Schooling the flock

“Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.” Proverbs 29:18 (King James Version).

CLAYTON BLACKMAN’S first interaction with the Spiritual Baptist faith was as a young man. Growing up in Princes Town, he always saw and heard about Baptists, but knew very little. What he knew was what “John Public” knew and often he would see them “preaching by the wayside.”

Blackman also recalled “police harassing them...and at the time you would hardly find any young person, it was more older folks, more women.

“You might see just one or two, and you would become intimate with them by seeing them and calling them, because more than likely their family was from the village.”

This was in the 1970s and onwards.

Step into 2019 and Blackman is now a member of the Council of Elders Shouter Baptists of TT.

It was in 2006, after returning in 2001 with a masters in public administration from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York, that he became “totally aware and involved” in the faith.

He first met then archbishop Barbara Gray-Burke in 2006 when he took part in the walk from Cedros to Port of Spain held by former attorney general Ramesh Lawrence Maharaj in protest of a proposed smelter in Chatham.

Gray-Burke was there and Blackman decided to join the walk because he liked its purpose. At the walk he spoke to Gray-Burke. Blackman remembered liking what she was saying and this became his reason for joining the faith.

Gray-Burke and Blackman also shared a common love for children. At the time, Blackman recalled, Gray-Burke had a children’s home and he admired her love for them.

He started assisting the children in her care in any way he could.

Trust developed between Gray-Burke and Blackman to the point where she shared with him “things pertaining to council” (Council of Elders).

In fact it took 14 years for the council to get its first school, the St Barbara’s Spiritual Shouter Baptist Primary School, followed in 2014 by the Spiritual Baptist Early Childhood Care and Education Centre, both in Maloney.

The Baptist faith, unlike other denominations, started its educational drive late. This, he explained, was again a result of funding or the lack thereof.

“It takes quite a lot of money to build a school and to have the whole infrastructural things in place. So therefore if you don’t have that level of support it is very difficult. The Baptists have been struggling.”

Asked why it was important for the faith to have its own schools, Blackman quoted Proverbs 29 verse 18. Without education, he added, the faith’s people would be ignorant in the literal sense (lack of knowledge) and people would "perish."

He said education was not just about academic but rather teaching learning.

“The whole process of teaching/learning...goes beyond academia. It goes in the churches. If you have a leader in a church or a mother and the flock is not taught properly, what would happen? There would be demise.”

Blackman became a member of the school board.

Although there are other schools with "Baptist" in their name, these two schools are the only Spiritual Baptist schools in TT.

Each year for the March 30 Spiritual Baptist Holiday, Blackman said, the council would “try to add on something to the building and develop the land space which was given to the Baptists.”

As a member of the council, he initiated some of the events the council is known for today, like its 5K/10K race as well as its sport and family day. He also served as education and protocol officer.

Although the faith is yet to acquire its own secondary and tertiary schools, Blackman believes the faith’s educational dream is being realised. While the council had a registered school of theology, the council did not have the workers to “really sustain these things.”

In 2014, Gray-Burke was reported as saying the council would locate land on which to construct its secondary school. But that has not happened to date.

“We have done a strategic plan and we have already, the drawings for the school and everything,” said Blackman.

Asked what impeded the construction of the school, he said land: negotiations were happening for land to be allocated, but bureaucracy held it back. Another impediment was the cost.

“It boils down to funding. All of these projects would be projects we would like the Government to assist with, plus the few dollars that we raise, and probably from corporate assistance."

Blackman added that the council had plans to introduce technical/vocational studies in the Maloney area, where he believes there is a target audience for it.

The council, he added, started teaching patient care and graduated seven people in its first batch, and hopes to offer more programmes such as carpentry.

Blackman holds firmly to his belief that there is no age limit to education. Education meant teaching a child ethics, etiquette and civics, he added.

While he said not everyone is academically qualified and there were brilliant preachers in the faith who did not even have a school-leaving pass, education was important to the faith.

Asked if the prohibition and other suppressive social tools used against the Spiritual Baptist faith held back its development and educational growth, he agreed. The Shouters Prohibition Ordinance of 1917 made the activities of the Shouter/Spiritual Baptist faith illegal. This was repealed on March 30, 1951. The holiday commemorates this.

“Even to today, people still are not free, because there is a lot of stigma to Baptists, and a lot of people are ignorant to what Shouter Baptists is, Spiritual Shouter Baptists, Ifa/Ifa Orisha and Shango Baptists.”

Asked if the religion had a place in a world of automation, social media and rapid changes, Blackman said yes. He said it also depended on the leader, pointing out that Gray-Burke had a Facebook page and WhatsApp, among other social media platforms.

Blackman said long ago when he did registration at the school, it was written. But now everything is done on a Word or Excel spreadsheet.

“As far as technology is concerned, we are keeping up with it."

But some things, like the fundamentals of the faith, don't change.

"There is nothing in the 21st century or 22nd century that can change that from us. We are going to plant flags still. You’re not going to have a robot coming to plant your flag. You’re going to still sing, shout and dance."

Using fashion as another example, Blackman said while it changed over the years and decades, “You would never come one day to a Baptist church and see a sister in a mini...Her dress, her gown, her apron, head tie. She looking nice, she is well-garbed – meaning that she is maintaining the faith.”

There's still reason for concern. "It seems that there is succession planning that is on automatic drive. And there are many, many folks out there walking the streets, and they come and visit us, who grew up in the Baptist faith, but not practising.”

But each year when Spiritual Baptist/Shouter Liberation Day comes around, Blackman sees a contingent of youth coming to the council-organised events.

“There are still many people who have held on to the faith and have taught their children to grow in the way of the Baptist faith."

The faith’s membership has not seen an increase or a decrease, but rather it is generational, by which he means that as the parents pass on, their children become members and carry on the traditions and beliefs of their ancestors.