Chambumo Gyeong - 439. The World Culture and Sports Festival
On September 27, 1988, during the Seoul Olympic Games, True Parents gathered members from 120 nations at the Hannam-dong house and proposed holding the World Culture and Sports Festival (WCSF) to promote a God-centered culture of deep heart. Accordingly, WCSF was formed with the aim of bringing down man-made barriers and helping to realize a harmonious and united world through large-scale international sports and cultural festivals. The first World Culture and Sports Festival was held in Seoul from August 19-30, 1992. 7 Embarking upon a new era following our great victory at the Seoul Olympic Games, I declared that the World Culture and Sports Festival would be held on a regular basis. This is the first time I have launched such a project. Through such endeavors, we are creating a new, central axis for the world. If all realms of the world connect to each other and revolve around that axis, Satan's influence will be eliminated and this will become a heavenly world. The WCSF will accelerate the process by which we are creating the one united world. (181-237, 1988/10/03) 8 Now the era of church-level Blessing has passed, and the time is here to receive the Blessing representing your nation. To realize the Blessing at the national level, we must connect it to the new era of culture. Therefore, True Parents will bestow the marriage Blessing as the center of a new Olympic-style cultural festival. As usual with the Blessing, the purpose will be to invest in people who will maintain the heavenly standard as blessed couples. Therefore, leaders from 120 nations should carefully select virtuous men and women to represent the young people of their country. Through the academic conferences and games with these chosen young champions, we will open the door to the Blessing, the greatest realm of champions.
You should recruit qualified teams of athletes to participate in these games. If they excel here, the people of the world will open their path to success. Through this, these young people will rise on the foundation of a new world of hope and will stand together in the garden of ideals and the home of peace. After the long course of restoration, these champions, while yearning for the new ideal and singing songs of inspiration, will advance toward the kingdom of heaven. (181-276, 1988/10/03) 9 Originally, our institution should have been called the World Culture Olympics Convention. But the International Olympic Committee said this would infringe upon their trademark, so we chose the title World Cultural and Sports Festival (WCSF). During the 1988 Olympic Games, we entered an age in which nations of the Cold War era united. The Soviet Union and America had taken turns boycotting previous Olympiads and were unable to unite with one another. During the 1988 Olympics, however, they crossed the apex of the Cold War and buried the hatchet for the first time.
Nonetheless, that unity was achieved only on the level of the physical body; a united realm of the spirit has not yet been formed. The Olympic Games are focused on pulling together the world s youth based on physical ability alone. This ignores the religious and spiritual dimensions of life. For this reason, we have to bring spirituality into the Olympic Games. In the WCSF, which is modeled after the Olympic Games, physical and spiritual aspects are both included. (235-153, 1992/08/29) 10 At an early age, I received Heaven s call. Then I persevered through the course of the history of restoration, investing my life, taking the lead, and hastening to gather representative leaders from every field of human endeavor. Accordingly, the World Culture and Sports Festival is the first sports festival centered on God and based on the standard of absolute values. In contrast, traditions, cultures and values across the five oceans and six continents all focus on their idiosyncrasies and are utterly disunited. I have come to create a movement for a new, unified culture characterized by total harmony. This movement, centering on the Principle, which is the foundation for everything, is the movement of new life and true love. By creating harmony and unity between spirit and flesh, rooted in the original nature with God as the center, this movement will create new men and women, new families, a new nation and a new world. (234-245, 1992/08/23) 11 The WCSF is a celebration in which, with God at the center, family members of a global village including the world s scholars, religious leaders, journalists, politicians, woman leaders, youth leaders, athletes and others meet together. Rooted in God, it is the harmonious integration of the wisdom and experience of the entire human race, in an event of cosmic historic importance focused on building the peaceful, ideal world. The original, ideal world is the world founded on God's true love, true life and true lineage. It will be established through the new Adam and Eve who perfect the four great realms of heart, the realms of true children, true siblings, a true couple and true parents. (234-243, 1992/08/23) 12 During the seven years after World War II, the Christian cultural foundation for the new Adam to spread his influence throughout the world was lost, so I had to restore it through my own efforts. We have come to the stage where the Soviet Union and the United States welcome and support me. Right after World War II, the Christian cultural sphere, the field of wild olive trees on God's side, was lost. However, the Unification Church, centered on True Parents, restored that field back to God. Through this, the whole world can be resurrected easily if only it receives a graft from us.
