"rule differently if a more established religion (he uses the Roman Catholic Church as an example) were involved. The defendants appealed to the United States Supreme Court which refused to review the decision of the California Supreme Court, and the case was settled out of court. Molko v. Holy Spirit Ass'n for the Unification of World Christianity Molko v. Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity is a legal case heard before the California Supreme Court, which issued its ruling in 1988. David Molko and Tracy Leal, two former members of the Unification Church of the United States,"
"the person's holy robe, with a copy of the ""Divine Principle"", and the coffin draped with the Unification flag. Cremation is discouraged in the Unification movement, although it is sometimes practiced especially in Japan where it is required by law. Unification cemeteries, or sections of existing facilities, have been established in South Korea, the United Kingdom and the United States. The Unification movement is well known for its wedding or wedding vow renewal ceremony. It is given to engaged or married couples. Through it, members believe, the couple is removed from the lineage of sinful humanity and engrafted into God's"
"his religious beliefs and they rallied around. You rarely hear the word 'Moonie' anymore. We're 'Unificationists.'"" In 1987, civil rights activist Ralph Abernathy, who was also the vice president of the Unification Church-affiliated American Freedom Coalition and served on boards of directors for two other related organizations, equated the word ""Moonie"" with the word ""nigger"". In 1989, the ""San Francisco Chronicle"" reported that church members preferred to be called ""Unificationists."" ""The Washington Post"" reported that ""Unification Church members are being advised no longer to accept the designation of 'Moonie,' and to declare any such nomenclature as indicative of a prejudiced"
"without ministers being fellowships, those with ministers being churches. Many use the name ""Unitarian Universalist"", (and a few ""Universalist Unitarian""), having gradually adopted this formulation since consolidation in 1961. Others use names that reflect their historic roots by keeping the historical designation ""Unitarian"" or ""Universalist"" (e.g. ""First Unitarian Church""). A few congregations use neither (e.g. Unity Temple). For some congregations, the name can be a clue to their theological orientation. For others, avoidance of the word ""church"" indicates a desire to distance itself from traditional Christian theology. Sometimes the use of another term may simply indicate a congregation's lay-led or"
"offensive, and I'd like to apologize for its use."" In its entry on ""Unification Church"", the 2002 edition of ""The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage"" advised: ""Unification Church is appropriate in all references to the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity, which was founded by the Rev. Sun Myung Moon. Do not use the disparaging ""Moonie(s)"""". Reuters, in its handbook for journalists, says: ""'Moonie' is a pejorative term for members of the Unification Church. We should not use it in copy and avoid it when possible in direct quotations."" In a 1996 article for"
"Dr. Pfeifer sums up his findings by saying: In the 1995 book ""America's Alternative Religions"", published by the State University of New York Press, Baker wrote: ""Although they prefer to be called Unificationists, they are referred to in the media and popularly known as 'Moonies'."" In the same book, sociologists Anson Shupe and David Bromley, both noted for their studies of new religious movements, also use the word ""Moonies"" to refer to members of the Unification Church. In his 1998 book ""Religion, Mobilization, and Social Action"", Shupe notes that Barker, Bromley, and he himself had used the term in other"
"United Church of God The United Church of God, ""an International Association (UCG""IA or simply UCG) is a binitarian Christian religious denomination based in the United States. UCG calls itself ""The United Church of God, ""an International Association"""", with the last three words italicized in order to differentiate UCG from local congregations and denominations which bear similar names. UCG claims no association with any other organization or denomination. UCG is governed by a 12-man board called the ""Council of Elders"" that is elected by the church's paid and lay ministers, which form the ""General Conference of Elders."" The General Conference"
"a profound theology and world view. You see, Unificationists believe that all the problems on Earth, from the Gulf War, to child abuse, to the crumbling school system (you name it) are fruits of the fact that self-interest crept into the family, the love between husband and wife, reproductive affairs, and parent-child relationships, thus since the beginning there has never been even one family whose members were not dominated by some significant degree of self-interest. Scholars have noted the Blessing ceremony allows Unification Church members to express their belief in an international, inter-racial ""family of God."" In the words of"
