The Family Federation for World Peace is a ministry whose roots go back to Easter morning 1936.  While praying, a young Sun Myung Moon had a personal encounter with Jesus, who called on him to complete the work left undone at the time of the Jesus’ crucifixion.  In the years that followed, which were filled with intense prayer and study of the Bible, the meaning of Jesus’ words was revealed to Rev. Moon through what would later become known as the Divine Principle.

Rev. Moon established the organization the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity (HSA-UWC) on May 1, 1954. Although HSA-UWC was often known as the Unification Church, Rev. Moon’s intention was not to create another church or denomination, but rather to bring unity to Christianity and to all religions. The organization was renamed the Family Federation for World Peace on July 30, 1996, and continues to work to build bridges and unity among all faiths and all denominations of Christianity.

Rev. Moon describes his encounter with Jesus, and subsequent search for a new expression of truth in his autobiography, “As a Peace-Loving Global Citizen”.

From the autobiography of Rev. Sun Myung Moon

“The Word of God I was hearing in church, however, was not sufficient by itself to give me the clear answers I was seeking. To relieve the frustrations in my heart, I naturally began to immerse myself in prayer.

“Who am I? Where did I come from? What is the purpose of life? What happens to people when they die? Is there a world of the eternal soul? Does God really exist? Is God really all-powerful? If He is, why does He just stand by and watch the sorrows of the world?

“My heart was filled with these serious and fundamental questions. No one could easily answer them for me, so my only option was to pray. Prayer helped me to find solace. Whenever I laid out the anguishing problems in my heart to God, all my suffering and sorrow vanished and my heart felt at ease. I began spending more and more time in prayer, to the point that, eventually, I began praying through the night all the time. As a result, I had a rare and precious experience in which God answered my prayers. That day will always remain as the most cherished memory of my life—a day I can never forget.”

— Sun Myung Moon

When you visit with us, you may find that we have many new and different terms and traditions that you may not find at other churches or even other religions.

Rev. Moon did not start our movement to be another religion or another denomination. He wanted to bring unity to all churches and all religions.

We have strong roots in the Bible, so you will find many of the same traditions that you would see at other Christian churches such as Bible stories in Sunday School and many Christian hymns during our worship services. In addition, since we also have strong Asian roots in our faith, you may often see Calligraphy and other Asian texts in our buildings. We also have an photos of our founders at the front of our hall, which is another very common Asian tradition.

Besides the Christian hymns and popular songs that we often sing in our services, we also have our own selection of songs, referred to as Holy Songs, that resonate well with our perspective of God. Some of these songs were written by our founder Rev. Moon himself, as well as by some of his early disciples.

Our prayers may also sound somewhat unique. We often refer to God as our “Heavenly Father”, but we also consider God to be our “Heavenly Parent” with both masculine and feminine characteristics.

We often end our prayers with the Korean word, “Aju” instead of or in addition to the traditional “Amen” that one usually would hear. Aju means “becoming the owner” or “I am the owner”, basically stating that we will take personal responsibility to make happen whatever was prayed about. The term Aju has a very special meaning because of our understanding of our relationship to God. We understand that God is waiting eagerly for us to fulfill our promises and commitments. He is not able to do so without our desire, effort, and commitment.

In our community you may also hear the term True Parents, True Father, or True Mother. God is ultimately our True Parent, but there is also a spiritual or theological meaning behind these terms. Our founders, Rev. Sun Myung Moon and his wife Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon seek to fulfill the role of spiritual parents for our community and for all people. In this way we often refer to them as True Father and True Mother. It is a term of affection and respect, similar to the way that Catholics refer to the Pope as the Holy Father.