Therefore, from 1992 onward, the Blessing will be opened to the public at large. This will be done through the World Culture and Sports Festival. If people receive a 40-day workshop, acknowledge and respect True Parents, believe absolutely in God, and step forward and pledge to inherit the new seed of God's eternal love, life and lineage, they will be able to enter heaven. (210-107, 1990/12/01) 13 Initiated as part of our providential endeavors, the Hanmadang Sports Festival will establish a new, God-centered youth culture through sports. It must restore the united realm of heart in which the good mind on the side of Heaven controls the body on the side of evil, and it must become a public domain where young people can unite our confused world and resolve the bitter sorrow of God.
You must be strong and bold as heroes for the sake of the future, and march forward as members of Heaven's royal family. You have to become the flag bearers of righteousness, who drive away the darkness and judge evil and sin. Through the Collegiate Association for the Research of Principles, you should subdue the waves of licentiousness and violence that are spreading throughout the world, and initiate a new, holy revolution of goodness. Become the nucleus of world youth, upholding God's authority. Recover the four great realms of heart of the original sons and daughters, siblings, couples and parents. Restore the realm of the three great kingships through grandparents, parents and children. Become Heaven's true, royal family and walk the way of eternal life! (234-244, 1992/08/23) 14 The public positions taken by the Unification Church are becoming noticed in global politics and stirring controversy in the religious world. We need to stand in the forefront at all times. In both the political and religious spheres, Cain and Abel must become one. Through connecting these together, the most powerful sphere in history is to emerge. One individual cannot connect the two realms together. They must be bound together through the family.
The first World Culture and Sports Festival was founded on this principle. At the WCSF, we assembled young people and world leaders in various fields. From a vertical perspective, those leaders and young people represent Cain and Abel respectively. All these world-level leaders stand in the position of Cain. The fact that we reverse the elder son with the younger son, restoring the authority of the elder son, is the foundation for the marriage Blessing.
Before holding the Blessing ceremony on August 25,1992,1 proclaimed before all humankind the advent of True Parents and the Messiah. The Republic of Korea received this message first, and then I proclaimed it in Japan and the United States. Through True Parents, Cain and Abel and the political and religious realms can unite. The various cultural realms will become one. Even though the world is in confusion, the Unification Church has been shaping and leading it into a new, unified realm of culture, from the individual level to the world level. (235-286, 1992/10/25) 15 In the future, the most fearsome war will be that between the races. True Parents must influence Asia and the world to defuse this divisive move ment. The world must be saved. If we ourselves do not accomplish it, there will be no peace. Therefore, we emphasize world peace, which is God's desire. This is why I founded the World Culture and Sports Festival. This festival has to surpass the Olympic Games, because the Olympics focus only on the body, and leave God out. The WCSF, however, implants culture in the Olympics. Since the core of all cultures is religion, religion is central to the WCSF. Since religion strengthens the spirit, which in turn is meant to lead the body, the WCSF enables people to reach the ideal human state intended by God. By doing so, it will create a new culture. True Parents have accomplished this work. (234-333, 1992/08/27) 16 In the future, world-famous performing arts groups will be called to compete in our important events. Each awards ceremony will become a contest for these internationally-known groups. By holding such competitions, the best groups will be selected. In the academic area as well, the best scholars in each field will be selected. We will have international political leaders participate and present awards to the winners. This inevitably will capture the worlds attention. This is precisely what the World Culture and Sports Festival is about. It could be called a cultural Olympics. Top people in each field will compete for one week, and heads of state will present the awards. (310-248, 1999/06/30) 17 The World Culture and Sports Fes tival is like a cultural Olympics. But it does not include only sports events. In our festival, world-class experts from numerous academic fields, be they physics, literature or anything else, enter hundreds of diverse Olympics-style events. I am interested in the Olympic Games and soccer tournaments, but I also have a keen interest in the world of the arts. Now that I have come to occupy a leading position in the world, I would like to hold the WCSF as a kind of Olympic Games for people of intellect, culture and faith. (383-020, 2002/06/24) |