On marking the Third Seonghwa Memorial of Rev. Sun Myung Moon, late founder of the Unification Church, the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (FFWPU, Unification Church) is holding various commemorative events. The FFWPU estimates that they have made efforts to secure an internal foundation under the leadership of the wife of Rev. Moon Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon over the last three years. On August 19, we visited the Headquarters of FFWPU in Cheongpadong, Yongsan-gu in Seoul and interviewed Rev. Kyeung-Seuk Ryu, FFWPU Korean President on the Third Seonghwa Memorial of Rev. Sun Myung Moon.

What is the central theme of the Third Seonghwa Memorial?

“On August 30, the FFWPU will be holding the Third Seonghwa Memorial at the Cheongshim Peace World Center in Gapyeon-gun Gyeonggi-do. The Third Anniversary of Rev. Moon’s Seonghwa holds great significance in itself. We emphasize a three-year mourning period when an elder passes away within a family. As such, we place great importance on the number three. We think everything reaches completion by attaining three. Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon has proclaimed to go through a path of three years after Rev. Moon’s Seonghwa. It was her determination to create a foundation to inherit and develop the legacy of Rev. Moon. The past three years where the FFWPU has strengthened its internal foundation was an important and precious period for us. I think it was equivalent to FFWPU’s sixty-year history since its establishment in 1954 in terms of confirming our position as a bona fide religious group.”

The first award ceremony of the Sunhak Peace Prize (August 28 Grand Intercontinental Hotel) will be held as one of the commemorative events of the Third Anniversary of Rev. Moon’s Seonghwa. A monetary prize of $1,000,000 (approximately 1,200,000,000 won), which is by far, the largest amount given with a single peace award, will be awarded to the laureates. President Anote Tong of Kiribati and an Indian biologist Dr. Modadugu Vijay Gupta have been selected as the first laureates of the First Sunhak Peace Prize.

“The Sunhak Peace Prize is a prize given to those who have significantly contributed to world peace and will be selecting its laureates biennially. The Sunhak Peace Prize Committee struggled a lot in selecting the first laureates. In selecting them, we focused on the problems of climate change and the food crisis. Before his ascension, Rev. Moon said, “Global warming and the food crisis will become serious problems from the twentieth century onward,” and sought for future solutions in the ocean industry. President Anote Tong has dealt with the Kiribati’s imminent threat of being submerged by the ocean in thirty years, not only with his sense of calling as the President, but has also made efforts to steer global awareness toward the seriousness of climate change overall. Dr. Gupta is the prime architect of the “Blue Revolution,” and has taken initiatives in developing aquaculture technologies as a solution to future food crises. What the two laureates share in common is that they have contributed to projects which prepare and care for the future generations. Rev. Moon had also made much efforts to realize peace for future generations, and because the lives of these two laureates were similar to that of Rev. Moon, we thought they would be acceptable as laureates of the First Sunhak Peace Prize. At first, we thought of selecting one laureate, but we concluded that their achievements would be in no way inferior by selecting them as dual laureates...... [See the original story]