A capacity congregation at Living Waters Hall

The Living Waters Hall, in Handsworth, was the scene of our 5th public Sunday Service and twenty two guests joined our regular members to worship together. The guests were a mixture of old and new Christian contacts, some of whom we have known for many years through our UPF and WFWP activities, and some who we have met quite recently through our FFWPU outreach activities and street witnessing, and who are studying the Principle with us. One of the latter brought 8 members of the worship group at his church along, and they performed 2 songs for us, including a beautiful arrangement of ‘Amazing Grace’.

Rashioh and the pentecostal ‘ Peace Band’

Our excellent MC, Dr Alfred O’Connor, guided us through the worship service, ably assisted at the computer by his youngest son, Jesse. We are gradually becoming more ‘high-tech’, but on this occasion did not use the PA system. Owing to the number of guests, we had to choose between putting either the PA system or people in the car, and decided on the latter !

All the older 2nd generation supported the service

After the opening prayer, songs and Family Pledge, one of our Catholic guests, Mrs Gloriose Kayiganwa, offered a prayer for peace and unity, followed by 2 pentecostal songs from Rashioh and the Peace Band. First and second generation representatives then read passages from the New Testament, expressing Jesus’ words to his disciples about maintaining their unity, just prior to his arrest, and St Paul’s words to the early Christian churches in Rome and Colossae on the same topic. Alfred then read an extract from Rev Moon’s words in 1977, with the very challenging words that, as Christians, we should not allow denominationalism to prevent us from working together to build the ideal of One Family under God, even abandoning our denomination if it is an obstacle to progress.

Message on the theme : ‘One small step for man..’

David Earle then spoke on the theme of ‘One small step for man…’ saying that as believers each one of us matters, and is significant for God, and any steps we can take to rise above personal difficulties within our couples and families, denominational differences within the body of Christ, or negative feelings towards people of other races and faiths, can actually be large steps for God, because of what we each represent. He concluded with the example of Nelson Mandela, in the film ‘Invictus’, who showed such greatness of heart and forgiveness that, even as one man, he could impact a whole nation and beyond.

Gloriose offering a sincere prayer for peace & unity

Next Elisabeth, Gloriose’ daughter, sang for us as we took the offering, and we concluded with announcements followed by refreshments and fellowship, looking forward to the next occasion when we can be together.

Thanks to all those who helped with transport, flowers, hospitality and refreshments, & especially to those who journeyed 1 – 2 hours from Welshpool, Worcester, Mansfield and Wellingborough to be with us. Thank you all.

L-R: Keishin Barrett, Yoshiko Chellew and Mariam Trubshaw

Yoshiko Chellew, Keishin Barrett and Mariam Trubshaw have joined two Swiss and five other people from the UK (Kunimasa, Kuniyoshi Hayashi, Rose Taylor, Sophie Redihough and Seijin Thomas) for a month stay in Japan. They are doing grass rooots witnessing, teaching English, and service work for one month during the summer period. Three CARP centres are supporting the initiative: Horoshima, Tsukuba and the Keisei centre in Tokyo. At the end of their stay they will will meet together in Hiroshima for three or four days for a final service project, and sight seeing.

See Yoshiko, Keishin ands Mariam’s blog here , the Hirosima blog here and Tsukuba blog here. [ed: blog links work now]

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)

After the exams our chaplaincy group went to Oxford to have a picnic at the holy ground. Come and join us …

For 2 and a half days we came together – 15 people from 9 nationalities – for the 5^th U.K. Personal Development Seminar in the South London Peace Centre.

This seminar’s main feature is Family Constellations Therapy.  Out of our 15 participants there were 11 Constellations.  We all worked hard together to make that happen – so much so that we all agreed to stay until after midnight each day. Does that sound intriguing?  Please contact me if you’d like to know more about it.   Briefly put it’s about bringing into view the cause of problems in our life, so we can see it and make the effective actions to solve, to forgive, and to remove the energetic barriers that are within us. …Read More

Keep up to date here (click)

Daniel, Takamoto, Christine, Jason, Joy, Christine and Kosina, are  witnessing and spreading the love of God in London, UK.

