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  • World Interfaith Harmony Week 2024

    Each year in the first week of February, the United Nations calls on individuals and organisations around the world to hold events that encourage interfaith dialogue and promote the harmony that is the foundation of lasting peace. On Saturday 3 February 2024, UPF New Zealand answered that call at the Peace Embassy, 24 St Stephens Avenue, Parnell — gathering more than 20 Ambassadors for Peace, friends, and members of the faith community for the annual World Interfaith Harmony Week celebration.

    The notice for the event had been short. Yet more than 20 people came — a testament to the relationships UPF New Zealand has built across Auckland’s diverse faith communities over many years of patient, persistent work.

    The Spirit of the Week

    World Interfaith Harmony Week, observed annually since its establishment by the United Nations General Assembly in 2010, is grounded in a simple but profound conviction: that the world’s religions, despite their differences in doctrine, practice, and culture, share a common commitment to goodness, compassion, and human dignity. In Aotearoa — a nation shaped by te Tiriti o Waitangi, by Pacific migration, and by waves of immigration from Asia, the Middle East, and beyond — this week is a natural fit for the values that UPF New Zealand seeks to embody year-round.

    The 2024 gathering brought together representatives from four major faith traditions, each sharing their community’s perspective on the importance of interfaith dialogue and mutual respect:

    • Christianity — Rev. and Mrs. Suamalie Naisali Iosefa Naisali
    • Islam — Mohammad Khan, Imraan Hussein, and Anne Pala Degia-Pala
    • Sikhism — Harjit Singh, Karmjit Singh, and Jappan Kaur
    • Hinduism — Harnam Singh Golian (a former Senator of the Fiji Parliament) and Mr. Tej Ram

    Members of the UPF Peace Federations also attended, bringing the interfaith conversation into dialogue with UPF’s broader vision of one family under God.

    Sharing the Importance of Interfaith Activity

    The heart of the gathering was an open conversation about why interfaith activity matters — and why it matters now. Each representative shared the perspective of their own tradition: how Islam understands the divine call to justice and compassion; how Sikhism’s teaching of ik onkar (one God, one humanity) shapes its approach to interfaith relationships; how Hinduism’s recognition of multiple paths to the divine creates a natural openness to dialogue; and how Christianity’s call to love one’s neighbour — including the neighbour of a different faith — grounds interfaith work in theological conviction, not merely civic politeness.

    These were not merely academic presentations. They were expressions of lived faith — of communities that have found, in their own scriptures and traditions, a mandate for the kind of meeting that was happening in that room.

    The gathering also drew on the vision of Rev. Dr. Sun Myung Moon and Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon, co-founders of UPF, who dedicated their lives to the conviction that true peace cannot be achieved without overcoming the barriers between religions. For UPF, interfaith work is not peripheral — it is central to the entire project of building a world of lasting peace.

    One Family Under God

    As the gathering drew to a close, there was a shared sense of what UPF New Zealand calls “reconfirmation” — a renewal of the vision that draws people from different backgrounds to the same room and the same purpose. As participants reflected afterwards, this annual gathering always enables the community to reconfirm the vision of one family under God.

    It is a vision that does not erase difference. The faith traditions represented in that room at the Peace Embassy are genuinely distinct — in their theologies, their practices, their histories, and their communities. Interfaith harmony is not achieved by pretending otherwise. It is achieved by discovering what lies beneath those differences: a shared humanity, a common longing for goodness, and a recognition that the God who made us all made us for one another.

    UPF New Zealand is grateful to every faith leader and Ambassador for Peace who gave their time and presence to make the 2024 World Interfaith Harmony Week celebration what it was. The Peace Embassy, as always, was glad to be the house in which this particular family gathered.

  • Youth and Family Peace Day 2023

    It had been three years in the making. Since October 2020, UPF New Zealand had been developing the vision for an event that could bring together Auckland’s multicultural community around a single, powerful conviction: that lasting peace in society begins with strong, loving families. On Saturday 11 November 2023, that vision became reality.

