The Third World Culture and Sports Festival
23-30 November 1997

The World Culture and Sports Festival III was held this year in Washington, D.C. The first two festivals were held in Seoul, Korea, in 1992 and 1995. Rev. and Mrs. Sun Myung Moon first presented their vision for the Festival just after the Summer Olympics of 1988. As they stated in the founding declaration, There can only be a peaceful family of nations when you have nations of peaceful families.

To accomplish the purpose of the WCSF, it was decided to involve as wide a range of participants as possible, including men and women in all fields of endeavor: scholars, artists, religious leaders, scientists, statesmen, youth leaders and journalists. This text was written BEFORE the event.

In keeping with this vision, organizations affiliated with WCSF III will convene six major international conferences on world peace and family values during the week-long activities. These include the Federation for World Peace, the Inter-Religious Federation for World Peace, the Professors World Peace Academy, the Women's Federation for World Peace, the International Conference on the Unity of the Sciences, the World Media Association, and the Youth Federation for World Peace. Also, the WCSF III is planning a week of cultural activities to take place in different locations around Washington. These include symphonies, art exhibitions, ballet, rock concerts, a student rally and walk-a-thon, and a sports festival.

Since the festival is based on the ideal of establishing families that are dedicated to the service of God and mankind, it is fitting that the heart of each Festival has been the International Blessing Ceremony. Couples from every corner of the globe - from almost every religion, race, nationality, and culture - make a sacred commitment in this Ceremony to practice true love as a way of life, emphasizing purity before marriage, fidelity within the marriage, and the eternal nature of marriage.

Questions and Answers:

1. What is the event?
Blessing 97 is a marriage blessing and rededication ceremony. It involves 3.6 million couples worldwide who have rededicated their marriages over the last two years. Some 30,000 couples will gather at the stadium in Washington DC.

2. Who are the sponsors of the Blessing '97?
The primary sponsor of the Blessing is the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification. Founded in 1984, the FFWPU has chapters throughout the world. The American chapter is headquartered in New York.

3. What are its main features?

4. What is it not?
It is not a legal rite of marriage, nor is it a conversion to the Unification faith.

5. What do the couples do to be Blessed?
Any couple with an intact marriage and who agrees with the four vows can participate. The couple shares a cup of holy wine or juice, is sprinkled with holy water, representing purification, and participates in a "chastening ceremony," symbolically undoing past wrongs committed before or during the marriage. The commitments are universally-affirmed in all traditions:

6. How many couples are blessed in the US? In the world?
As of this date, in North America there are about 320,000 couples, with over 14 million worldwide.

7. Why the number "3.6" million?
The number 360 can be taken to represent all humankind, just as 360 degrees represents the entire globe. In 1995, Rev. and Mrs. Moon blessed 360,000 couples. They began their work in 1960 with a blessing of 36 couples.

8. Why would someone participate?
Many couples desire to renew their marriage and bring more of God's blessing into their marriage. It is wonderful experience of love, about which many tell their friends and relatives. Sociology and psychology confirm the traditional religious and folk wisdom that healthy families-with no divorce or adultery-lead to a healthy society and world. Reverend and Mrs. Moon want to help all the people of the world in our common quest to build a healthy world for our children.

9. What is expected of those who participate?
Those who participate are qualified to join the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, should they desire. This is an international organization formed by Reverend and Mrs. Moon in 1994 to bring together all blessed couples for the purpose of promoting strong marriages and a new marriage culture. The main condition of membership is to support each other to maintain good marriages and put God at the center of their family, and to be a positive force for family life and marriage in the community.

10. What happens to those who break the vows?
We seek to heal problems and bring reconciliation. We all are working out our marriages. There are bound to be problems, but most blessed marriages are very successful. Blessed couples work sincerely to support one another, and the FFWPU offers fine support literature and seminars in true family values. In fact, blessed marriages have a success rate far exceeding the societal average.

11. What about single people or homosexuals?
We are upholding the ideal of true love between a husband and wife as God's plan for families. We realize that there are good people who, for whatever reason, do not practice this. We are not doing this to condemn the choices people make, but rather to bring together the family of the world under what is proven over the millennia to be the most universal and healthy way of life.

12. What comes next for these couples?
It is the beginning of a new an deeper relationship with God and with their spouse. In the freedom of true love and responsibility, these couples have a greater sensitivity to the importance of marriage and community. We want to create a marriage culture.

13. How much does all this cost? Who is paying for it?
The Blessing costs several million dollars. The majority of that money is from donations from Unificationists throughout the world, their businesses, and the participating couples themselves.

