More than 30,000 tearful mourners attended the elaborate, flower-strewn funeral of their “messiah” and controversial Unification Church founder Sun Myung Moon in South Korea yesterday. Moon died of complications from pneumonia on Sept. 3, aged 92.
His church, whose members were mocked as “Moonies” by the media, was renowned for its mass weddings of thousands — sometimes tens of thousands — of couples and for its multibillion-dollar business interests.
In a ceremony that bore the trappings of a state funeral, Moon’s carved, red-lacquer coffin was carried by men in military-style uniforms into a stadium at the church headquarters in Gapyeong, 60km east of Seoul.
The vast, covered arena, dominated by an altar where a giant portrait of Moon stood on a landscaped bank of floral tributes, was packed to capacity with church members — thousands of whom had flown in from overseas.
Many sobbed quietly as the honor guard, accompanied by members of Moon’s immediate family, moved through the stadium and placed the coffin at the foot of the portrait.
Over the past 10 days, more than 150,000 mourners had paid their last respects at Moon’s portrait before his burial yesterday on a hillside overlooking the sprawling Gapyeong complex.
Eulogies were led by the youngest of Moon’s seven sons and his spiritual successor, Hyung Jin Moon, who vowed to continue the work of the “true father, savior and messiah” following his “transition into the spirit world.”
Revered by his followers, but denounced by critics as a cult-building charlatan who brainwashed church members, Moon was a deeply divisive figure whose shadowy business dealings saw him jailed in the US.
The teachings of the Unification Church are based on the Bible, but with new interpretations and Sun Myung Moon saw his role as completing the unfulfilled mission of Jesus to restore humanity to a state of “sinless” purity.
While it claims a worldwide following of three million people, experts suggest the core membership is far smaller, although it still carries a commercial clout that allows the church to punch way above its doctrinal weight.
“I am very sad. As I had been praying a lot for him, I thought he would live longer. However, he passed away so suddenly,” said Anja Brina, a mourner from Germany.
“He was not a god. I think he was like a messiah, through whom you can reach God,” Brina said.
“He was the reason for my existence as he coupled my father and mother,” said Hur Yuna, 18, whose Japanese and Korean parents married after being personally paired off by Sun Myung Moon.
He often matched couples from different nationalities with no common culture or language, in the belief that it promoted the universality of mankind.
The sobbing in the stadium rose to a wail at one point as Sun Myung Moon’s close aide, Pak Bo-hi, broke down while speaking of his desire to see Moon’s face “one last time.”
The funeral was streamed live on the church’s website and shown on giant screens around the Gapyeong compound.
After the ceremony, Sun Myung Moon’s coffin was driven in a funeral cortege, headed by a black sedan bearing another giant portrait, to the burial site along a road lined with flag-waving mourners. It was finally lowered into a marble-lined grave watched by Moon’s widow and children.
Born to a farming family in 1920 in what is now North Korea, Sun Myung Moon said he had a vision aged 15 in which Jesus asked him to complete his work on Earth.
Rejected by Korean Protestant churches, he founded the Unification Church in 1954.
As the church rose to prominence in the 1970s and 1980s, spreading to the US, it spawned a business empire encompassing construction, food, education, the media and even a professional football club. Media holdings include the Washington Times newspaper and United Press International news agency.
Throughout his life, Sun Myung Moon assiduously courted political leaders in what critics said was a bid to lend legitimacy to his church which has been condemned as heretical by some Christian organizations.
A fire caused by a burst gas pipe yesterday spread to several homes and sent a fireball soaring into the sky outside Malaysia’s largest city, injuring more than 100 people. The towering inferno near a gas station in Putra Heights outside Kuala Lumpur was visible for kilometers and lasted for several hours. It happened during a public holiday as Muslims, who are the majority in Malaysia, celebrate the second day of Eid al-Fitr. National oil company Petronas said the fire started at one of its gas pipelines at 8:10am and the affected pipeline was later isolated. Disaster management officials said shutting the
DITCH TACTICS: Kenyan officers were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch suspected to have been deliberately dug by Haitian gang members A Kenyan policeman deployed in Haiti has gone missing after violent gangs attacked a group of officers on a rescue mission, a UN-backed multinational security mission said in a statement yesterday. The Kenyan officers on Tuesday were on their way to rescue Haitian police stuck in a ditch “suspected to have been deliberately dug by gangs,” the statement said, adding that “specialized teams have been deployed” to search for the missing officer. Local media outlets in Haiti reported that the officer had been killed and videos of a lifeless man clothed in Kenyan uniform were shared on social media. Gang violence has left
US Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday accused Denmark of not having done enough to protect Greenland, when he visited the strategically placed and resource-rich Danish territory coveted by US President Donald Trump. Vance made his comment during a trip to the Pituffik Space Base in northwestern Greenland, a visit viewed by Copenhagen and Nuuk as a provocation. “Our message to Denmark is very simple: You have not done a good job by the people of Greenland,” Vance told a news conference. “You have under-invested in the people of Greenland, and you have under-invested in the security architecture of this
Japan unveiled a plan on Thursday to evacuate around 120,000 residents and tourists from its southern islets near Taiwan within six days in the event of an “emergency”. The plan was put together as “the security situation surrounding our nation grows severe” and with an “emergency” in mind, the government’s crisis management office said. Exactly what that emergency might be was left unspecified in the plan but it envisages the evacuation of around 120,000 people in five Japanese islets close to Taiwan. China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has stepped up military pressure in recent years, including
RSS