    The inaugural Youth and Family Peace Day was held at the Due Drop Events Centre in Manukau — one of Auckland’s most iconic venues, chosen deliberately for its capacity to welcome a broad and diverse community. From 11:00 am to 5:00 pm, more than 350 people came and went throughout the day, making it the most significant public event in UPF New Zealand’s history to that point.

    The date — 11 November — was itself intentional. Known internationally as Armistice Day, it is a day of remembrance for those lost to war. For UPF New Zealand, it carries a second meaning: as the proposed date for a national Family Day in New Zealand — a day to affirm that the prevention of war begins not in diplomacy, but in the family, where the next generation learns to love and to live for others.

    A Vision Three Years in the Making

    The purpose of Youth and Family Peace Day, as articulated by the organising committee, was threefold: to create a pro-family and marriage culture in New Zealand; to teach young people a loyal and sincere heart; and to share practical steps toward building what UPF calls “blessed families” — families grounded in love, commitment, and service — in partnership with like-minded organisations across the community.

    The three-year development period had allowed UPF New Zealand to build the partnerships, the programme architecture, and the community relationships necessary to make the event something genuinely participatory, rather than merely a platform for speeches.

    Opening the Day

    The opening programme began at 11:00 am in the main hall. A karakia led by Tokorima Aperahama, a Ratana Church youth representative, opened the gathering in the spiritual tradition of Aotearoa — grounding the day’s celebration in a deep respect for the land and for the Creator who made us one family.

    Opening remarks were delivered by Kenji Watanabe, Chairman of UPF New Zealand, and Geoffrey Fyers, Secretary General. The resolution of the National Family Day Petition — UPF New Zealand’s ongoing campaign to establish 11 November as a dedicated national family day — was presented as part of the formal opening.

    Distinguished guests who brought welcoming remarks to the occasion included:

    • Hon. Jenny Salesa — Member of Parliament, New Zealand
    • Keu Mataroa — Consul General of the Cook Islands
    • Joe Fatuleai — Stake President of Redoubt, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

    Keynote: Peace Begins at Home

    The keynote address was delivered by Greg Stone, Secretary General of UPF Oceania — a speaker whose long experience in the region lent his words both authority and warmth. His message was the thread that ran through the entire day: “Peace building starts with family building, expanding outward to peace in the society and the nation.”

    It is a deceptively simple claim. But in a world that tends to address peace through the lens of geopolitics, diplomacy, and institutional power, it represents a genuinely different starting point — one that places responsibility for the condition of the world not primarily with governments or international bodies, but with each family, and each individual within it.

    Three Pillars of the Programme

    The full-day programme was structured around three core components, each running in parallel throughout the event:

    Cultural Performances — showcasing the extraordinary diversity of New Zealand’s multicultural community. Performers from Pacific Island, Asian, and New Zealand communities filled the stage with music, dance, and artistic expression that celebrated the richness of Aotearoa’s people.

    Youth and Family Cultural Presentations — young people taking the stage to share their own vision for a peaceful future. These presentations were among the most powerful moments of the day — not polished speeches, but genuine expressions from the next generation about what they believe, what they hope for, and what kind of world they want to build.

    Marriage and Family Culture Presentations — exploring the practical and philosophical foundations of strong family life. Partner organisations from faith communities, social services, and civil society presented resources, insights, and personal stories about marriage, parenting, and the daily work of building a family that blesses those around it.

    A Day That Exceeded All Expectations

    By any measure, the inaugural Youth and Family Peace Day exceeded expectations. More than 350 people — a number that would have seemed ambitious in planning meetings — came to Due Drop Events Centre and stayed, moved through the programme, connected with exhibitors, and left with something they had not had before: a sense of being part of a community with a shared vision.

    UPF New Zealand’s firm conviction — that the four pillars of family love (children’s love toward parents, siblings’ love, conjugal love, and parental love) are the foundation of a peaceful society — had found, in this event, its most vivid public expression. And in the days and weeks that followed, the momentum of the National Family Day Petition continued to grow.

    Armistice Day, 11 November 2023, had become something new for UPF New Zealand: the beginning of an annual tradition. Youth and Family Peace Day would return in 2024 — and the community that had gathered for the first time in Manukau would keep growing.

