Blessing ceremony of the Unification Church
The Holy Marriage Blessing Ceremony (축복결혼식), often abbreviated to Blessing, is a large-scale wedding, or a marriage rededication ceremony, sponsored by the Unification Church. It is given to married or engaged couples. Through it, members of the Unification Church believe that the couple is removed from the lineage of sinful humanity and engrafted into God's sinless lineage. As a result, the couple's marital relationship—and any children born after the Blessing—exist free from the consequences of original sin.
Sun Myung Moon and his wife Hak Ja Han preside over a mass blessing ceremony.
The Unification Church (Korean: 통일교) is a new religious movement, derived from Christianity, whose members are called Unificationists or sometimes informally Moonies. Sun Myung Moon (1920–2012) began gaining followers after the Second World War. On 1 May 1954 in Seoul, South Korea, Moon formally founded the Holy Spirit Association for the Unification of World Christianity (HSA-UWC), the Unification Church's full name until 1994, when it was officially changed to the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification. It has a presence in approximately 100 countries around the world. Its leaders are Moon and his wife Hak Ja Han, whom their followers honor with the title "True Parents".
Official emblem
Sun Myung Moon and Hak Ja Han, founders of the Unification Church
First Blessing ceremony mass wedding outside of Korea, Madison Square Garden, New York City, 1 July 1982.