"Church or Unificationism (통일교 ""Tongilgyo"") is a new religious movement founded in South Korea in 1954 by Sun Myung Moon. Since its founding, the church has expanded throughout the world with most members living in East Asia. Unificationist beliefs are derived from the Christian Bible and are explained in the church's textbook, the ""Divine Principle"". It teaches that God is the creator and Heavenly Father, whose dual nature combines both masculinity and femininity and whose centre is true love. The Unification Church has sponsored many organizations and projects over the years; including businesses, news media, projects in education and the"
"concerns that people of their churches taking part in Blessing ceremonies might join the Unification Church. In 1998, journalist Peter Maass reported that some Unification Church members were dismayed and grumbled when Moon extended the Blessing to non-members because they had not gone through the same course that members had. In 2001, the Unification Church came into conflict with the Roman Catholic Church when Catholic archbishop Emmanuel Milingo and Maria Sung, a 43-year-old Korean acupuncturist, married in a Unification Church Blessing ceremony, presided over by Rev. and Mrs. Moon. Following his marriage the Archbishop was called to the Vatican by"
"Unity Church Unity, known informally as Unity Church, is a New Thought Christian organization that publishes the ""Daily Word"" devotional publication. It describes itself as a ""positive, practical Christianity"" which ""teach[es] the effective daily application of the principles of Truth taught and exemplified by Jesus Christ"" and promotes ""a way of life that leads to health, prosperity, happiness, and peace of mind."" Unity was founded in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1889 by Charles Fillmore (1854–1948) and Myrtle Fillmore (1845–1931) after Mrs. Fillmore had been cured of her tuberculosis, she believed, by spiritual healing. This resulted in the Fillmores' studying spiritual"
"of the United States had about 500 members. By the end of the 1970s it had expanded to about 5,000 members, with most of them being in their early 20s. In the 1980s and 1990s membership remained at about the same number. Scholars have attributed the Unification Church's relative success in the United States, as compared to other Western nations, to its support of patriotism and capitalist values, and to its multi-racial membership. Some commentators have also noted that this period of Unification Church growth in the United States took place just as the ""hippie"" era of the late 1960s"
"President Park Chung-hee. She said: ""I join in a trans-religious spirit. I like the Unification Church way of interpreting the Bible, incorporating the Quran and Buddhist scripts"". In 2013, four months after the death of Sun Myung Moon, the church held a Blessing ceremony for 3,500 couples in South Korea, while another 24,000 followers took part in other countries via video link. This ceremony was presided over by Hak Ja Han. Moon's practice of matching couples was very unusual in both Christian tradition and in modern Western culture and attracted much attention and controversy. Members of some churches have expressed"
"stance. In the 1990s when Moon began to offer the Unification Church marriage blessing ceremony to members of other churches and religions he was criticized for creating possible confusion. In 1998, journalist Peter Maass reported that some Unification Church members were dismayed and grumbled when Moon extended the Blessing to non-members because they had not gone through the same course that members had. In 2001, the Unification Church came into conflict with the Roman Catholic Church when Catholic archbishop Emmanuel Milingo and Maria Sung, a 43-year-old Korean acupuncturist, married in a Unification Church Blessing ceremony, presided over by Rev. and"
"usually defined as those Christian churches which follow the Nicene Creed and includes the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, and most Protestant churches. From its beginning the Unification movement has claimed to be Christian and has tried to promote its teachings to mainstream Christian churches and organizations. The Unification Church in South Korea was labeled as heretical by Protestant churches in South Korea, including Moon's own Presbyterian Church. In the United States the church was rejected by ecumenical organizations as being non-Christian. The main objections against it were theological, especially because of the Unification Church's addition of material to the Bible"
"Unification Church members, one of whose main goals is the reunification of Korea. He was formerly the President of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification and has been described as Sun Myung Moon's assistant and advisor. His daughter, Jun Sook Kwak, is married to Moon's son, Hyun Jin Moon. He is also the Chairman of the Social Responsibility Committee for the Asian Football Confederation. Chung Hwan Kwak Chung Hwan Kwak (born January 22, 1936) is a prominent leader of the international Unification Church, having been appointed to many leadership positions in Unification Church related organizations by church founder"