Follow their blog!

I went to the fishing tournament but it seemed that everyone was finishing up. So I went indoors into the kitchen and I saw True Father wearing his fishing hat with some tackle on it, a light coloured buttoned down shirt and khaki pants. He was wearing deck shoes. True Father was standing near a square wooden table on a tile floor with a drain cleaning some fish that he had caught. I went over to see if True Father needed help with anything.

He said: “No, I came to serve you, you are not going to serve me this time. But you can get a white linen table cloth and put it on the table after I finish cleaning these fish.” So I waited until he finished cleaning the fish. He had many types of fish to clean. And they all were long and large fish.

True Father was explaining about how he was cleaning them. He was saying: “First you take this knife and slit the fish down the middle right under the belly. Then you open up the belly and pull out the intestines first because these guts cover all the other guts.” And he kept pulling the intestines until they were all out. And put them in a slate blue bin. Then he said: “Next you pull out the stomach and next the heart and after that everything else comes out easily. It is very simple once you understand it.”

One brother who was helping True Father put the guts in the bin asked him if he minded the odour of the fish guts. And father answered him saying: “My son, the odour of the fallen world is much worse than fish guts. This is the least I can do to clean up this world so that our heavenly father can dwell here.”

Then he asked that brother: “Will you get me a mop and pail? Oh yes, and some salt water from the ocean?” One sister who had come into the kitchen asked True Father why he needed salt water from the ocean. And True Father answered her, “My daughter, the reason I need salt water from the ocean is to clean the floor where the blood drained from the fish and the fish guts. When I use sea water to clean it up, then it also will remove the odour. If I use filtered water from the tap then the odour will remain.”

True Father continued gutting out the fish and laying them on a small table covered with plastic over to the side. He was wearing latex gloves. True Father put the fish on a big cookie sheet and asked another sister to get him a scaling tool. She brought it over and he scaled the fish, as he wore goggles, and cut off the heads.

After the fish was scaled and beheaded, he rubbed koshering salt that had been made into holy salt over the fish bodies. One brother asked him why he did this and True Father answered: “My son, this is the way I remove all the germs and impurities from the fish and remove any excess odours.”

After this True Father rinsed off the fish with distilled water that came in through a hose, and prepared the fish for cooking. He laid the fish open side down on a cookie sheet greased with sesame oil, and put them in a pre-heated oven to cook.

Then True Father asked all the sisters who had come into the kitchen to prepare the table for eating. Many sisters who were working in the kitchen were preparing salads and I helped put on the white linen table cloth and we used golden utensils with linen napkins to set the table.

One sister prepared a vase of wild flowers for the centre of the table. And another sister put a braided chalah on the table on an oval dish of blue and white with gold trim that read: boray pree hah adamah ( hebrew: meaning blessed is the fruit of the earth).

True Father asked us to gather chairs for sitting at the table saying: “Please prepare the table for special dignitaries that I have invited to eat with me today.”

We made the table look very special putting out small Korean dishes of kimchee and bean sprouts and different salads that would go with fish.

True Father said he was going to shower and change his clothes. He came back a while later and was so happy to see the arrangement that us sisters had made on the table.

True Father was still wearing his casual clothing and he asked all of us who were in that area of the kitchen to sit down at the table. We were all so surprised and looked at him in surprise. Then he said: “I’ll bet you dollars to doughnuts that you thought there were special Korean dignitaries or Ambassadors for Peace coming today!” we all nodded yes, and spoke and said, “Yes Father.”

True Father answered: “When you realize that all of you are my dignitaries and Ambassadors for Peace, then that is when Cheon Il Guk will be complete upon this Earth. Because what is the mission of important dignitaries? Important dignitaries know their mission. They know quite well that their mission is to represent God and bring this world back to God. And Ambassadors for Peace know that their mission is to bring God’s peace to this world, don’t they? And because they know in their gut, then their mission is no longer a mission but a way of life and a way of behaviour!”

