Blessing ceremony of the Unification Church was first held in 1961 for 36 couples in Seoul, South Korea by Sun Myung Moon and his wife Hak Ja Han, shortly after their own marriage in 1960. All the couples were members of the Unification Church. Moon matched all of the couples except the 12 who were already married to each other from before joining the church, which was officially founded in 1954. Later Blessing ceremonies were larger in scale but followed the same pattern with all participants Unification Church members and Moon matching most of the couples. In 1982 the first large scale Blessing held outside of
Unification movement participation in world affairs independent of the People's Republic of China. Taiwan's president, Ma Ying-jeou, spoke at the event. The WFWP has also been active in sponsoring various local charity and community events. "Service For Peace (SFP)" is a non-profit organization, founded in 2002 by the Unification Church leader Sun Myung Moon, to give opportunities to young people who wish to better themselves and their communities. As of April 2007, the organization had established chapters in North America, Central America, Caribbean, Europe, Asia, Africa and Oceania. SFP is active in communities and statewide. Colleges have recruited Service for Peace Campus