Do not rush for material wealth - Director

Tamale, April 18, GNA - Mr Tesney Kepim, Director of Religious Youth Service for West Africa (RYS) on Monday advised the Youth of religions institutions to refrain from acquiring material wealth at the expense of their spiritual development.

"The rush for material acquisition has brought about conflicts, wars, epidemics, environmental pollution and the outbreak of strange diseases," He added.

Mr Kepim was speaking at a seven-day international convention of youths from different religious institutions in Tamale. The Inter-religious International Federation for World Peace (IIFWP) sponsored the forum, under the theme: "Religious tolerance and peaceful co-existence for socio-economic development." The convention was to bring the youth together to learn about religious beliefs; values and practices of various religions to enable them understand each other and bring cooperation and harmony in the world.

Mr Kepim called on religious leaders to make conscious efforts to inculcate the values of love, peace, forgiveness, unity and brotherhood of mankind into the youth.

He said peace would be maintained in the world when mankind refrained from thoughts on war and evil intentions and rather promote religious values and virtues as an alternative to material values.

Mr Kepim called on the communities to participate actively in activities of RYS to initiate projects to serve as a monument for the youths in different religious institutions to foster unity and promote economic and spiritual development.