Claim. Reverend Moon distinguishes True Parents from natural parents by scope: natural parents are ‘parents of one generation’ (branch parents), while True Parents are ‘parent of three ages’ — spanning Old Testament, New Testament, and Completed Testament — functioning as the root.
Elaboration. The passage contains an explicit metaphysical claim about who may pray in whose name: ‘You pray in the Parents’ name, but you should not pray in the True Parents’ name; the only one who can pray in the True Parents’ name is me’ (Section 2. True Parents and Our Natural Parents In what position are your fallen, bio- logical mother and father? Have there been, in a world untainted by the Fall, unfallen sons and daughters of whom God could say, “Oh, you are our sons and daughters!“? In the Garden of Eden, was there a concept that one had to forsake his former mother and father in order to find a new mother and father? No. Then why are we born with such a fate? This). Members were apparently invoking the True Parents’ name in prayer; SMM corrects this as ‘against the Principle.’
The metaphor is botanical: True Parents are the root, natural parents are the bud or branch. ‘Grandfathers, fathers and grandsons call me Parent. This involves three generations and three stages.’ The vertical reach extends across the spirit world, present age, and future age.
A striking and rarely-noted feature of the passage: SMM acknowledges that this rooted position is not free. ‘The root cannot leave its place and do things as it pleases… How stifling it must be to stay in one place for hundreds of millions of years! They stay in one place until they dry out and die. There is no freedom there. But branches can go around as they please.’ This adds a tragic register to the True Parents claim — the position is one of constraint, not privilege.
The pastoral concern about prayer terminology is also revealing of UC ecclesiology: when natural parents and True Parents are both called ‘parents,’ children become confused about reference. The instruction reserves the highest title to SMM alone. Worth tracing how this terminology rule has been observed or eroded in subsequent UC practice.