The Welsh connection: Pentecostalism and the unification church

Abstract

One might have thought that of all the mainstream Christian denominations, the Pentecostalists would have been one of the most condemnatory of the Unification Church. Their belief in the inerrancy of scripture is incompatible with the many 'symbolic' interpretations given by the UC; their stress on the importance of the Lord's Supper is an obvious point of divergence from a movement which deliberately refrains from celebrating the eucharist the expectation that Christ will return on the clouds of heaven again stands in marked contrast with the UCs insistence that the Lord of the Second Advent usually identified with Sun Myung Moon, is a human figure bom of human parents. It is the purpose of this article, first to examine a chapter in the early history of Unificationism, where one Pentecostalist denomination, the Apostolic Church (founded in Wales in 1904-05) was sufficiently impressed with Unificationismat least initiallyto send out a missionary with a view to possible mutual co-operation. Second, I shall draw some conclusions about the features of Pentecostalism which make it somewhat more drawn towards Unificationism than other mainstream denominations. The story of Unificationism's encounters with the Apostolic Church began in 1956 when Mr David Kim (now President of the Unification Theological Seminary in Barrytown, New York), came from Korea to South Wales to study at the University of Swansea. Kim went to its services at Penygroes, Llanelli, and was befriended by a very welcoming congregation. At the International Conventions of Apostolic Churches at Penygroes in 1955 Kim told them that his church in Korea was very similar to theirs, and that they needed help in propagating the Christian message there. This request for help was relayed to the Australian headquarters of the Apostolic Church, who were responsible for mission in South-East Asia. They sent out Pastor Joshua McCabe, who spent some eighty days there, in which he met early leaders, such as Miss Young Oon Kim, Hyo Won Eu (the Second President, and author of the 1973 version of Divine Principle). and Sun Myung Moon himself. On these facts both the UC and the AC are agreed, although the AC wishes to make it clear that it now has no associations with Unificationism, and dissociates itself from its teachings and practices. On other significant details, however, there is disagreement. There exist accounts of McCabe's visit by each of the parties. David Kim has related his version in a testimony given to UC members in May 1984. He has also provided me with transcripts of Pastor McCabe, both delivered in early September 1956. The Apostolic Church's version can be found in a report from Pastor McCabe, written from Korea, and published in the Apostolic Herald in November of the same year. Pastor McCabe has also been obliging enough to furnish me with further details and reflections in personal correspondence. Kim states that in Korea McCabe even helped Miss Kim with the English translation of the Divine Principle (presumably the one which became the 1962 version), and indeed appeared to accept most of its teachings: