23, a memorial service for Moon Sun-myung, the founder of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (also known as the Unification Church), was held at the ChungShim Peace World Center in Gapyeong County, Gyeonggi Province.
About 25,000 public figures, including Moon’s wife and the current church leader Han Hak-ja, and local and foreign followers from over 70 nations, came to the service which was covered live online.
The leader of the Korean Unification Church Yang Chang-sik emceed the memorial service. Han said, “Let’s move forward and forward until we reach the goal of the free, peaceful, and unified heaven on Earth by taking Moon’s lifelong passion for unification beyond Asia.”
At the service, chief Monk Sungta of Bulguksa said, “Moon devoted his life to making a peaceful world for humanity,” and added, “Words like pacifist, thinker, instructor, and messiah are not enough to describe Moon.”
Jose de Venecia, former Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Philippines, said, “Moon led a super-religious movement trying to make the religious body cooperate with the religious leader. Without it, the UN cannot obtain its purpose. Let’s achieve the world peace Moon idealized.”
Also, two Poongsan breed dogs, sent by the supreme leader of North Korea Kim Jung-un last Febrary, were shown at the service. The church mentioned that Kim named these dogs “Jungju” and “Anju” after Moon and Han’s birthplaces.