Blessing Ceremony

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The Blessing Ceremony of the Unification Church is considered the most important and central ceremony in a person’s spiritual life.

1 What is the Blessing?
2 The History of the Blessing
3 Process of the Blessing
4 Criticisms and Controversies
5 Historical Blessings
6 External links

[edit] What is the Blessing?

The Blessing is given to married (or engaged) couples. Through it, members of the Unification Church believe, 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.

[edit] The History of the Blessing

The Blessing was first given in 1961 to 36 couples in Seoul, South Korea by Reverend and Mrs. Sun Myung Moon shortly after their own marriage in 1960. All the couples were members of the Unification Church. Rev. Moon matched most of the couples, although 12 were already married to each other from before joining the church, which was officially founded in 1954.

Later Blessings were larger in scale but followed the same pattern with all participants Unification Church members and Rev. Moon matching most of the couples. In 1982 the first large scale Blessing held outside of Korea took place in Madison Square Garden in New York City.

The Blessings attracted a lot of attention in the press and in the public imagination, often being labeled "mass weddings". However, some couples were already married. Those that were engaged were later legally married according to the laws of their own countries.

The 1990s saw a big change when Rev. Moon allowed the Blessing to be given to other people besides Unification Church members. This was welcomed by most church members since it meant that friends and family members could receive the Blessing without being required to join the church. This liberalization led to a great increase in the number of Blessed couples, with most of them having been already married and not Unification Church members. It is possible for any Blessed couple to give the Blessing to other couples and this is being done in many cases by ministers of other churches who have received the Blessing though their association with the Unification Church.

[edit] Process of the Blessing

The Blessing has five steps:

1. The Chastening Ceremony. The couple strike each other three times to symbolically make an end to sin and prepare for a new beginning.

2. The Holy Wine Ceremony. The couple share a cup of Holy Wine (or grape juice) symbolizing their engrafting into God’s sinless lineage.

3. The Holy Blessing Ceremony. The couple exchange vows. A prayer is offered by the officiators. The couple is sprinkled with Holy Water.

4. The Separation Period. The couple refrains from having sexual relations for a period, most often 40 days but in some cases much longer, before consummating, or re-consummating, their marriage.

5. The Three Day Ceremony. The couple begins, or re-begins, their married life in a highly symbolic ceremony over three days which is considered to reverse the fall of Adam and Eve.

[edit] Criticisms and Controversies

The Blessing, like almost everything about the Unification Church, has been the subject of criticism and controversy from various points of view.

Some people feel that it is meaningless and unnecessary because they don’t believe in Original Sin. Others, especially some Christians, believe that it is not possible for Original Sin to be forgiven and therefore the Blessing is perhaps even blasphemous. Critics of the church have sometimes said that Rev. Moon’s reason for giving the Blessing was to help members circumvent immigration laws, to attract attention to himself, or even to raise money for the church since church members pay a fee or make a donation to take part.

Gordon Neufeld, Canadian author and long time critic (and ex-member) of the Unification Church, has said that the liberalization of the Blessing in the 1990s devalued the Blessings given in earlier years when much more was required of those taking part.