Patrick Hickey (politician) had only recently been founded. Hickey worked in the Unification Church as a state leader and regional spokesperson. In 1978 he was matched with his wife, Shin Myung-hee of South Korea, by church founder Sun Myung Moon. They were married in 1982 in a Blessing ceremony of the Unification Church, held in Madison Square Garden in New York City, along with over 2000 other couples. They now have four grown children. Hickey moved to Nevada in the 1990s and worked as a reporter as well as founding a house painting company. In 1996 he was elected to the Nevada State
Unification Church of the United States faith backgrounds were given the marriage blessing previously given only to HSA-UWC members. In 2009 Sun Myung Moon's daughter In Jin Moon became president of the FFWPU of the United States. She worked to modernise FFWPU's worship style in an effort to involve younger members. In 2014 FFWPU sponsored a 43-day bus tour of the United States for its members which included visits to each of Moon's original holy grounds. In 2015 it opened a conference center in Las Vegas, Nevada. In 2016 a study sponsored by the Unification Theological Seminary found that American FFWPU members were divided in their