First Interdenominational Conference for Clergy (ICC) Visit to Korea

Prior to his release from Danbury Federal Correctional Institute, True Father asked American members to focus on educating 70,000 ministers, and on that foundation to send 7,000 ministers to Korea. This request led to the creation of the CAUSA Ministerial Alliance, the 300,000-videotape project, and, beginning in April 1985, the Interdenominational Conference for Clergy (ICC) seminars.

Under the theme “Rev. Moon and Korea in the Providence of God,” 64 ministers from 21 denominations attended the first “advanced seminar on Unificationism” from April 10 to 19, 1985. From 1985 to 1988, the U.S. Unification Church sponsored 38 ICC seminars for 7,069 American clergy and religious leaders who traveled to Korea and usually Japan.

The “meaning of the 7,000” was connected to the time of Elijah, when throughout Israel God prepared 7,000 people who had never bowed down to Baal (I Kings 19:18). The visits preceded significant breakthroughs in Korean society, including the 1988 Seoul Olympics and eventually True Parents’ meeting with North Korean President Kim Il Sung in 1991.