  • Peace Road Walk — UN International Day of Peace 2023

    Peace, at its most basic, is a practice. It is something we do — in our homes, our conversations, our choices — not just something we declare. On Saturday 16 September 2023, UPF New Zealand gave that conviction a very literal expression: more than 30 people walked together through the streets of Parnell to mark the United Nations International Day of Peace, embodying in movement what they believed in word.

    The Peace Road Walk was a reunion of sorts. After a couple of years without an in-person UN Peace Day gathering, the return to a shared public act of peacemaking felt meaningful to all who participated. The mood as people gathered at the Peace Embassy, 24 St Stephens Avenue, Parnell at 10:30 am was one of quiet joy — the particular warmth that comes from doing something simple and good, together.

    Opening Programme at the Peace Embassy

    Before the walk began, participants gathered inside the Peace Embassy for a 30-minute opening programme — grounding the morning in the spiritual and civic values that give peacebuilding its depth.

    The programme was co-emceed by two young members of the UPF New Zealand community: Deogsoo Pogoni, representing FFWPU youth, and Do Hie Kim, who guided the group with warmth and clarity throughout the morning. Their presence as co-emcees was itself a statement — that the next generation is not merely the beneficiary of peace work, but its active practitioner.

    A video presentation showcased Peace Road events happening worldwide in 2023 — a reminder that what was happening in Parnell that morning was part of a global movement of communities choosing to walk toward peace rather than away from it.

    Kenji Watanabe, Chairman of UPF New Zealand, offered opening remarks, setting the day’s walk in the context of UPF’s broader mission and the particular significance of the UN International Day of Peace.

    Daniel Rubin: The Power of Walking for Peace

    The guest speaker of the morning was Daniel Rubin, an organiser of Peace Run programmes both in New Zealand and internationally. Daniel has spent years channelling the simple act of running — and walking — into a vehicle for community and connection across cultural, national, and religious divides.

    He spoke with genuine enthusiasm about the power of movement as a form of advocacy — about what it means to carry a message of peace through public space, and the conversations that happen along the way. His own work and UPF’s Peace Road Walk, he noted, were driven by the same conviction: that peace is contagious, and that it spreads most readily when people see it, in person, moving through their neighbourhood.

    Amon Watanabe, another youth representative, then shared reflections from his own experience of travelling the world — and the surprising ways in which a commitment to peace can open doors and build friendships across the most unlikely divides.

    The Walk to the Museum

    With the opening programme complete, the group set off into the Parnell sunshine — a procession of around 30 people moving through the leafy streets toward the Auckland War Memorial Museum, approximately a 20-minute walk away.

    Several people on the streets offered their support as the group passed — a small but encouraging sign that peace walks do not happen in a vacuum. The presence of a purposeful, peaceful gathering in public space invites curiosity, conversation, and occasionally, quiet solidarity from strangers.

    At the Auckland War Memorial Museum

    The group gathered in the square in front of the museum — a building whose very purpose is to hold the memory of those lost to war, making it a fitting destination for a day dedicated to peace. The formal programme at the museum included four acts:

    • A group photograph — a shared image of community united in purpose
    • The UPF Peace Statement for the International Day of Peace 2023, read by Geoffrey Fyers, Secretary General of UPF New Zealand
    • A one-minute silence — offered in memory of all those who have lost their lives to conflict, and in solidarity with communities living with war today
    • A communal singing of the New Zealand National Anthem, “God Defend New Zealand” — a prayer as much as a patriotic declaration

    The silence, in particular, held a weight that words cannot easily describe. In 2023, the world had watched the war in Ukraine grind into its second year, and news of the Hamas attacks on Israel would break just weeks later. The minute of quiet at the Auckland War Memorial Museum was a small but sincere act of solidarity with all who suffer under violence.

    Closing Karakia and Community BBQ

    The group returned to the Peace Embassy, where Matapa Shelley, President of WFWP New Zealand, offered a closing karakia — grounding the morning’s walk back in the spiritual soil of Aotearoa and the Māori tradition of prayer as both opening and closing of gathered community.

