Tobago Baptist Liberation Day celebrations scaled down

For the second year, the annual Spiritual Shouter Baptist Liberation Day celebrations will be curtailed owing to the covid19 pandemic.In 2020, as covid19 reached TT, individual churches were forced to host independent services.

However, in an interview with Newsday last Tuesday, president of the Tobago United Spiritual Baptist Assembly (TUSBA) Bishop John Carrington said the celebrations this year will be held collectively, but still “quite minor” compared to tradition.

Carrington said, “It definitely won’t be as big as we’re accustomed to, but we would have our service at the Mt Bethel Spiritual Baptist Church in Pump Mill. We’re currently finalising the arrangements but so far, we’re planning to meet at the church, and we would stick to the limited service, which is one and a half hours.”

He said the usual activities such as street parades and rituals remain cancelled as government restrictions to curb the spread of covid19 must be adhered to.

The service, he said, starts at 10am and only 30 people will be accommodated in the assembly hall.

In order to maintain physical distancing, he said social media and other technology will be utilised to allow the entire Baptist community to participate.

“We would be streaming the entire service live via Zoom and Facebook.”