Worshippers at a Pennsylvania Church on Wednesday clutched AR-15 rifles and drank wine in the final part of a three part couple’s blessing ceremony.

Brides wearing white and grooms in dark suits brought dozens of unloaded AR-15’s into the World Peace and Unification Sanctuary, a church in Pennsylvania, for a religious event meant to bless couples.

The World Peace and Unification Sanctuary is led by the son of the late Rev. Sun Myung Moon who is a self-professed messiah from Korea who became a cult symbol during the 1970’s by holding mass weddings for couples who were often strangers.

Moon has a following among the ultra-conservative community and his son Hyung Jin Moon is a supporter of gun rights and has woven it into the congregation which he leads in Pennsylvania.

The Southern Poverty Law Center which tracks hate groups labels Hyung Jin Moon as an “anti LGBT cult leader”. Their blessing ceremony invitation is explicitly for heterosexual couples.

The Church holds that the AR-15 symbolizes the “rod of iron” in the Book of Revelation. An AR-15 was used in the Florida High School massacre on February 14 and many other mass shootings. The Rev Moon prayed for a “kingdom of peace police and peace militia where the citizens can keep and bear arms in order to protect one another and protect human flourishing”.

An attendant checked each weapon to make sure that it was not loaded and some worshippers even wore crowns which had been made out of bullets. Tim Elder who serves as the churches director of world missions added that the ceremony was meant to be a blessing of couples and not inanimate objects.

The ceremony upset many as it came just two weeks after the tragic school shooting in Florida which resulted in 17 people losing their lives. “It’s scaring people in the community,” one protester standing outside the church said. “Are you aware of that?”