This is the reason why you are eating with me today so that you can partake of my communion and receive that impartation. And when you do receive it deep in your heart and soul then this is the kingdom of heaven, Aju. Now let’s eat and partake of this fine meal.”

I felt so moved by True Father’s words and tears welled up from my heart and into my eyes. Many sisters were crying as well.

Then True Father said: “Heavenly Father has chosen you all to be here today. Because you were curious as little children…looking to see what their father was doing. Just like Jesus who was about his father’s business.” You are the ones who will give my heart to the members and help them to change their attitudes. You are the ones who can do this. As Jesus once said: “Suffer the little children come unto me, such is the kingdom of heaven.”

“It is your bright sunshiney smiles, and your simplicity to serve and love your fellow man that will change the hearts of people of this world. And will help remove the hell that is holding our members down.”

“Remember this day and keep it holy in your hearts.”

May 8th 2010

I was genuinely impressed by the community participation in your website and blog. Your site really gives off the warm glow of a well connected family with many generations participating and contributing articles, comment and content. That kind of interactivity and participation has always been my ideal goal for BAFC.org. What a great use of the Internet and a good example to communities worldwide.

From Charles.

Ed: Check out Charles’ church here: http://bafc.org/

At the moment I am attending the 40 days (now extended) leaders workshop here in Korea along with Connie Rennie. We announced the news [Ed: of Sarah Hanna's Seung Hwa] to everyone soon after hearing it so a lot of people over here has been praying for her smooth transition from this world to the next. On behalf of everyone here, I would like to extend our condolences to her whole family back in England.

We also realised that actually, she passed away at the same time when we started the ‘Festival of Ascension’ rally wherein True Father gave a speech about the importance of Seunghwa. Across the stage, either side of the centre podium wherein True Father was speaking, were the pictures of 10 leaders who have recently passed away. Iin the first Sunday, the first time we saw Him, He talked mainly about the importance of Seunghwa as well due to the death of Alexander Haig (who was the reason why he got out of Heungnam prison). In addition, we attended the Seunghwa ceremony of Won Pil Kim himself just two days ago.We commemorated their death by presenting them flowers.

On top of this, throughout this ws, there has been a lot of announcements of members/member’s relatives who has recently passed away. Upon hearing about Sarah, one Japanese translator even mentioned, “That’s very similar to yesterday’s announcement. A Japanese sister also had cancer in her back and she went to spirit world yesterday”. Actually, I myself started this year of 2010 with the death and Seunghwa of my own grandfather. I can accept for him and the leaders who died due to their age. They had their chance but for those like Sarah who died young, with so much ahead of them, I find it hard to. It’s unfair, hearing so many lectures here about how we should live our life and the things that we should do and accomplish before passing away, the 4 great realms of heart and so forth…now she won’t get the chance to. However the spirit world is a vast complicated thing that I still don’t understand very well so I’m sure that though it may be harder, there are still ways to get around these issues. There is always hope.

It is a sad time for her, losing her life and her chances. However from the short time I know her, I reckon that she’s still positive and right now, she’s the one that would be comforting us who are sad about her death. Let us be strong for her, and for those people who have passed away recently in our own lives so that they will feel at ease to move on and do their new missions.

It reminded me of when Heung Jin Nim passed away when True Father was also involved with another rally. I believe that her passing away has an important significance, just like Heung Jin Nim’s and the other True Children. Their death will probably set conditions for greater events to take place but also I heard that they need people, preferably second generation, over there to lead the mobilisation of the spirits, especially leading to 2013. Even spiritualists, inside or outside the church, are talking about how the spirit world is becoming more organised now and they say a certain man is leading it, probably Heung Jin Nim.

In conclusion, I just wanted to say that, I believe that our sister Sarah has an important task to do there so as a Unification family, we should send her to the spirit world happily and with lots of encouragement and support!