Religious groups urged to promote peace and unity

Accra, Feb. 18 GNA - Various speakers at a festival of faiths to mark this year's World Religion Day on Sunday called for unity among the various religious groups in the country in order to promote peace and harmony.

Brother Ishmael Tetteh, Founder and Leader of the Etherean Mission in Ghana said all the religious faiths in the country believe in the oneness of God and as such should serve as a catalyst to bring all the people together irrespective of their race, creed and culture for development.

He was speaking at a festival of faiths organized by the Ghana @ 50 Secretariat to unite the country through the diverse religious faiths by promoting good behaviour and eschewing evil. The festival, which was attended by all the major religious groups in the country, was on the theme: "Unity of faiths: A pre-condition for sustained peace and unity in Ghana".

Mr Tetteh said the church seeks to rekindle the spiritual enlightenment of the people to avail themselves to their Godly potentials and their mystical traditions of Africa. He said Africans have been brainwashed to look down on themselves and that accounts for the self-destruction and present woes of the continent. "A people without spiritual, historical and cultural heritage are dead," he added.

Mr. Tetteh also said the mission, since its inceptions; practiced holistic healing that employs African traditional methods in the treatment, prevention and cure of many diseases, most of which have defied orthodox medicine.

Professor Emmanuel O. Asare, Representative of the Bahai Faith even though commended the organizers and the various religious groups for taking part in the programme warned Ghanaians not be complacent. "We should use occasions like this one to call attention to the need for religious unity," he said. He said in the past religious prejudice has been the cause of sectarian conflicts between different sects of Christians, Muslims and between Christians and Muslims as well as occasional skirmishes between Christians and traditionalists He said the Bahai's in Ghana over the years had celebrated the day as their contribution to the promotion of religious unity and peace in the country.