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Peace Tour in Bulgaria Promotes Leadership
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Sofia, Bulgaria - On the second day of the Orthodox Easter, Bulgaria welcomed the Global Peace Tour 2009. The event was held at the Hotel Central in the very center of the city of Sofia. It was a good opportunity to organize on the same day a half-day conference for educating Ambassadors for Peace. There were two panels in the afternoon. The first one was on the topic of “Good Governance, Good Leadership.” This issue is especially important for Bulgaria, since the quality of leaders has been a matter of serious discussions during the past two or three years in the country and abroad as well. The lively discussions showed the importance of the topic.
The second panel was about “The Mission of Ambassadors for Peace and UPF Projects.” Dr. Gabriella Spagna gave an in-depth explanation about the mission of the Ambassadors for Peace. One of the first Ambassadors for Peace in Bulgaria, Mrs. Paprikova–Krutilin, chair of the Compassion Foundation, shared her personal experiences over the last 18 years of providing food, care, and social contacts for elderly people who are abandoned by society in some way.
The organizers offered opportunities for representatives of different spiritual groups and churches to display and sell their publications.
The main event featured Dr. Yong Cheol Song, Chair of UPF-Europe, as a key speaker. Guests included Rev. Tae Sun Song from Korea and Rev. Takeo Hatakeyama from Japan. There were also representatives from different spiritual traditions, academics, and NGO representatives. A warm atmosphere was created by a ten-year-old girl dressed in a folk costume singing a joyful song. The spirit was kept high by a ceremony in which people from different religions poured water into a common container. Participants included representatives of the White Brotherhood, the Protestant community, Soka Gakkai, and Unificationism. The feeling when all four embraced each other at the end of the ceremony was that of “One family under God.”
Although there were some technical problems in presenting the video about UPF, everybody realized that there are always difficulties to overcome in order to achieve success. The key speech impressed the audience and led to the presentation of Ambassador for Peace Awards to a prominent representative of the Catholic Church, a professor of music, a publisher, a medical doctor, and an NGO representative.
For the keynote address and more information about the peace tour, click here.