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
Family Peace Association on reuniting families divided between North and South. The Family Federation for World Peace and Unification was established in 1994 by Sun Myung Moon. Sun Myung Moon stated at the founding of the FFWPU that he never intended to create a new religion, but to open an age after religion where families would serve as the core of spiritual and character growth. Sun Myung Moon has even stated that the HSA-UWC, the predecessor to FFWPU which he established in 1954, was meant to foster ecumenical cooperation among Christian sects to promote families with deep spirituality and a commitment to serving