Reflections of the opening of the Ministers' workshop

By Rev. Mary Anglin
manglin@SBCGLOBAL.NET
Tuesday 29 October 2002
FFWPU

Who is Rev. Sun Myung Moon? This is the question that 140 ministers gathered together to have answered. To discover who is this man, what prompts and motivates him to keep going like a freight train at the age of 82. Why have the Family Federation members continued loving serving, sacrificing through so many times and trials. Many ministers don't want to know why. They are perhaps afraid of the answer. But 140 brave ministers decided to come together to discover what makes this movement tick.

Gathered together at beautiful Ocean City, Maryland, a beautiful resort town on the Atlantic Ocean more than a 3 hour drive from Washington DC. These ministers came with various levels of heart, curiosity, desire to learn, sometimes a "knowing" or push from the spiritual world. Many ministers we hoped would come could not cross that bridge; and some who came surprised us, we didn't realize they were yet at the level of desiring more.

The ministers are always so kind to members, but sometimes among each other they share their fears. During such a long bus ride, some of them were joking that even if they got negative or upset they couldn't run away -- they'd surely get lost in the wilderness. "Ah, so that's why they're squirreling us away so far; so we'll have to listen." But this comment was said in fun, though perhaps thinly hiding a little of the old fears.

At Hoon Dok Hae on the first full day, Monday, Father's speech from the Madison Square Garden of the September 18, 1974 rally was read. This is such a powerful and clear message. There were many positive exclamations heard throughout the reading. But later, when questioned, a number of the ministers expressed some struggle with the declaration of the failure of John the Baptist.

However, after the first lecture of the morning, the first portion of the Principle of Creation (as presented by Rev. Phillip Schanker), the comments overheard were quite different. "This is so clear!" This teaching was just amazing!" Many ministers didn't want to wait for the group meetings to have question and answer; they wanted to discuss this very interesting understanding of the Bible right away. I cannot imagine how this will grow throughout the 5 days of lectures.

Many ministers who came here had to fight and overcome many odds. I'm sure they'll be blessed for their perseverance and determination, for their open-mindedness.

One lady minister shared with me an experience she had the first night in her hotel room. She actually shared a room with me, and the next day asked how I had slept. Had I noticed a lot of energy in the room? She actually lay awake and watched a vision of three large conference tables right in our bedroom. She recognized only one person, John Quincy Adams. She knew the others were all very important men in the early days of the founding of the United States and in the early days of our fledgling government. They were all so happy that she and I were there with them. Truly the Clouds of Witnesses are real, and I believe will rain down among this workshop. Alleluia!