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K. Rigney: Address to Africa Summit and Leadership Conference 2019
Written by Mrs. Kathy Rigney, Chairwoman of UPF-Africa
Friday, June 7, 2019
Address to Africa Summit and Leadership Conference 2019
Your Royal Highnesses,
Your Excellencies, Former Heads of State,
Honorable Ministers and Members of Parliament
Distinguished Religious Leaders,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
As the Chair of UFP-Africa, it is my pleasure and honor to welcome you here at the Hilton Sandton Hotel in Johannesburg, South Africa. We are very honored to see that you have put aside some of the commitments you had to be here in Johannesburg with us. On behalf of the entire UPF family and our co-founder, Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon, thank you.
Our world today is challenged to its core by many problems, and family breakdown is certainly not the least of them. Everyone wants happiness and a world of peace. Yet we live in a world where war, division and violence are commonplace. Everywhere, cultures are clashing; ethnic groups or religious communities are fighting. When we see starving people stricken by poverty, women struggling to escape the chains of domestic violence, and never-ending crimes worldwide, the problems of the world seem insurmountable. It becomes difficult not to ask, “Where do we go from here?”
Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon, our founder, is a tireless advocate for peace and reconciliation. Founder of the Sunhak Peace Prize and the Peace Starts With Me Movement, she is supporting initiatives for refugees, access to education for women and girls, food security, strengthening marriage and family, and protecting the environment. Her hope is that we will be uplifted and transformed.
The Africa Summit and Leadership Conference (ASLC), organized and sponsored by UPF, together with the support and love of Prophet Radebe, is an opportunity to focus on the urgent need for new vision and moral leadership by offering a framework for peacebuilding and development, grounded in core values and universal principles.
The primary theme of this ASLC is “Building a Peaceful and Prosperous Heavenly Africa, and a World of Unity and Universal Values.” The program will include an opening plenary session featuring the inauguration of the Africa chapter of the International Summit Council for Peace. Another session will deal with the role of parliamentarians as peacemakers. After that, we will be having a session dealing with interfaith issues and how to promote dialogue and peace amongst the different faith traditions.
The highlight of this special Africa Summit and Leadership Conference will be the Hyojeong Family Blessing Festival 2019 that will take place tomorrow at the famous and historic Orlando Stadium in Soweto
This Family Blessing Festival, which will be attended by tens of thousands of couples, (some of them are here among us), is co-hosted by Dr. Prophet B.S. Radebe, founder of the Revelation Church of God, of the Inkululeko Yesizwe Association and of the African Hidden Voices. This festival will see the marriage rededication, Holy Blessing of 40,000 couples based on the motto “Strong and Healthy Families Make a Healthy and Prosperous Nation.” These couples, who will receive a special Blessing prayer, will be committing to renew their marriage vows and to create God-centered families as originally intended in God’s purpose of creation.
The festival will be officiated by Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon, who is the initiator of the Hyojeong Family Blessing Festival. It will be broadcasted live on radio, television and via the Internet to millions around the world.
We believe that your participation in this important conference will contribute greatly to the fulfillment of our shared objectives and humanity’s dream of “One Human Family Under God.”
Distinguished guests, we look forward to a very inspiring and fruitful time together. May Dr. Moon’s vision for an interdependent, mutually prosperous Africa based on universal values come true!
Thank you!
To go to the Africa Summit and Leadership Conference 2019 Schedule page, click here.