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
Heung Jin Moon later, February 20, 1984. Pak, who now uses the name Julia Moon, said: "I will never forget in my whole life and for eternity this great honor of being Heung Jin Nim's bride, which I do not deserve". The Unification Church teaches that Heung Jin Moon's death had cosmic significance, and that he is now in a position in heaven higher than Jesus. Sun Myung Moon explained that his son's death was a great victory as it saved his own life; that his assassination by leftist terrorists was foiled on the same day as the accident, "that his son's loss