When I join a group, I like to introduce myself briefly. So, I have prepared a quick synopsis of my life’s history, especially for groups of Unification Movement members.
Hi Group Members,
I have just been admitted into this group. I thought I should introduce myself. I do not want to lurk in curiosity, but rather let you know right away who I am, because some of your may know me.
My name is Paulo-Juarez Pereira, from Brazil. Some of you know me as Paul Perry–and the name itself is a story apart, which I hope to tell you some day. Some of you are already connected with me through Facebook and know about me. My former wife, Linda Lee Marchant Perry, passed away a few weeks ago, and since then I have been making efforts to reconnect again with my Unification friends.
Here is a brief account of my story in the Unification Church. I am a US Army Vietnam Veteran in the rank of First Lieutenant, Signal Corps. Prior to coming to the United States, I studied theology with the Carmelite priests, including in Rome, during Vatican II. How I came to the United States was pretty miraculous, but I came from Italy, not directly from Brazil–and it was mostly through my American Carmelite friends in Rome. When I arrived in the US, the Vietnam War was in progress. Having a green card, I was drafted and servd three years. I was in Vietnam in 1969-70.
The very first day that I went out in San Francisco, after having settled back from Vietnam, I encountered the Unification Church, and my admission ticket number to the event at the Foreign Student Center downtown San Francisco was called for a prize of a weekend trip to Booneville, where I heard three days of lecture, free of charge, since I had won the prize. I became a member in due course and felt the desire to go back to South America to take this message to them–but not to Brazil. I wanted to go to Argentina. But Mr. Sang Ik Choi in San Francisco advised me to go to Brazil instead–as part of a 5-member international outreach to Argentina, Venezuela, Mexico, Peru, and Brazil. Right about the same time (1972), TF arrived in the United States and began the work of consolidating the various missions into a national movement. The 5-member group scheduled to go to South America was asked to stop by Tarrytown for a seminar on Divine Principle, taught by Young Whi Kim, with daily speeches by TF.
In the evening of December 21, 1972, the five-member group going to Latin America met with TF and received instructions. I stayed in Tarrytown a few more weeks to help edit Father’s speeches for publication. I arrived in Brazil in January 1973 and began my mssionary work there, which lasted until 1977. During that time, I was blessed in Korea with the 1800 couples (1975). Missionaries from Korea and Japan joined me in Brazil; my family helped with the movement; and members joined from all over the Brazilian national territory. In 1977, having returned to the United States to attend the Unification Theological Seminary, I had the first of my three children with Linda Lee Marchant Perry.
After concluding the UTS program in 1979, I was briefly in a doctoral program in religious education, but abandoned that and began working with CARP and eventually with CAUSA, having a chance to travel throughout most of Latin America. Having ended that work, I and a Unification Thought member from Japan edited and published “Explaining Unification Thought” and “The End of Communism.” I divorced my ex-wife in 1997 and moved away from New York to New Mexico, later to California. Not long after the divorce and already away from New York City, I met and married someone, not associated with the Unification Movement, to whom I am married until today. I live in Michigan. I have a master’s in German and Spanish. I am currently exploring a doctorate in education. For work, I teach Portuguese and German and do language services in Portuguese. I have three cats and two dogs, including an Anatolian Shepherd. I am the treasurer for a Vietnam Veterans of America chapter in Ann Arbor, Michigan. My wife and I enjoy long walks with our two dogs. For spirituality, both my wife and I are former Catholics, and we do various forms of volunteer work. I teach the Principle of Creation through the cares of the body. Just the other day two women from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints talked to me about their church, and I said, “I will not convert, but I love sincere members of all religions and would like to work together in common projects.” They liked the idea.
Paulo-Juarez Pereira 