    Then came the BBQ. In the backyard of the Embassy, amid the smell of food and the sound of conversation, the Peace Road Walk found its natural conclusion — not in formality, but in fellowship. It was, as one participant described it, “delightful.” The scale was small. The impact, in the lives of those who walked and talked and ate together, was not.

  • UN International Day of Families 2023

    On the evening of Saturday 17 June 2023, the auditorium of the Te Tuhi Arts and Cultural Centre in Pakuranga, East Auckland, filled with the sound of music, laughter, and the warmth of genuine community. UPF New Zealand’s commemoration of the United Nations International Day of Families had begun — and despite the traffic congestion that delayed many attendees, around 80 people eventually settled in to share an evening that would leave a lasting impression.

    The event was co-sponsored by UPF New Zealand alongside three partner organisations: the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (FFWPU), the Women’s Federation for World Peace (WFWP), and the Indian Kiwis Positive Aging Charitable Trust (IKPACT) — a coalition that itself reflected the spirit of the evening: diverse in background, united in purpose.

    The UN Theme: Demographic Trends and Families

    The United Nations chose “Demographic Trends and Families” as the theme for the International Day of Families 2023 — a recognition of the profound ways in which shifting population patterns are reshaping the conditions in which families form, grow, and endure. Falling birth rates, ageing populations, increasing mobility, and changing family structures are among the megatrends demanding new thinking from governments and communities alike.

    UPF New Zealand’s approach to this theme was characteristic: to focus not only on the policy dimensions of demographic change, but on the human heart of the matter — the question of what makes families strong, and how communities can nurture that strength.

    Opening the Evening

    Geoffrey Fyers, Secretary General of UPF New Zealand, welcomed the gathering with his trademark warmth, before opening remarks from Kenji Watanabe, Chairman of UPF New Zealand and FFWPU, and community leader Mr. Harinder Pal Singh Luthera, who brought a spirit of civic dignity to the occasion.

    The keynote was delivered by Ross Robertson — former Deputy Speaker of the New Zealand House of Representatives and a long-serving UPF Ambassador for Peace. Ross spoke on the positive influence of family lineage, of positivity, and of discipline. His message was one that transcended cultural background: that the stories we carry from our families — the examples set by parents and grandparents, the values passed down through generations — are among the most powerful forces shaping who we become. The audience, drawn from many different cultural traditions, nodded in recognition of a truth that is truly universal.

    Ideal Family Awards

    One of the most moving moments of the evening was the Ideal Family Award ceremony — a celebration of families who have been acknowledged by their communities for outstanding service, commitment, and love. This year’s recipients were:

    • Mr. Harjit Singh and Mrs. Tajinder Kaur
    • Mr. and Mrs. Taore
    • Mr. and Mrs. Pahuja

    Each family received their award to warm applause — recognition not of wealth or status, but of the quiet, daily work of building a family that blesses those around it.

    Peace Marriage Blessing Ceremony

    Following the awards, participants were introduced to the Peace Marriage Blessing Ceremony — an affirmation of the sanctity of the marital covenant and the vision of the family as the school of love. Couples in attendance joined together in a shared commitment to build families grounded in love, fidelity, and service to others. For many who participated, it was a moment of genuine renewal — a chance to reconnect with the vows and values at the heart of their family life.

    A Celebration of Culture

    Between the speeches and ceremonies, the programme was enriched by a series of cultural performances that brought the diversity of Auckland’s communities vividly to life:

    • Ms. Sneh offered a beautiful Indian song celebrating family and togetherness
    • Mrs. Lily Yao’s Chinese dance group performed with grace and precision, showcasing the elegance of Chinese classical dance
    • Mr. Angelo Bergantinos and his song partner delivered a moving congratulatory performance that spoke of the joy of commitment
    • The Tongan volunteers’ choir brought the house alive with a rousing choral performance that filled the auditorium

    Refreshments and Fellowship

    The evening drew to a close around 7:30 pm, with refreshments shared among participants who were in no hurry to leave. The bonds formed over shared food and shared values are, in many ways, the real work of an evening like this — the moments where people from different faiths and cultures find themselves in genuine conversation, discovering more common ground than division.

