Ambassadors for Peace in Richmond, Virginia

  

The ideal of being "One Global Family Under God" touched the hearts of Virginians again on September 13th, 2009, as we all gathered for the 2009 Family Peace Festival at St. Joseph's Villa, Richmond. The setting; an interreligious atmosphere created by Buddhists, Christians, Muslims, Jews, Hindus, Bahais, Unificationists and others. The spirit was one promoting peace, service, justice and love. The Family Peace Festival is being conducted in the spirit of the United Nations establishment of an International Day of Peace (IDP) to enhance awareness of the need to constantly work for world peace. In this year's program, we saw an increase in visitors and performers. Channel 6, CBS/WTVR, one of Richmond's local television stations, showed UPF presence at the event on the late night news.

   

The UPF table was abuzzed with action, visitors were particularly keen on how we are tackling the mammoth task of fostering world peace and whether we were having much success. Everyone was accepting to the notion that peace begins in the home. They were constantly reminded that one cannot look for world peace externally, among the nations, if one cannot establish it in one's family.

One visitor, after taking a comprehensive overview of the range of our activities and capturing the great vision, asked: "What is the greatest challenge that you face in order to realize this peace?" Our answer: 'perfecting our relationship with God (vertical) and solving the relationship of love between man and woman (horizontal)'. The essence of this response comes from the founder's (Rev. Sun Myung Moon) deep insight into the fundamental problems affecting humankind and the radical solutions that are necessary to effect lasting peace.

   

UPF was able to build stronger bonds of friendship with many of the organizations present at the festival. This is vital for the sake of establishing effective networking with others who share a similar vision.

World Scripture: A Comparative Anthology of Sacred Texts (which can be found under publications on the www.upf.org site) attracted much attention. Many were requesting to purchase it. For our readers' information, World Scripture was the fruit of Rev. Moon's vision to help foster harmony amongst the world's religions. He commissioned 40 international scholars representing the world's faiths to compile comparative texts from their sacred scriptures under selected headings. This project was accomplished over the period of five years. We strongly encourage others to obtain a copy of this great work. World Scripture will be featured in our next UPF Richmond meeting (date will be announced soon). A description and pictures of last year's Family Peace Festival can be seen by clicking here: Family Peace Festival

We are looking forward to having a greater turnout from public participation next year as we increase the awareness throughout Richmond City and surrounding counties.

"Please join us locally and become an 'Ambassador For Peace.'" Contact AFP/UPF Richmond - (804)-200-9159; Email: geofavile@yahoo.com for any further information.

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