New Blessing Interview Training Webinar

The webinar will be held on March 25 and 29.

We had over 100 couples participate in the Blessing this year from North America! This could not have been possible without your support and investment. Thank you for all you do to help our members prepare for the Blessing, and the support you provide after they are Blessed.

One of the important components of Blessing preparation is the Blessing Interview (formerly known as Purity Interview). Until now, District Pastors have been responsible to oversee Blessing Interviews. Many District Pastors designated representatives to conduct these interviews on their behalf. From now on, the responsibility for overseeing the Blessing Interview will transition to the local pastor. To facilitate this transition process and help you be more effective as a Blessing Interviewer, the Blessing & Family Ministry (BFM) team has developed a short Blessing Interview Manual and has updated the Blessing Interview Form. We are also offering a Blessing Interview Training Webinar.

We are not expecting you to conduct all the interviews in your community yourself. In fact, we recommend that you designate several people in your community who can conduct interviews. It is best if there are a number of people in each local area trained to conduct Blessing Interviews, so that an applicant can choose an interviewer of the same gender and someone they can trust.

The purpose of the Blessing Interview is to give each person the opportunity to report about their past mistakes honestly to God and True Parents as a condition to receive forgiveness from our Heavenly Parent and receive the Blessing. The role of the interviewer is to be a representative of God and True Parents, receiving the confession on their behalf. Interviewers have the opportunity to help each person experience liberation and freedom from guilt from any past mistakes.

Because these Blessing Interviews are such an important part of Blessing preparation, we would like all pastors to attend one of the two Blessing Interview Training Webinars being offered, even if you will not be conducting Blessing Interviews yourself, in order to understand the process. Additionally, please invite those who have been trusted to do interviews in the past, and others whom you feel could make good interviewers, to attend one of these trainings. When considering potential interviewers look for members of your community who are Blessed, listen well, and can be trusted to maintain confidentiality.

From April 1, 2014, we would like each church community to have at least two trained Blessing Interviewers, one of each gender, who can be available to any applicant in their community seeking an appointment for an interview (small communities may choose to share responsibilities for conducting interviews with other communities). To be considered a trained Blessing Interviewer, one must read the manual and participate in a training webinar. Additionally, those who are not pastors will need to submit a letter of recommendation from their local pastor, in order to be certified as a Blessing Interviewer.

The Blessing Interview Training webinar will be held on two different occasions:

Tuesday, March 25th, 9:00 - 10:30 pm EST

Saturday, March 29th, 11:00 am - 12:30 pm EST

You can register for one of these at online. When you register, we will send you the Blessing Interview Manual to read in preparation for the webinar training.

Register Online

During the training webinar, participants will receive guidance from BFM staff, Debby Gullery and Marjorie Buessing, about how to conduct a Blessing Interview. Debby and Marjorie will go through the new Blessing Interview Manual and elaborate on key concepts and important areas for consideration when conducting a Blessing Interview. They will also cover how to address challenging situations that may arise during an interview. There will also be time for Q&A.

Thank you for helping to support our members in their journey to the Blessing!

Dr. Michael Balcomb President

Crescentia DeGoede Director, Blessing & Family Ministry