Unification Church unifies 3000 couples in Seoul

    They say that marriages are made in heaven. In an interesting event, as many as 3000 couples participated for holy matrimonial procedures in Seoul, Japan. The occasion was conducted by South Korea’s Unification Church, with the widow of Sun Myung Moon presiding over the event, who was the church’s founder.

Couples from all over the world took part in the humongous gathering which included 1000 new couples and 2000 husband-wife pairs who wanted to renew their vows. The brides and grooms were all identically dressed, and hailed from as many as 62 countries across the globe. The ceremony lasted almost three hours at Gapyeong which is host to the South Korean HQ of Unification Church. 

A couple who had been in love for eight years, got married at this ceremony; when asked about the experience, the husband explained that he wanted to take home the sense of community among people who did not even know each other.

Mass weddings have always been the Unification Church’s signature feature; the church was founded by Sun Myung Moon in the year 1954. The tradition of mass weddings began in the church in early 1960s where initially there were only a few dozen couples, whereas later on, the numbers began skyrocketing. In 1997, 30,000 couples entered the nuptials in Washington and in 1999, 21,000 couples did the same at the Olympic Stadium in Seoul.

Moon’s widow Han Hak-Ja, emphasized that the church held the ground-breaking event as a mission to “build heaven on Earth” by the year 2020, and urged the believers to support the church further into accomplishing this aim. Many of the couples had only met a few days before and were matched by the Church authorities before the matrimonial event was conducted.

Moon and his church were always exposed to criticism although he was kept up on a pedestal by his dedicated followers. The Unification Church has been accused as a church that brainwashes its believers. Moon claimed that Jesus appeared to him on a mountain top in South Korea in 1935, asking him to finish God’s work of establishing His kingdom on Earth. His new system of belief was published in a book called Divine Principles.

Moon was imprisoned several times for financial frauds and tax invasions, both in North Korea and in the United States. He owns over 300 financial institutions such as publishers, jewellers, clothing stores. He was also involved in séances and other occult practices including clairvoyance and trances. Moon claimed that he and his wife were the only “True Parents” who could give birth to children who bore no original sin. The Church even denied the doctrine of Trinity; God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

Sun Myung Moon died in September, 2013 of complications resulting from pneumonia, aged 92. After his death, his daughter In Jin took on the legacy but did not find the success and charm that her father had. He claimed that he wanted to rebuild the tradition of family back into the society, which intrigued a lot of people and got them interested enough to join his following. Moon was worshipped by over 3 million believers worldwide and is still considered an idol by the people, whereas many deem the group as a dangerous one.

Although the Church has faced a lot of negativity due to the practices of its founder, the tradition of mass weddings is still something that connects a lot of different people. It does bring a sense of community and identity, a deeper meaning to the relationship between a couple, and a unification of souls. Let us hope that these marriages stay strong, and the couples find it in each other to stay together, ‘til death does them part.