700 Couples in marriage ceremony

WASHINGTON, April 27 (UPI) -- Archbishop George Stallings, a former Roman Catholic priest and founder of the breakaway African-American Congregation, his Japanese-born wife, Sayomi Kamimoto, and their week-old baby, were among 700 couples Saturday in a Marriage Blessing and Rededication ceremony of Clergy Couples at the Sheraton National Hotel in Arlington, Va.

The Unification Church service linked 144,000 couples in marriage worldwide by satellite and live Web cast.

Among those whose marriages were arranged by head of the Unification Church, the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, was the Rev. Dr. Charles Kenyatta, assistant pastor of the White Rock Baptist Church in Harlem, N.Y. Once special assistant to Malcolm X, Kenyatta received 36 bullet wounds when the former was assassinated.

Now 82, he first met his several decades younger Filipina wife 30 days ago.

"I am 50 years single, and I'm 82, and I know what's what," he announced.

The marriage of 18-year-old high-schooler Kendra Anderson to 20-year-old David Stein was arranged by their fathers, Virginia state legislator Mark Anderson and Dan Stein, vice president of U.S. Properties Development Corps.

"We decided they would be the best for each other," explained the groom's father, Dan Stein, "so we asked them to talk and meet and see how they would get along. We were amazed! The chemistry turned to fire. We've had a hard time keeping them apart," he joked.

Others, like Wanji and Gary Rowe who married in 1982, were reaffirming their vows. "It gets better and better," said Gary.

The occasion was handled with all the polish, precision, pomp and circumstance of a political convention. Church members crowding the hotel lobby directed wedding participants arriving in coach-loads to the correct will call ticket site with signs announcing "Pillars of Faith Church," "Portuguese Language Baptist Church," "First Jericho" and more.

Staff members with walkie-talkies maneuvered a surging crowd of brides and grooms into the vast ballroom outside which tables were set selling wedding and engagement rings and jewelry, and commemoration "God Bless Our Family" T-shirts.

Couples were given gold paper "blessing packets," each containing a bouquet of white flowers, a copy of the marriage vows, white commemoration scarves and registration forms for a honeymoon holiday in the Bahamas.

While white was the predominant color choice for the brides with black tie for the grooms, many of the couples opted for their brightly colored national costume, with one groom in a view-blocking feathered Native American headdress.

Inside the ballroom, hundreds of seats faced a stage set with two button-back carved armchairs and bouquets of flowers was surrounded by violet-lit gauze drapes. On one vast and one more modest screen, a video presentation brought words of encouragement and conviction from members of different faiths and communities around the world.

"We must take back our marriages from the divorce courts," the congregation was urged. "We must stand for marriage and heal the nation," Stallings told the camera.

The True Family Values Cherry Blossom Choir from Japan sang "America The Beautiful." Mighty Clouds of Joy added their song to the celebration.

The actual ceremony began with a rehearsal of the four marriage vows. Then the congregation saluted the global audience with a loud "Hello to the world, we love you and bless your family!"

The former prime minister of Guyana, Hamilton Green, rose to the podium with the hope that "Every nation ought to be morally and spiritually secure," before representatives of 12 different faiths added marriage blessings in their own languages, some in song, some accompanied by rattles.

Next a procession of men and women "attendants" in white Korean-patterned silk robes entered the ballroom.

And at last, came the long-anticipated entrance of the head of the Unification Church.

The audience rose in applause as Moon and his wife, behind 12 senior clergy couples including the purple-robed Stallings, moved slowly down the aisle toward the stage to a recording of the Hallelujah Chorus.

Several of the bridal couples leaned with cameras to capture Moon in black tie and tails and his wife in an elegant white silk floor-length tailored suit and diamond collar necklace, each decorated with purple orchid corsages.

Following a Report to Heaven delivered first in Korean then in English by the Rev. Chung Il Kwak, Father Moon and Mother Moon, as they were introduced, together read out in Korean each wedding vow to vigorous responses and applause.

Then, facing his wife and with each couple facing each other, Moon gave the invocation.

In a voice at times emphatic, at times almost in song, and sometimes hard to hear, his more-than-five-minute-long speech brought tears to the eyes of those who could understand Korean.

Finally, with three loud and lingering "Amens" and the exchange of rings, 144,000 couples worldwide were joined in marriage.

UPI is owned by News World Communications Inc., a media company founded by Moon.