14. How much are you paying for the entertainment and the speakers?
The speakers and entertainers are paid the usual fees for their services. The exact amount is privileged information between the performer/speaker and the event organizers. Many participate without requesting any fee.

15. Who endorses this event?
This is the work of God, not of Reverend and Mrs. Moon alone. Many Christian ministers and other religious leaders have already received the Blessing and are supporting this event in their own ways, most often by sharing it with their congregations. It is very empowering to churches and mosques to have this sort of community renewal in the place where community begins-the family. It has a good effect upon the children, too.

16. Why does the world need such an event?
We have to solve the problem of the breakdown of the family all over the world. So many problems in America, including drugs, criminality, sexual diseases and poverty are directly related to family breakdown. The best way to solve these problems is to restore the sanctity of marriage and renew, strengthen and support godly love in the family. This event will prove to be a much-needed catalyst for positive change.

17. Can these events take place in any country?
We welcome groups from every country who wish to host such an event. People from virtually every country in the world are participating. It is an important expression of the freedoms granted people of faith and ethical values under all wholesome governments. The ceremony will be broadcast by satellite to numerous countries. Other countries have chosen to hold Blessing '97 from a taped broadcast of the actual RFK event due to time zone differences.

18. What is the role of Reverend and Mrs. Moon?
As they have done as a central part of their work for thirty eight years, Reverend and Mrs. Moon are officiating the Blessing. For the first time, however, they will conduct the 1997 ceremony together with major leaders of the world's religions, each of whom will give their unique blessing upon the couples assembled in the stadium and worldwide by satellite and video.

19. By what authority do Rev. and Mrs. Moon conduct this event?
Jesus Christ called them to this mission, one which helps unite Christians and people of all faiths through highlighting the common values of marriage as a spiritual commitment. They have blessed hundreds of thousands of couples during the past 37 years, painstakingly laying the foundation to conduct this worldwide ceremony. The blessed couples have been remarkably successful in creating strong, godly families.

20. Are they the only ones able to officiate at one of these events?
No, any couple, under the auspices of FFWPU, which has already received the Blessing is able to share the blessing with other couples.

21. What is the holy wine and holy water?
They each have been prayed over a blessed couple and mixed with a drop of the present supply of holy wine or water. Often juice is used instead of wine. The original small quantity of holy wine and holy water was prepared in 1960 by Reverend and Mrs. Moon at the time of their blessing. It represents the love of God.

22. What is the chastening ceremony?
The husband and wife gently and with love hit one another's backside or shoulders three times, to symbolize the end of resentment over any emotional pain the other may have caused through the misuse of love. This is inevitably the most happy part of the Blessing.

23. Aren't there some sort of ceremonies after this in which the couple must participate?
Traditionally, blessed couples offered a period of sexual abstinence representing 40 days, and restarted their relationship through three days of prayer in the context of renewing their conjugal partnership. Reverend Moon has yet to make any recommendations in this area for non-Unificationists.

24. By participating in this, aren't they becoming in essence followers of Rev. and Mrs. Moon, who call themselves the "True Parents"?
Not at all. Everyone brings to the Blessing their own religious and philosophical understanding of it. There is no doctrinal test or instruction. The commitment to "love one another" within the context of marriage, family and community, truly is the universal norm common to all religions and ethical systems. As far as the term, "true parents," each blessed couple is pledging intentionally to do their best to become true parents to their own children, just as Reverend and Mrs. Moon have pledged to do.

25. Isn't Rev. Moon divorced? How can he ask others never to divorce?
Yes, Rev. Moon consented, after years of anguish, to his first wife's suit of divorce. He was called to serve his church, something which she was asking him to give up. Ultimately, Rev. Moon had to choose between his wife and his mission. It was not an ideal circumstance and he is making efforts to this day to bring reconciliation. Despite his setbacks, he and Mrs. Moon are committed to the truth of God that marriage is eternal and couples should pledge never to divorce. When circumstances render that impossible, the husband and wife must seek God's guidance and take responsibility for their actions.

26. Why do Reverend and Mrs. Moon wear crowns when they give the blessing? Is everyone worshipping Rev. and Mrs. Moon?
Absolutely not. The robes and crowns worn by Reverend and Mrs. Moon symbolize the godly nature of this event. Their attire is not dissimilar to that of the religious leaders of any denomination. We do not worship Reverend and Mrs. Moon. They believe that marriage is a noble and truly royal institution and that all husbands and wives are meant to be "kings and queens of true love."

27. Will there be other similar events in the future?
Yes, definitely. Rev. Moon has projected blessing 36 million couples next year and 360 million couples by the turn of the century.

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