It was almost 8:00 pm and I was cleaning the kitchen after making a sumptuous dinner for my billionaire female boss, at her summer home. I came a few hours earlier to prepare it, and did some chores. The security person on duty for the night came in and looked me straight in the eye with a pensive look. “Is this your last day?” With a serious yet naughty look, I said, “Yes it is.” And then he hugged me. Four years ago, I began employment as a caregiver to one of the richest men in America At that time, my job was easy because I only requested to work part-time, on weekends. My task...

New York City – In this digital age, media must consciously carry out their responsibility “to deliver truthful and transformative news and to speak truth to power” and veer away from political propaganda and fake news. Three interfaith theologians and a lawyer stressed this necessity during the media-UTS conversation sponsored by the Interfaith Youth Dinner Dialogue (IYDD) on December 3.  A vibrant and deep dialogue on truth and interfaith took place in the Oak Room of the Unification Theological Seminary (UTS) that meant to put some sense in today’s noisy, oftentimes blurry...

The Journal of Unification Studies is a forum for committed engagement with Unification theology and practice, published annually by the Unification Theological Seminary. Its articles address concerns of the theological community and the professional ministry, as well as contemporary social, cultural, political, scientific and economic issues, from a Unificationist perspective. In addition, the Journal promotes dialogue and understanding by presenting papers from diverse viewpoints that engage Unification theology and practice. In April, 2018 Dr. Ronald Brown presented a paper at...

Two more meetings and the semester is over. Taking up inter-faith subjects at a theological seminary is like jumping into an ocean. You just don’t know what to expect until you swim in it.  The World Religions and Global Conflict class is one I look forward to every week, because of the diversity in the study of religious clashes. Additionally, my classmates come from different religious backgrounds, and that makes it more interesting when we engage in the various numerous subjects. Since we deal with religious conflict, Yael, an Israeli Jew, discusses the issue about Palestine and...

UTS introduced distance education in the late 1990s, through correspondence courses and dial-in telephone calls.  Embracing new technology, UTS education can now be accessed easily by students worldwide; the UTS-Online program, launched in October 2017, brings the UTS mission of “bridging religious and cultural divides” to a global audience. UTS uses the Canvas learning management platform: “Canvas is the best educational learning management system on the market today” (PCMagazine. January, 2018) Students don’t have to relocate to obtain the education...

I wasn’t always an author, or even an editor, but I was always some kind of academic. With parents who were teachers, my mother a music teacher and my father a psychology professor, that’s not really surprising. But my interest initially was in science, so the only writing I did and was trained to do was writing research reports and papers. Actually, that was good training for most writing, even fiction since the results of my experiments often didn’t match what was supposed to happen! My writing career began while I was working at the Unification Theological Seminary (UTS) in...

The Journal of Unification Studies is a forum for committed engagement with Unification theology and practice, published annually by the Unification Theological Seminary. Its articles address concerns of the theological community and the professional ministry, as well as contemporary social, cultural, political, scientific and economic issues, from a Unificationist perspective. In addition, the Journal promotes dialogue and understanding by presenting papers from diverse viewpoints that engage Unification theology and practice. In his article, Korean Re-Unification:...

Gratitude A sense of gratitude and indebtedness to others is an important wellspring of a generous and virtuous life. All people can recognize that they are indebted to their parents, who gave them birth and raised them at considerable sacrifice. But our indebtedness extends much further than that. Fundamentally, we are indebted to God our Creator and the powers of nature that nourish and sustain our life. Then, since the food we eat travels from the soil to our dining table by passing through many hands–that cultivate, harvest, clean, package, transport, sell, and prepare...

Four women representing the town government, clergy, family services, education and Carol Pobanz (UTS’80) representing Universal Peace Federation “peace projects” met almost weekly, developing the initial plan and preparing the application to be recognized as an International City of Peace (ICP). Carol was asked to create the initial proposal, then the women worked collaboratively to generate the final document outlining the vision, purpose, mission and goals. For Carol this has been a godsend; Nutley is her hometown. The “ladies team” was delighted to receive the following note on...