Our Terminology and Traditions

We are thrilled that you are interested in visiting our community.

When you come visit us, you will find that we have many new and different terms and traditions that you may not find at other churches or even other religions.

We have strong roots in the Bible, so you will find many of the same traditions that you would see at many Christian churches such as Bible stories in Sunday School and certain Christian hymns during our Sunday service. In addition, since we also have strong Asian roots in our faith, you will often see Calligraphies and other Asian texts in our building. We also have an altar dedicated to our founders at the front of our chapel, which is another very common Asian tradition.

Besides the Christian and camp songs that we often use, we also have our own selection of songs, known as Holy Songs, that resonate particularly well with our perspective of God. Some of these songs were written by Rev. Sun Myung Moon, our founder, as well as some of his early disciples.

Some of the "Holy Songs" that you may hear include:

• When I Behold the Lord
• Oh, My Little Lambs
• O, Light of Grace

You will also find that our prayers are unique. Although sometimes we will pray to "God" or "Heavenly Father", we generally pray to our "Heavenly Parent." This is to reinforce our understanding of God as being both masculine and feminine.

We also end our prayers with the Korean word, "Aju" instead of the "Amen" that one usually hears. The term Aju has a very special meaning to us because of our understanding of God. We understand that God is waiting eagerly for us to fulfill our promises and commitments. He will not do it for us. Aju means "becoming the owner" or "I am the owner", basically stating that whatever it was that I prayed for, I will take personal responsibility to make it happen.

You may also hear the term True Parents, True Father, or True Mother in our community. There is a spiritual or theological meaning behind these terms, but basically we use these terms to refer to our founders, Rev. Sun Myung Moon and his wife Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon. It is a term of affection and respect, similar to the ways that Catholics refer to their priest as their father.