"end of the service, called ""talk back"", where members of the congregation can respond to the sermon with their own insights and questions, or even disagree with the viewpoint expressed by the minister or invited speaker. Many Unitarian Universalist congregations no longer observe the Christian symbols of baptism, communion, or confirmation, at least in their traditional forms or under their traditional names. Congregations that continue these practices under their more traditional names are often federated churches or members of the Council of Christian Churches within the Unitarian Universalist Association (CCCUUA), or may have active chapters associated with the Unitarian Universalist"
"High Court in 1980. Although a jury trial involving 100 witnesses held that the article was not libellous, the Unification Church appealed the decision which was eventually upheld in the Court of Appeal. The Unification Church was ordered to pay one million pounds in costs and the Inland Revenue were instructed to investigate the tax-free status of the Church. Dennis Orme Dennis Frederick Orme (born 17 June 1938), former leader of Unification Churches in England, theologian and author. Orme and his wife were among the earliest Western followers of the Unification Church and he is perhaps best known for his"
"established businesses, news media, projects in education and the arts as well as taking part in political and social activism, and has itself gone through substantial changes. In the late 1950s and early 1960s missionaries from the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity (HSA-UWC) of South Korea and Japan came to the United States. Among them were Young Oon Kim, Sang Ik-Choi, Bo Hi Pak, David S. C. Kim, and Yun Soo Lim. Missionary work took place in Washington D.C., New York, Oregon, and California. The Unification Church first came to public notice in the United States"
"National Public Radio reported that Unification Church services in the United States invoked the name of Han along with Moon in their opening greetings to congregants. In that same year, ""Forbes"" reported that Han was living in South Korea with her husband while their children took more responsibility for the day-to-day leadership of the Unification Movement and its affiliated organizations.After Sun Myung Moon's death in 2012 Han became the leader of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, although she has faced some criticism from within the church community. . Hak Ja Han Hak Ja Han (Korean: 한학자, Hanja:"
"although Unity ministers do complete a prescribed program of courses, training and ordination. Well known persons affiliated with Unity include Maya Angelou Betty White, Eleanor Powell, Lucie Arnaz, Wally Amos, actress Michael Learned, Licensed Unity Teacher Ruth Warrick, Barbara Billingsley, Theodore Schneider, Erykah Badu, Matt Hoverman, author Victoria Moran, Patricia Neal, Holmes Osborne, and Episcopal Bishop John Shelby Spong. Unity Church Unity, known informally as Unity Church, is a New Thought Christian organization that publishes the ""Daily Word"" devotional publication. It describes itself as a ""positive, practical Christianity"" which ""teach[es] the effective daily application of the principles of Truth taught"
"announced that members should return to their hometowns in order to undertake apostolic work there. Massimo Introvigne, who has studied the Unification Church and other new religious movements, has said that this confirms that full-time membership is no longer considered crucial to church members. In 1997 Dr. Sontag commented: ""There's no question their numbers are way down. The older members complain to me that they have a lot of captains but no foot soldiers."" While Dr. Barker reported that Unificationists had undergone a transformation in their world view from millennialism to utopianism. On May 1, 1994 (the 40th anniversary of"
"Blessing ceremony of the Unification Church The Holy Marriage Blessing Ceremony is a large-scale wedding or marriage rededication ceremony sponsored by the Unification Church. It is given to married or engaged couples. Through it, members of the Unification Church believe that the couple is removed from the lineage of sinful humanity and engrafted into God’s sinless lineage. As a result, the couple’s marital relationship—and any children born after the Blessing—exist free from the consequences of original sin. (Children born into Blessed Central Families are known as Blessed Children or second generation, third generation, etc.) For Unificationists, these interracial, interreligious and"
"United Church of Christ The United Church of Christ (UCC) is a liberal-leaning mainline Protestant Christian denomination based in the United States, with historical confessional roots in the Congregational, Reformed, and Lutheran traditions, and with approximately 4,956 churches and 853,778 members. The United Church of Christ is a historical continuation of the General Council of Congregational Christian churches founded under the influence of New England Pilgrims and Puritans. Moreover, it also subsumed the third largest Reformed group in the country, the German Reformed. The Evangelical and Reformed Church and the General Council of the Congregational Christian Churches united in 1957"
"international mass marriage ceremonies symbolize the family as the hope for peace. The Blessing ceremony has become the most famous ritual of the Unification Church. The men and women who receive the Blessing are called ""Blessed Central Families"" who are conducive to the establishment of Cheon Il Guk (the Kingdom of Heaven.) Frank Kaufmann, a leading Unificationist scholar, wrote: We do not have mass weddings because Reverend Moon doesn't know any better, doesn't know how Americans react to things, or that he stubbornly adheres to some odd Korean habit. Our matchings and weddings are a direct and perfect manifestation of"
