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 the "True Family", who apparently accepted the "Black Heung Jin Nim" as a temporary union of the spirit of Heung Jin Moon with the mind and body of Kundioni. Sun Myung Moon authorized the Black Heung Jin to travel the world, preaching and hearing the confessions of Unification Church members who had gone astray." Kundioni came under criticism by both members and outsiders for his violence and harsh methods, including a beating that resulted in the hospitalization of church leader Bo Hi Pak. Church members do not believe that the severe violence was committed by the spirit of Heung Jin