Werner Elias

[Kathy Rigney]

Saturday morning, Sep. 20th, 2014 we held the Seong Hwa Ceremony of our wonderful brother Werner Anton Elias in Abidjan, Cote d'Ivoire: a 40-year Africa missionary originally assigned to Niger Republic,after being kicked out of Niger he came to work in the Ivory Coast with a lot of us missionaries and after being matched in London in 1978, he was sent back to Africa to Ghana for two years and then to Senegal for 3 years.  After Senegal he came to Ivory Coast where he remained although since he held the title of National Messiah for Mozambique he traveled there several times to try to invest spiritually into that nation.  Two days before his Seong Hwa, he was given the special honor from our True Parents of the title "Victorious and Respected Representative of the Shining Fatherland" on the calligraphy below which True Mother sent to us.  Werner's wife Lorette and 4 children, Dae Mang, Estelle, Dae Sung and Ekaterina were all present.  Lorette's youngest sister also flew in to be with her.  It was a very beautiful Seong Hwa with 400 Ivoirian members present after the all night prayer vigil on Friday and the home vigil on friday afternoon.  We miss Werner so much as we wish him a beautiful ascension until we meet again.

Below - Photo from 1985 and further below Werner in his workshop in 2014.