5,000 Clergy at the World Christian Leadership Conference - 1st Anniversary Online Event
"God’s Providence is Profound and Mysterious”
/EIN News/ -- Washington, DC, Dec. 07, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Rally of Hope calls Christian Believers to Reconciliation, Collaboration
Only love and unity can heal humanity’s divisions, global clergy say
The World Christian Leadership Conference (WCLC) celebrated its first anniversary with a two-day virtual event. 5,000 clergy from around the world were urged to redouble their efforts to work closely together to address humanity’s most troubling problems.
Assembled for the first anniversary of the founding of WCLC were over 2,000 Christian pastors from the United States, 3,000 clerics from throughout the world. An internet audience of more than a million believers from over 170 nations, said Archbishop George A. Stallings, Jr., chairman of the Interreligious Association for Peace and Development. He was also master of ceremonies for the 90-minute final session of the Dec. 4-5 Rally of Hope and Convocation 2020.
“We know that when we pray together, God’s Will comes in,” said Dr. Luonne Rouse, co-chairman of the American Clergy Leadership Conference (ACLC), which organized the WCLC event with the Universal Peace Federation (UPF).
“2020 has been a year of tremendous changes … we understand the grief,” said Dr. Rouse. However, he said, “1 Thessalonians 5:17 reminds us to ‘pray without ceasing.’ So be assured, those of you around the world who are influencers and those of you who are followers, we are praying together.”
In a special address, WCLC Founder Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon said that, despite all obstacles, “God’s hope and humanity’s hope is to see a unified world… One Big Family under Heavenly Parent, a world of peace wherein all people live in unity as one family of humankind.”
“God’s Providence is profound and mysterious,” she said, and “through the emergence of the True Parents on earth… all people became siblings” and “there could no longer be countries ruling over others.”
The world’s Christian leadership, who love and revere God, Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit, now have the responsibility to “lead everyone to become Heavenly Parent’s children… and embrace and guide all people with one united heart,” said Dr. Moon, who is also known as the Mother of Peace.
In remarks directly to America, Dr. Moon said that the United States has been abundantly blessed by God and has a responsibility to fulfill before God — so it must not become a place of iniquity where God can “no longer dwell.”
“Everything that happened this year is a warning from God that there is no more time,” Dr. Moon said. “The United States must go back to its original founding spirit as it celebrates 400 years of history… Please forgive the American politicians and work together in oneness. Please remember that the only way for the United States to maintain its existence is through harmony and unity alone,” she said, noting that she and her late husband, Rev. Dr. Sun Myung Moon, were inspired by God to spend 40 years investing in the United States.
The theme of the two-day World Christian Leadership Conference Rally of Hope and Convocation was “Calling All Believers to Unite and Heal America: In a Time of Great Division, the People of God Must Take a Stand.” Some 2,000 U.S. clergy members and 3,000 clerics from around the world joined leaders of WCLC, ACLC and UPF at the online rally. They called for more interfaith collaboration to resolve problems in the family, society, environment and foreign relations. Their appeal included the reunification of North and South Korea.
Referring to the idea of taking a stand, Pastor T. L. Barrett, senior pastor of Life Center Church of God in Christ, recalled how on December 1, 1955, a Black woman, Rosa Parks, refused to give up her seat in the White section of a public bus. Her simple act of righteousness paved the way for Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., to champion the civil rights movement in the 1960s.
Pastor Paula White, Spiritual advisor to President Donald Trump emphasized that the clergy should call the Body of Christ to come together " to stand firm in God’s love" and to extend God's love to all nations. Quoting from II Chronicles 7:14 " if my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves and turn from their wicked ways, then will I hear from heaven and I will heal their land." She encouraged the pastors to repent and extend God's love to all nations saying, "As we repent, and we pray, and we fast, we know that God will heal our land."
Christian leaders should amplify Jesus’ truth “that we should love our enemies… Our calling to true love and peace transcends democracy, monarchy, oligarchy, socialism, communism and autocracy,” said Bishop Noel Jones, senior pastor of the City of Refuge in Los Angeles.
Bishop Don Meares, senior pastor at Evangel Cathedral, recalled Jesus’ words, “My peace, I give to you,” and urged believers to focus on God, be clear about their faith and forgive others as they build a future of “divine peace.”
“The Father’s message rings out loud and clear: ‘Love one another as I have loved you,’” said His Eminence Cardinal Kelvin Felix, Archbishop of Castries for the Catholic Church, who echoed the commandments to “care for each other and to forgive each other at any offense.”
The WCLC was launched as a “great initiative for world Christianity to work together and unite to advance the realization of a Heavenly Unified World, under the guidance of the Mother of Peace, Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon,” said Bishop Ki-hoon Kim, chairman of the WCLC Promotion Committee.
The family must be strengthened because “family is, undoubtably, the cornerstone to build a healthy society that cooperates well with Church and Nation,” said Archbishop Metropolitan Chrysostomos Celi of the Orthodox Church of the Patristic Calendar for Latin America.
“May the WCLC become a force to reckon with and may it be a platform by which spiritual leaders will forge closer cooperation and ties in addressing these critical issues of our times,” said Prophet Uzwi leZwe Radebe, founder of the Revelation Church of God, recently renamed The Revelation Spiritual Home.
There is renewed interest in a “spiritual culture” in both religious and civil society spheres, said Archpriest Vladimir Fedorov of the Russian Orthodox Church. The mission of the Church will be to “organize politics, culture and education in our society with the idea to help people develop their spiritual intelligence,” he said.
Music was provided by the Grammy Award-winning gospel artist and pastor, Bishop Hezekiah Walker and the 5,000-voice Peace Starts With Me Choir, along with a Joint Youth Choir singing “The Song of Unity.”
The WCLC was launched in December 2019 as part of an ecumenical conference and Rally for Peace held in the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey, with more than 1,000 Christian clergy and 20,000 laity in attendance.
For more information, please contact: Josh@yclc.info
https://wclc.org/
Attachments
Joshua Holmes
American Clergy Leadership Conference - World Christian Leadership Conference
(714) 398-9602
Josh@yclc.info
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