    The UN International Day of Families is observed each year on 15 May. UPF New Zealand’s June commemoration was a little later in the calendar, but no less sincere — a community gathering that demonstrated, in miniature, the kind of society we are all working to build: one that holds the family as the foundation of everything good.

  • Peace Kingdom Building Seminar: Peace in the Pacific

    On Friday 24 February 2023, UPF New Zealand hosted a Peace Kingdom Building Seminar at the Fickling Convention Centre, Lynfield Room, 546 Mt Albert Road, Three Kings, Auckland. The seminar ran from 10:00 am to 1:00 pm and drew participants from across UPF New Zealand’s network of Ambassadors for Peace and community leaders.

    The theme — “Peace and Security in the Pacific Region” — was chosen in direct response to a rapidly shifting geopolitical landscape. In the months preceding the seminar, the Pacific had become the focal point of intensifying competition between major world powers, raising urgent questions about what kind of future New Zealand and its Pacific neighbours were building together.

    The Context: A Pacific Under Pressure

    The seminar took place against a backdrop of significant international tension. The announcement of a security deal between China and the Solomon Islands had shocked the region — including New Zealand, Australia, Japan, and the United States — and prompted a renewed scramble for strategic influence across the Pacific Islands.

    US President Biden had been invited to visit the Pacific following a summit at the White House, and leaders of Kiribati, Palau, Nauru, the Marshall Islands, and the Federated States of Micronesia were actively navigating the competing pressures of two global superpowers. The question for small Pacific nations was increasingly stark: how to maintain sovereignty, cultural integrity, and peace in an era of intensifying great-power rivalry?

    For New Zealand, the question was equally pointed. As UPF New Zealand Chairman Kenji Watanabe wrote in a reflection circulated at the time, New Zealand’s voice in Pacific affairs had grown quieter even as the stakes had grown higher — and it was time for that to change.

    A Values-Based Response

    The seminar presented UPF’s framework as a principled alternative to ideological competition. Rather than choosing sides between left-wing and right-wing geopolitical blocs, the Pacific community was invited to return to its deeper common heritage — as peoples of the Blue Pacific Continent, sharing lands, oceans, and a profound spiritual inheritance.

    Kenji Watanabe’s keynote reflection articulated this vision clearly: “Peace and security in the Pacific have to be built on common faiths, cultural values, and traditional knowledge in the region — that is, a God-centred individual, family, society, and nation.”

    The UPF framework of interdependence, mutual prosperity, and universally shared values — what the co-founders of UPF called “Godism” or Head-Wing Thought — was presented not as an abstract ideology, but as a practical guide for navigating the tensions that Pacific nations face. The goal is a society that transcends the hatred, hostility, and self-centredness that fuel geopolitical rivalry, and that instead builds cooperation from the ground up — beginning in families, and expanding outward to communities, nations, and the region.

    New Zealand’s Responsibility

    A central theme of the seminar was New Zealand’s particular role and responsibility in the Pacific. As one of the closest neighbours to Pacific Island nations, and as a fellow member of the Blue Pacific family, New Zealand has both the cultural connections and the institutional capacity to serve as a genuine partner — not merely a proxy for outside powers.

    The seminar noted that Australia and New Zealand had long supported Pacific Island nations through the Pacific Islands Forum, guided by a shared vision of peace, harmony, security, social inclusion, and prosperity. That vision, the participants affirmed, must be renewed and strengthened — not because it is strategically convenient, but because it reflects a genuine kinship and a shared moral commitment to the wellbeing of all peoples in the region.

    Looking to Seoul

    The seminar was timed to complement the World Summit 2023 in Seoul, scheduled for May, under the theme “Contemporary Challenges to Global Order: Toward a World Culture of Peace.” The Fickling Convention Centre gathering was UPF New Zealand’s local contribution to that global conversation — a reminder that peace is not only made in conference halls and diplomatic corridors, but in community rooms where ordinary people commit to extraordinary values.

    Participants left the seminar with a renewed sense of their own agency. The Pacific’s future is not determined only by the decisions of great powers. It is shaped, day by day, by the choices of families, communities, and organisations like UPF New Zealand that refuse to cede the language of peace to geopolitics.

