What's the Big Deal about Fishing?
Updated: Nov 5, 2021
Importance and Urgency of Ocean Training
Even after True Father's Holy Ascension, the world is still troubled by sexual immorality represented by the LGBT movement, violence and conflicts, materialism, and even communism. How were world peace and world unity supposed to occur based on True Father’s plans?
This article is the first part of the 2-part series of lectures called "Guideposts to World Unification and Peace" examining what True Father planned to complete the world of peace from the perspective of Ocean Providence.
Ocean Hobby Seminar Team
What was the Purpose of Fishing & Ocean Training?
Why did True Father train us so fiercely on the ocean, even at the cost of sacrificing His own family, using up the precious and irreplaceable time of His earthly life as the parents of all humankind?
True Father engaged in ocean training for members everywhere He went, in North America, South America, Korea, and others. The leaders of the Unification Movement all had to go through ocean training. He required all graduates from the Unification Theological Seminary in Barrytown to undergo Ocean Church training (photo showing True Father teaching UTS students how to weave a fishing net). He repeatedly held intense fishing training workshops around the globe, such as tuna fishing in Boston, fishing in Kodiak, Alaska, and others. He even made fishing in Pantanal a condition to participate in the dedication ceremony for the Cheon Jeon Goon in Cheongpyeong. Until He ascended to the spirit world in 2012, He continued to hold the Ocean Leadership Workshops in Yeosu, Korea - some 68 times in total - for Japanese women.
Why did True Father, the Second Coming whom mankind has been waiting for, go so far as to spend such immeasurable and precious time on boats, relentlessly taking all of us out to fishing to train us?
(Photo below: Yamok, Korea in 1967)
To summarize True Father's words regarding "ocean training," through various fishing and boat maneuvering training, He aimed to (1) train youths physically and mentally to become leaders in the Ocean Era, (2) establish marine businesses, (3) take the leadership of the world, (4) solve the problems of world hunger, which is the manifestation of poverty and inequality in the world, and (5) build a substantial Kingdom of Heaven on Earth.
It is very clear that He had all of these extensive goals if we only examine His words. He showed us His seriousness and its urgency through His own actions, investing in the ocean, and going out fishing relentlessly. In order to achieve all these goals, He had to train His leaders through ocean training. He even went as far as to say that the base qualification to become a leader is knowledge and ability on the sea.
Once a person receives intense training to become a fisherman, he can go anywhere in the world and become a leader of people. Learning to be a fisherman is good leadership training. (As a Peace-Loving Global Citizen, Ch. 7 pg. 305)
The ocean has everything to do with the future. Don't you know that? You have to become interested in the ocean or otherwise you will just disappear into history. In the future, the qualification for leadership will be to know about the ocean. The basic knowledge will be how to handle a boat. To know about the ocean and to be able to go upon it will become the two basic qualifications for leadership in the future. (God’s Will and the Ocean, Ch.3 Ocean Church and America)
Also, the purpose of ocean training given through Ocean Church and Ocean Challenge was not just to train one’s mind and body. He repeatedly professed that these trained members shall engage in global oceanic businesses, and this will lead to a solution for the problem of world hunger, which was his goal.
I created something that did not exist in the US by sending out people to pioneer Ocean Church. I created Ocean Churches in 30 of the most important seacoast locations in America. We can pursue seafood business, but we can also enter the charter-boat fishing business. This is the foundation for the global recreational fishing business I will create in the future. I trained people and built Ocean Church as an enterprise that gives tours to people who enjoy fishing as a hobby. (Chambumo Gyeong, Book 10, 186-306, 1989/02/06)
I saw that the key to future food problems lies in the ocean and have endeavored to develop a wide range of oceanic businesses from nothing. I spent more time in the ocean than anyone else, thinking on the ocean, praying on the ocean, and struggled on the ocean. How much time and effort did I invest? You cannot imagine it. How valuable it is, considering that catching a single fish leads to restoring several people? One time in the middle of the night, I went out to the sea and I proclaimed the ownership of the oceans, saying, "I am doing this to lay a strong foundation for oceanic businesses for the sake of future humanity." God said to me at the time, "You are right." (The Unification Church and The Land and The Sea, June1, 1991)
The Ocean is the "Shortcut to World Unification"
In His autobiography, True Father said that after traveling around the world, He felt that the most pressing issue in the world is the hunger problem (As a Peace-loving Global Citizen, Ch. 7). It can be said that it is logical to build oceanic businesses to secure more food sources to ultimately solve the hunger problem, but if we further examine His words, we can see that there was even a grander goal such as "uniting the world" and "going beyond communism."
Presently, the world is plagued by religiously motivated terrorism, uncontrolled environmental destruction, violence, and conflicts. Even within the Christian cultural sphere, people still suffer from poverty and hunger. Problems common to all humankind are unlikely to end with the shackles such as atheism and nationalism. True Father, who tried to unify such a world, positioned the ocean businesses as a "shortcut" to world unification.
We have to make this foundation for the entire world. This is the fastest way to bring people and nations together. I am always thinking how this can be done and that is why I am making a foundation on the ocean. When we make this foundation, our direction towards the future will be straight. (God’s Will and the Ocean, Ch.11)
In the future, through my leading role in the recreation industry, I will create a global organization that will bring together people from all walks of life, including those in the financial field, based on their shared love of recreational activities. I believe this will be a shortcut to guiding all people toward a world of peace. That is why for several decades I have been researching, planning and pioneering all sorts of ocean-related businesses. (Chambumo Gyeong, Book 10 252-210, 1993/12/30)
The oceans can become a central point for bringing the world together. (As a Peace-loving Global Citizen, Ch. 7, pg. 305)
We must further examine True Father’s Words to understand why ocean is the shortcut or the fastest way to unification, but we know from a few of His Words that true unification will not occur without the world becoming equalized, as water naturally flows to become level. It is difficult for a rich child and a starving child to become united. By solving the problem of hunger - the most acute manifestation of human inequality - the unification of the world becomes finally possible.
In order to build a united world, we should not be content to eat good food and live a good life in beautiful places. We should want to bring equalization so that all humankind can live at an equal level. (Chambumo Gyeong, Book 10, Ch1. Sec.2)
Human beings are cr