US:SUN MYUNG Moon, the founder of the Unification Church, known as the "Moonies", has handed over control of the movement to his Harvard-educated youngest son in what is being seen as an attempt to broaden the controversial religious organisation's appeal.
In a ceremony near Seoul last week, Hyung Jin Moon (28) was anointed chairman of the Family Federation for World Peace and Unification, the name that the church has used since the late 1990s.
"I hope everyone helps him so that he may fulfil his duty as the successor of the true parents," Mr Moon (88) said, in a characteristically immodest reference to himself and his wife.
Experts say Mr Hyung Jin, the youngest of seven sons, is being groomed to secure his ageing father's legacy more than 50 years after he founded the church, declaring himself the new messiah with the aim of establishing a single world government under his leadership. -