A Musical Tribute to a Filial Son, Hyo Jin Moon

This was the seventh year that FFWPU in Korea held a music festival in remembrance of True Parents’ oldest son, Hyo Jin nim (1962–2008) featuring music he had composed and played.

In commemoration of the second anniversary of Cheon Il Guk Foundation Day, we held the Moon Hyo Jin Music Festival to re-illuminate the filial life of Hyo Jin nim, to whom True Parents gave the posthumous title, “the lord who will open a gate into the heavenly kingdom, as a son of loyalty and filial piety in the garden that opens the way to the deep, wide and high realms of heaven.” We held the event, which attracted an audience of around 1,200 people, in the Cheon Bok Gung Church Grand Chapel on Saturday, March 21, beginning at 4:00 PM. The festival was webcast live.

The creative output of a devoted son Moon Hyo Jin was born on December 29, 1962 (12.3 on the lunar calendar) as the first son of the True Family and served as the first president of CARP International. From 1990, he produced perhaps ten documentaries including one called, “The Portrait of Jesus.” He also analyzed the cause of religious, familial and societal problems, and developed and conducted a social education program that proposed an alternative solution to them.

He wrote and composed songs that reflected his deep heart toward our Heavenly Parent and True Parents. He released about seventeen albums.

By 2002, he had completed recording around ten thousand songs in diverse genres that he had written and played himself. To remember the noble intentions of Moon Hyo Jin in trying to create a filial culture of heart through music and the arts, we began holding the Moon Hyo Jin Music Festival annually in 2009, a year after he had passed away.

Prof. Yeon Ah Moon, Hyo Jin nim’s widow and the president of the Women Federation for World Peace International, gave words of encouragement, saying, “As brothers and sisters, the root that brings us together as a family is God.” After emphasizing this, she said, “This music festival is being held to remember Moon Hyo Jin, who dedicated his entire life in response to True Parents’ views that we need a culture of the heart that remains unchanging from an emotional perspective and one that can change the artistic culture that has been negatively affecting teenagers…. I sincerely hope you can all remember Hyo Jin nim’s noble life and become determined to lead lives of filial piety.”

Rev. Kyeong Seuk Lu gave a congratulatory address in which he said, “Hyo Jin Moon is the big brother of all members in the Unification Family.

With a filial heart for True Parents, he personally wrote and composed ten thousand songs that expressed their noble true love and their lives’ work for the liberation of God and the salvation of humanity…. The lyrical, musical and cultural legacy that Hyo Jin nim left contain his strong intentions and his passion in creating a culture of heart within our unification family. I sincerely hope that you can inherit Hyo Jin

nim’s precious life tradition through this music festival and become young leaders who can let the world know of True Parents’ achievements in pursuit of peace.”

In his representative report prayer, Sang Pil Moon, president of CARP-Korea read the prayer that Hyo Jin nim gave at the end of a forty-day all-night vigil condition during True Father’s incarceration at Danbury. In this prayer, Hyo Jin nim testified that True Parents are the coming saviors. The filial heart conveyed through this prayer moved the hearts of many in the grand hall.

The first part of the music festival began with the song, “Love Arirang,” a rendition of a famous Korean song, which the Korean Seonhak Children’s Choir sang beautifully. True Mother founded this choir on her seventieth birthday. A praise team called Godcha, consisting of CARP university students and other students from Seoul then gave a performance by a new trot singer called Kang Su Bin and performances by the rock band Rebirth, which came together for the first time in 1993 under the influence of Hyo Jin nim’s music activities.

Rebirth’s aim is to expand and teach others about the culture of heart and to restore culture. Rebirth performed two songs, “We Know the Way” and “The Song of a Beetle,” which Hyo Jin nim had written wrote and composed. These songs brought the atmosphere in the hall to a climax.

The second part of the performance began with watching a specially made video titled, “A World of the Culture of Heart and Multi-Media.” The documentary, which covered Hyo Jin nim’s life and his vision for creating a world of the heart through the production and distribution of cultural material, greatly moved those attending.

A professional dance team called Respect, which specializes in K-pop choreography, gave a performance in rhythm to Hyo Jin nim’s songs “My life” and “The Song of Rain.” Following it, a band called Eternal Flame, made up of members who graduated from the Sun Moon University rock band Rebirth, sang some of Moon Hyo Jin’s title songs, “Love You Forever Like the Spring Rain,” “Honey,” “I love you” and other songs. Also, contemporary jazz guitarist Hata Shuji performed. In the end, the Hyo Jin Moon Band made up of the key members that went on concert tours with Hyo Jin nim from 2003 to 2007 in Korea and Japan performed. A highlight of the evening was when Shin Yuh Moon nim and Shin Heung Moon nim each sang a song of their father’s, garnering a great response from the audience.