 More than 40,000 people from around the world were recently involved in the biggest mass wedding in over a decade. Brides in white dresses and Japanese kimonos joined grooms in black suits and red ties to exchange wedding rings. The mass wedding was the largest "blessing ceremony” held by the Unification Church since 1999. 89-year-old Reverend Sun Myung Moon, the controversial founder of the church, oversaw the ceremony. His followers are known as Moonies. Most of the couples receiving blessing were marrying for the first time, but many were renewing their vows. The reverend also blessed 10,000 couples from Sweden to Brazil, who were taking part in ceremonies around the world. The massive world-wide ceremony was meant to celebrate two key anniversaries in the leader's life: his 90th birthday and his 50th wedding anniversary. Sun Myung Moon is getting ready to hand everyday leadership of the church over to his children. Dressed in a sharp black suit, Rev. Moon sprinkled holy water over the couple before they exchanged rings. “It's the realization of a dream I've had for so long. Taking part in a mass wedding only adds to the profoundness — I barely have the words to describe what I feel,” said Laudicea Corina de Padua in Brazil. “Marrying in this way, with so many other people around the world, will give more strength to our union, it feels like they are all a part of us,” her husband said. Many opponents of the church claim that it engages in cult-like practices. They argue that the mass weddings prove that it brainwashes its followers, since most members let Moon pick their spouses, and that couples meet for the first time at the mass weddings. Moon, a self-proclaimed messiah, says Christ called to him when he was just 15-years-old to finish his work. “My wish is to completely tear down barriers and to create a world in which everyone becomes one,” said Moon in his autobiography.
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