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
Sun Myung Moon drew young acolytes who helped to build the foundations of church affiliated business and cultural organizations. At his new church, he preached a conservative, family-oriented value system and his interpretation of the Bible. On 8 January 1957, Moon and Choi divorced. Moon has said that when he was fifteen years old Jesus anointed him to carry out his unfinished work by becoming parent to all of humanity. The "Divine Principle" or "Exposition of the Divine Principle" (Korean 원리강론/原理講論, translit. "wonli ganglon") is the main theological textbook of the Unification movement. It was co-written by Moon and early disciple Hyo Won