"were also an attempt to improve the often controversial public image of the church. The first conference, held in 1972, had 20 participants; while the largest conference, in Seoul, South Korea in 1982, had 808 participants from over 100 countries. Participants in one or more of the conferences included Nobel laureates John Eccles (Physiology or Medicine 1963, who chaired the 1976 conference) and Eugene Wigner (Physics 1963). The relationship of the Unification movement and science again came to public attention in 2002 with the publication of ""Icons of Evolution"", a popular book critical of the teaching of evolution written by"
"a wide range of faiths, including a Rabbi, a Sheikh, a Methodist minister, a Presbyterian, and a Roman Catholic priest. In 2003, the seminary had about 120 students from around the world, with most coming from South Korea and Japan, which have large numbers of Unification Church members. The seminary offers four distinct degree programs: The Seminary has had five presidents so far. Unification Theological Seminary The Unification Theological Seminary (UTS) is the main seminary of the international Unification Church. It is located in Barrytown, New York, and with an Extension Center in midtown Manhattan. Its purpose has been described"
"Universalist Church of America The Universalist Church of America was a Christian Universalist religious denomination in the United States (plus affiliated churches in other parts of the world). Known from 1866 as the Universalist General Convention, the name was changed to the Universalist Church of America in 1942. In 1961, it consolidated with the American Unitarian Association to form the Unitarian Universalist Association. The defining theology of Universalism is ""universal salvation""; Universalists believe that the God of love would not create a person knowing that that person would be destined for eternal damnation. They concluded that all people must be"
"the news media. Journalistic authorities, including ""The New York Times"" and Reuters, now discourage its use in news reporting. In other contexts, it is still sometimes used and not always considered pejorative. The word ""Moonie"" is derived from the name of Sun Myung Moon, the founder and leader of the Unification Church. Some dictionaries mention that it is considered an offensive word. The ""Dictionary of the Modern Politics of Japan"" describes it as a colloquial term. Secondary meanings include: ""Any blind, unthinking, unquestioning follower of a philosophy"". The word ""Moonie"" is also a family name in the United Kingdom. The"
"those certain individuals that accept the creeds of, or affiliate with, a specific church or religion, from a common ruin or corruption of the mass of humanity. In 1938, ""The Christian leader"" attributed """"the"" religion ""of"" Jesus, not ""a"" religion ""about"" Jesus"" to Unitarians, though the phrase was used earlier by Congregationalist Rollin Lynde Hartt in 1924 and earlier still by US President Thomas Jefferson. Worship within the Unitarian tradition accommodates a wide range of understandings of God, while the focus of the service may be simply the celebration of life itself. Each Unitarian congregation is at liberty to devise"
"Communion of saints The communion of saints (Latin, ""communio sanctorum""), when referred to persons, is the spiritual union of the members of the Christian Church, living and the dead. They are all part of a single ""mystical body"", with Christ as the head, in which each member contributes to the good of all and shares in the welfare of all. The earliest known use of this term to refer to the belief in a mystical bond uniting both the living and the dead in a confirmed hope and love is by Saint Nicetas of Remesiana (ca. 335–414); the term has"
"wider theological and philosophical diversity. ""At one extreme are the 'Free Christians' who wish to remain part of the Church Universal; at the other are those who wish to move beyond Christianity"". The congregations of GAUFCC contain members who hold diverse opinions. Indeed, Unitarians are able to embrace and gain insights from the great world religions, philosophies, arts and modern sciences. Because the Unitarian Church does not follow one set of rules, most Protestant denominations and Catholic dioceses do not recognise the baptisms or marriages it performs. The official name is used on formal occasions, but in general use the"
"two most visible names are the Church of God General Conference (CoGGC), with 5,000 members in the USA, and Christadelphians, with 60,000 members worldwide. Both of these groups share nontrinitarian, specifically Socinian, Christology and both have historians — Anthony Buzzard among CoGGC, the geographer Alan Eyre among Christadelphians — who have acknowledged works such as the Racovian Catechism and Biddle's ""Twofold Catechism"" as prefiguring and compatible with their beliefs. Christadelphians are more reserved than CoGGC in association with the name ""Unitarian"", given that the Unitarian Church still exists in Britain and many of its independent congregations are post-Christian. Although the"