WARP Summit 2014: Shincheonji Behind the Peace Brand

Quick facts

• Name: World Alliance of Religions’ Peace (WARP) Summit
• Dates: 16–19 September 2014
• Places: Sheraton Walkerhill (welcome dinner), Jamsil Olympic Stadium (opening), 63 Convention Center (signing), Peace Gate, Olympic Park (peace walk)
• Host: HWPL (Heavenly Culture, World Peace, Restoration of Light), chaired by Lee Man-hee, founder of the Shincheonji Church of Jesus
• Co-hosts: IWPG (women’s group, chaired by Kim Nam-hee) and IPYG (youth group). The Institute for Cultural Diplomacy (ICD) was listed as a co-host but withdrew the day before the opening.
• Timing: Lee Man-hee’s birthday is 15 September. The press conference introducing the summit was held on that day.

What the summit said it was

To foreign guests, WARP was a peace conference. HWPL said it would create “a platform for dialogue between community leaders on national, cultural, spiritual, and ethnic levels” and push for an international law to end war. Invitations described the chairman as a “renowned Korean peace activist.”

Former heads of state and government spoke, including Emil Constantinescu (Romania), Stjepan Mesić (Croatia) and Bertie Ahern (Ireland), as did Nobel Peace laureate Tawakkol Karman and leaders from several faiths.

The co-host that pulled out

The Berlin-based Institute for Cultural Diplomacy (ICD) had been promoted as a co-host. It withdrew on 16 September 2014, the day before the opening. CBS reported that ICD “indicated it would not participate after confirming the true nature (실체) of Shincheonji.” In 2023, ICD told VICE that when it “later learned of the controversies around Lee Man-hee,” it “immediately broke off relations.”

Sourcing noteICD never published its own statement of reasons. Both accounts above are second-hand.

The numbers

HWPL said about 200,000 people were inside and outside the stadium. Two attendees sympathetic to the event put the crowd in the stadium at about 60,000.

The opening featured a card section of 10,000–12,000 young members holding up coloured cards to form images, including one of Kim Nam-hee as “만민의 어머니” (“Mother of all people”). Critics compared similar Shincheonji stadium displays in 2012 and 2016 to North Korean mass games.

Protests outside the venues

Relatives of Shincheonji members protested outside the stadium and the 63 Building, saying their adult children had left home for the church and asking to see them. Police held protesters back at the 63 Building. Before the event, a national anti-Shincheonji coalition asked Seoul City to cancel it; the city said it had no power to do so.

Timeline, 2012 to 2022

How HWPL describes it today

HWPL now calls the event the “September 18th HWPL World Peace Summit” and presents it as the start of the DPCW. Its anniversary pages do not mention Shincheonji, the ICD withdrawal or the protests, and the 2014 language of a “unity of religions” has been replaced by language about international law. The DPCW has not been adopted by the United Nations.

HWPL and some academics, notably at CESNUR, argue that HWPL is a genuine peace organization and that the guests were never recruitment targets. On the second point the record agrees: no foreign leader is known to have joined Shincheonji. The concern is not that presidents were converted. It is that guests, the Korean public and members were each told a different story about the same event.

Sourcing noteWe have not yet asked Shincheonji for comment. Disclosure: Bible Vaccine Center and Closer Look Initiative are run by the same team.

Summary of findings

• HWPL, chaired by Shincheonji founder Lee Man-hee, hosted the summit on 16–19 September 2014. The press conference announcing it was held on his birthday.
• Invitations described the chair as a “renowned Korean peace activist.” The Korean name, 종교대통합 만국회의, uses two phrases from the church’s 2014 motto.
• The Korea Observer reported that participants from the church were told not to mention Shincheonji or Mannam. The memo itself has never been published.
• The Institute for Cultural Diplomacy, listed as a co-host, withdrew the day before the opening.
• HWPL reported about 200,000 people “both inside and outside of the stadium.” Two attendees sympathetic to the event put the crowd in the stadium at about 60,000.
• No foreign leader is known to have joined Shincheonji.

Later-context note: a court case about events from 2015 to 2019

Separately, in 2026 Lee was arrested and put on trial under South Korea’s Political Parties Act over alleged mass enrollment of members in the People Power Party. That case is not about the 2014 summit; see where the 2026 trial stands.

Frequently asked questions