Moonie messiah's grand departure

The Rev Sun Myung Moon went out in the style to which he was accustomed

Tens of thousands of mourners sobbed, sang, prayed and vowed to cherish the Rev Sun Myung Moon's teachings yesterday as they said goodbye to their self-proclaimed messiah, whose death earlier this month once again turned the spotlight on his controversial religious and business empire.

Moon, founder of the Unification Church, best known for conducting mass weddings meant to build a harmonious, multicultural world, died earlier this month aged 92. He was a friend to US presidents and leaders of North Korea. His church has been accused of brainwashing recruits and duping them out of money, but followers believe Moon's claim that he was put on earth to complete Jesus Christ's works.

His funeral, which followed a 13-day mourning period, was held in Gapyeong County, 60km north-east of Seoul, where he spent his last days at a church-affiliated hospital. About 35,000 people – men clad in black suits and women in white dresses – attended the service, which lasted more than two hours.

It began when a guard of honour carried Moon's coffin into the auditorium of the Cheongshim Peace World Centre. It was carried slowly up red-carpeted steps decked with flowers and placed in front of a large portrait of Moon.

Many mourners wept as a senior church official said in a speech that Moon was moving into a spiritual world after completing the messianic role that God had asked of him. "God, why ... why did you call back our True Father so hurriedly?" intoned Bo Hi Pak, chairman of the Unification Church-supported Korean Cultural Foundation, an unusual sentiment to apply to a 92-year-old.

Family members, senior church officials and prominent politicians placed flowers at an altar. Thousands of church members filled the grounds of the centre, watching the funeral on giant TV screens. After, a flower-decorated van-hearse drove through streets lined with people waving flags. Moon's body was buried on a nearby mountain.

About 180,000 people visited Gapyeong during the mourning period before the funeral, according to church officials. An estimated seven million people paid homage at mourning sites around the world, they said. The Unification Church claims to have three million followers globally, though critics say the figure is no more than 100,000.

After founding the church in Seoul in 1954, Moon quickly found followers willing to support his conservative, family-oriented value systems and unusual interpretation of the Bible. Moon conducted his first mass wedding in Seoul in the early 1960s.

A staunch anti-communist, he maintained good relations with North Korea after visiting the country in 1991 and meeting leader Kim Il Sung, the country's founder and grandfather of the current leader, Kim Jong Un. Moon urged Kim to abandon his nuclear ambitions and the two also discussed a joint tourism project in the North, according to Moon's biography. Moon sent a condolence delegation when Kim Il Sung died in 1994 despite conservative criticism at home. Moon's church also sent a delegation to Pyongyang when Kim Jong Il died late last year. Kim Jong Un sent a condolence message after Moon's death.

Moon also developed good relations with conservative American leaders, including former presidents Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and George H W Bush. This was despite serving 13 months in a US federal prison in the mid-1980s over tax charges.

In the years before his death, Moon handed over key responsibilities of his empire to his children, with his youngest son appointed the church's top religious director in 2008 and another son in charge of business operations in South Korea and Japan.

"We all thankfully accepted our spouses (given to us by Moon) .... We thought it was a blessing," said Kim Yeung-mo, a 78-year-old former Unification Church pastor who was paired off with his wife in a 1962 mass wedding presided over by Moon. "We have lived together happily." (AP)