The Global Peace Foundation (GPF), originally called the Global Peace Festival and then the Global Peace Festival Foundation, is an international non-profit organization intended to promote world peace and cooperation under the motto “One Family under God.” Hyun Jin Moon, who is a son of the Unification Church's founder, Sun Myung Moon, is the founder of GPF, begun in 2007. In 2008 peace festivals sponsored by the GPF were held in North America, Central and South America, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia, and Oceania. Its London 2008 festival was organized by the Universal Peace Federation, which was founded by Sun Myung Moon. Ida Odinga, the wife of Kenya’s Prime Minister, spoke at the festival in London that year and praised an earlier festival held in her country.
A November 2008 festival in Roxas City in the Philippines was criticized by the Catholic Church but supported by local business people. The president of Taiwan Ma Ying-jeou spoke at the festival which was held in Taipei October 31, 2009. He addressed the importance of freedom, democracy and peace; and said that his government was a "peace maker."
A Global Peace Convention, sponsored by the GPF, was held in November, 2010 in Kenya. Among the speakers was Kenya's president, Mwai Kibaki. The South Asia Regional Level Global Peace Festival was held in Nepal from 30 September to 2 October 2010. In 2012 the GPF held its annual convention in Atlanta, Georgia.
The GPF theme song, "Where Peace Begins," was written by Trina Belamide of the Philippines.
Famous quotes containing the words global, peace and/or festival:
“However global I strove to become in my thinking over the past twenty years, my sons kept me rooted to an utterly pedestrian view, intimately involved with the most inspiring and fractious passages in human development. However unconsciously by now, motherhood informs every thought I have, influencing everything I do. More than any other part of my life, being a mother taught me what it means to be human.”
—Mary Kay Blakely (20th century)
“Today we seek a moral basis for peace.... It cannot be a lasting peace if the fruit of it is oppression, or starvation, cruelty, or human life dominated by armed camps. It cannot be a sound peace if small nations must live in fear of powerful neighbors. It cannot be a moral peace if freedom from invasion is sold for tribute.”
—Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882–1945)
“Three times a year all your males shall appear before the LORD your God at the place that he will choose: at the festival of unleavened bread, at the festival of weeks, and at the festival of booths. They shall not appear before the LORD empty-handed; all shall give as they are able, according to the blessing of the LORD your God that he has given you.”
—Bible: Hebrew, Deuteronomy 16:16,17.