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 earth in the body of a Zimbabwean member. The African was accepted by Sun Myung Moon and church officials as Heung Jin Moon's continuous channel - a "twenty-four hour" a day "embodiment" - and became known as "the Black Heung Jin Nim." With Sun Myung Moon's approval he toured the world visiting Unification churches in a number of countries over several months, accompanied by church leaders and security guards. As channel for "Lord Heung Jin Nim" he was in a position of authority above that of all members, including top leaders apart from his parents Sun Myung Moon and Hak