Tobago's Baptists prepare for March 30 Liberation Day

TOBAGO’S Baptists are preparing for Shouter/Spiritual Baptist Liberation Day on March 30.

The holiday, which was granted by the former United National Congress government in 1996, celebrates the repeal on March 30, 1951, of the 1917 Shouter Prohibition Ordinance, which had prohibited the activities of Baptists in the region.

Lydmoy Brebnor-Dillon, Elect Lady, El Bethel Spiritual Baptist Church, Mt St George, said on March 30 Baptists will gather at the corner of Orange Hill and the Claude Noel Highway around 9 am.

They will then walk to their incomplete multi-purpose facility, west of the army camp at Signal Hill, for a day-long celebration, under the theme Never Lose Hope, Continue the Fight. It is expected to begin at 10 am.

THA Chief Secretary Farley Augustine and several Baptist elders are expected to deliver remarks at the event, which is being organised by the Tobago United Spiritual Baptist Assembly.

Reflecting on the theme, Brebnor-Dillon told Newsday, “As members of the Spiritual Baptist faith, we have been struggling with so many things.

"But we are not giving up. We continue to fight and we continue to struggle. As a matter of fact, the most downtrodden would have come out of the Baptists.

"So when everybody else had a congregation who could help build things for them, it has not been the same with us.”