Reverend Sun Myung Moon Celebrates 90th Birthday in New York - and Seoul

NEW YORK, Feb. 13 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Reverend Sun Myung Moon
celebrated his 90th Birthday Jan. 31, 2009 -- twice, in fact. He was feted in
celebrations held first in Seoul, Korea, and then, barely 15 hours later, in
New York City where more than 3,000 religious, diplomatic and community
leaders gathered at the Hammerstein Ballroom in Manhattan.

Congratulatory remarks were offered by Dr. Julio Maria Sanguinetti, former
President of Uruguay. Also on hand was Reverend Dr. Joseph Lowery, president
emeritus of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, world-renowned
civil-rights leader and key colleague of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King,
Jr. Rev. Lowery told Rev. Moon: "You have earned congratulatory missives for a
lifetime of witness and leadership in submission of your life to serve our
creator God. Your stewardship has served as a model for all who would be true
stewards. Your ministerial labors have established the highest standards to
which all can apply in their ministry. Your charity has escalated and
ascended to love, and there it is blessed by your showers of caring and your
unearned suffering has been redemptive not only for you but for others."

Dr. Lowery was in the spotlight Jan. 20, 2009, when he offered the benediction
at the inauguration of President Obama. Dr. Lowery commented after the
celebration, "I was honored to congratulate Rev. Moon on his 90th Birthday and
want to recognize the effectiveness of his ministry and his work for peace.
Particularly of interest to me was that he was passing the torch to his
youngest son to carry on the ministry."

Rev. Hyung Jin Moon, Rev. Moon's youngest son, is the new international
president of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (FFWPU) and
has been designated by his father as the person who will carry on his
religious work. Rev. In Jin Moon, the newly appointed chairperson of the FFWPU
in the United States, co-chaired the celebratory committee with her brother,
Dr. Hyun Jin Moon, who is Co-chairman of the Universal Peace Federation.

Reverend and Mrs. Moon share the same birth date, January 6th, according to
the lunar calendar. Both of them were born in small towns in what is today
North Korea, and Rev. Moon began his ministry in the North Korean capital,
Pyongyang, in 1946. He was arrested by communist authorities for preaching the
Gospel and sentenced to the notorious Heungnam concentration camp. The day
before he was due to be executed, UN forces led by American troops liberated
the prison, and he escaped to the southern port city of Busan, where he began
his ministry once again.

Rev. and Mrs. Moon were married in 1960 and now have 14 children and 46 grand-
and great-grandchildren. The family came to the United States in 1971, when he
began a national evangelical effort aimed at restoring traditional American
values. One special highlight came in 1976 when he spoke on "America and God's
Will" before a crowd of 300,000 at the Washington Monument.

In recent times Rev. and Mrs. Moon, their family and the many organizations
they have founded, have been focusing on an interreligious effort to renew the
United Nations and support interfaith dialogue in the Middle East. In a
congratulatory message read in New York at the birthday celebration, former UN
Secretary General Boutros Boutros Ghali saluted Rev. Moon for "ninety years of
rich achievement for the peace and welfare of all humanity bringing together
people of diverse racial, religious, ethnic, national and cultural
backgrounds."

Goodwill messages also were received from many US governors, senators and
congressmen, as well as more than 300 statesmen around the world. H.E. Raila
Odinga, Prime Minister of Kenya, said in a prepared statement that Rev. Moon's
principles of conflict resolution had helped him turn the corner in that
nation's recent conflict.

Reverend and Mrs. Moon are also working to create a culture of service to
address the UN Millennium Development Goals, and most importantly, to
strengthen marriages and families as a long-term solution to hunger, poverty
and racial strife. Later that day, Rev. and Mrs. Moon presided over what his
movement calls an "International Marriage Blessing." 270 couples from around
the world participated, most of whom were young adults who were the
second-generation members of Rev. Moon's own faith community. The marriage
blessing included 55 previously-married clergy and civic-leader couples from
more than 20 denominations and five world religions who joined in to renew
their vows, promising faithfulness and fidelity in marriage before God while
pledging to respect and appreciate all faiths as we recognize we are all
created by the same God.

In a short greeting, Rev. Moon offered thanks to God for having protected him
throughout his life and called for a moral and spiritual revival to bring a
new age of peace. "If we can come together as One Family Under God, our
Creator," he said, "all our other problems will be solved."

SOURCE Family Federation for World Peace & Unification

Rev. Michael Jenkins of Family Federation for World Peace & Unification,
+1-202-319-3200