  • World Interfaith Harmony Week 2023

    Sometimes the most powerful acts of peacebuilding happen in spite of circumstances, not because of them. UPF New Zealand’s commemoration of the United Nations World Interfaith Harmony Week 2023 — held on Saturday 4 February at the Peace Embassy, 24 St Stephens Avenue, Parnell — was one such occasion.

    Just days before the gathering, Auckland had experienced its heaviest rainfall in 170 years of recorded history. Severe flooding had damaged thousands of homes across the city. Roads were compromised, communities were reeling, and the UPF New Zealand committee faced a difficult question: should the event go ahead?

    The answer came from the Ambassadors for Peace themselves. Their collective willingness — their refusal to let a crisis silence a message about harmony — meant the gathering proceeded. And as if by grace, the day itself arrived sunny and warm. The theme chosen for 2023 could not have been more fitting: “Creating Harmony in a World in Crisis.”

    A Community That Shows Up

    Around 25 Ambassadors for Peace and faith leaders gathered at the Peace Embassy for the event — a number made all the more remarkable by the conditions of the week preceding it. Their presence was itself a statement: that the work of interfaith peacebuilding does not pause for hardship.

    The programme was opened by Geoffrey Fyers, Secretary General of UPF New Zealand, who served as emcee and welcomed the gathering. Rev. Suamalie NT Iosefa Naisali, Chairman of the Interreligious Association for Peace and Development (IAPD) New Zealand, offered an inspiring opening prayer — grounding the occasion in the spiritual conviction that people of all faiths are, at their core, members of one human family.

    Kenji Watanabe, Chairman of UPF New Zealand, then introduced the IAPD and offered a challenge to the assembled leaders: that religious communities must unite, so that the shared values of the world’s faiths can function as the conscience of society. In a world increasingly fragmented by ideology and fear, he argued, the moral voice of faith is indispensable.

    Reaffirming a Shared Resolution

    A significant moment in the programme was the reaffirmation of the Resolution adopted at the inauguration of IAPD New Zealand in 2019 — originally signed by approximately 70 participants. The Resolution was read aloud by Mrs. Ruth Cleaver, former President of the Auckland Interfaith Council, whose long history of interfaith service in Aotearoa lent the moment particular weight.

    The act of reaffirmation was deliberate and meaningful. In a time of crisis — both local and global — it was a reminder that the commitments made in more settled times are exactly the commitments that must be renewed when the world becomes difficult.

    Voices from Across the Faith Spectrum

    The heart of the programme was a series of presentations from representatives across Auckland’s diverse faith communities. Each was invited to offer prayers for world peace and harmony, to share reflections on their tradition, or to give words of insight befitting the occasion:

    • Rev. Sirr Christoffersen — representing the Sufi tradition
    • Dr. Sheikh Mohammed Amir — representing the Muslim faith
    • Mr. Rajender Kumar — representing the Sikh faith
    • Mrs. Daisy Lee — representing Falun Gong, a Buddhist-based organisation
    • Mr. Tej Ram — representing the Hindu faith
    • Tuvaluan ministers — representing Pacific Island Christianity

    The diversity of voices gathered in the Peace Embassy that Saturday reflected something of the extraordinary multicultural fabric of Auckland — a city where, within a short distance, you may find mosques, mandirs, gurdwaras, churches, and temples. UPF New Zealand’s interfaith gatherings exist to bring those communities into genuine dialogue, not merely symbolic proximity.

    Looking Ahead to 2023

    The event also served as UPF New Zealand’s kick-off meeting for 2023, with the organisation announcing its calendar for the year ahead. The flagship event — Youth and Family Peace Day on 11 November — was previewed as a major celebration of marriage and family culture, to be held at the Due Drop Events Centre in Manukau.

    The announcement generated quiet excitement in the room. Youth and Family Peace Day would go on to become UPF New Zealand’s most significant public event to date, drawing over 350 people — a number that would have been hard to imagine on that February morning in the aftermath of the floods.

    Refreshments were shared at the conclusion of the programme, and the atmosphere — despite everything the week had held — was one of warmth, resilience, and genuine community. As the 2023 theme declared: harmony is not the absence of crisis. It is what we choose to build within it.

  • UN International Day of Families 2022

    There is something irreplaceable about being in the same room. After two full years of online gatherings, postponements, and the particular loneliness of a world separated by a pandemic, UPF New Zealand’s commemoration of the United Nations International Day of Families 2022 carried an emotional weight that went well beyond its programme.

    Held on Saturday 21 May 2022 at Mangere Memorial Hall in South Auckland, the event was co-hosted by UPF New Zealand, FFWPU New Zealand, and WFWP New Zealand — the first major in-person public gathering for the organisation since COVID-19 restrictions took hold in 2020. Around 80 people attended, including key community leaders from across Auckland.

    Welcome Back

    The MC for the occasion was Ruth Cleaver, a long-serving UPF Ambassador for Peace and former President of the Auckland Interfaith Council, whose warm presence helped set the tone for a reunion as much as a commemoration.

    Opening remarks were delivered by Rev. Kenji Watanabe (Chairman, UPF New Zealand and FFWPU), Geoffrey Fyers (Secretary General, UPF New Zealand), and Matapa Shelly (President, WFWP New Zealand) — each offering a reflection on what it means to gather again as a community, and what that gathering itself says about the resilience of the values we hold in common.

    The event’s theme aligned with the United Nations’ designation for 2022: “The Role of Families in Creating a Peaceful Society.” In a world still recovering from the social disruptions of the pandemic — and watching with grief as war returned to Europe — that theme felt anything but abstract.

    Keynote: Ross Robertson on Family as Foundation

    The keynote address was delivered by Ross Robertson — a four-time Deputy Speaker of the New Zealand House of Representatives and Member of Parliament from 1987 to 2014, and a long-standing UPF Ambassador for Peace.

    Ross spoke with characteristic directness and warmth on the theme of family values and the power of parental role modelling. His central message resonated deeply with the audience: that no child is born with a set of values — they learn them from family and friends. As adults, he argued, we are role models whether we choose to be or not. Children look to us for leadership, guidance, and inspiration. The family, then, is not merely a social unit — it is the first and most influential school any of us will ever attend.

    Other notable speakers included HP Singh Luthera, a respected Sikh elder, and Raniera Pene, a Christian Youth Minister — each offering their own faith community’s perspective on the sacred role of family in human flourishing.

    Music and Culture

    Musical interludes brought colour and joy to the programme throughout the afternoon. The Peace Run Group contributed a performance reflecting the spirit of international peacebuilding through sport and community. Families from the Cook Islands community shared performances that brought the warmth and pride of Pacific family culture into the room — a reminder of the rich tapestry of cultures that make up South Auckland’s community life.

    Youth Heroes Award: Lani Alo

    One of the most memorable moments of the day was the presentation of the YSP Youth Heroes Award to Lani Alo, a talented Samoan musician whose work actively promotes family values and cultural pride through his music. The award was presented by Dohie Kim, YSP New Zealand Coordinator — recognising Lani’s contribution to a music culture that uplifts communities, strengthens family bonds, and gives young people something worth singing about.

    The award was met with genuine warmth from the audience. In a culture often saturated with entertainment that pulls individuals away from community and family, Lani Alo’s work was a counter-cultural act — and UPF New Zealand wanted to honour it as such.

    A Room Full of Hope

    The gathering concluded with everyone joining together in the song “Where Peace Begins: One Family Under God” — a fitting anthem for an afternoon that had embodied exactly what the lyrics described. Group photos were taken, refreshments were shared, and a good number of participants stayed long after the programme had formally ended, strengthening the bonds of community that had been stretched thin by two years of separation.

    One participant, moved by the occasion, wrote to the organisers afterwards: “Congratulations on what was a lovely event to witness, particularly the coming together of diverse voices and compassion for what is a symbolic and universal unit.”

    It was a quiet but powerful reminder of why UPF New Zealand does what it does — and of how much community matters, especially when the world has spent two years telling us to stay apart.