Kamla: UNC policies gave Spiritual Baptists recognition they deserve

OPPOSITION LEADER Kamla Persad-Bissessar in her Spiritual Shouter Baptist Liberation Day message to the nation said we should remember and honour their historic, inspiring struggle, courage, resilience, strength, faith and ultimate triumph over decades of ingrained colonial persecution.

In a release on March 29, she said, “Today, I proudly stand with the Spiritual Baptist community in commemorating this significant holiday in our national calendar.

She said, ”Today, we recall how, for so many decades, our Spiritual Baptists brothers and sisters were denied their fundamental human right of religious freedom in our country.“

Persad-Bissessar said that even though the Shouter Prohibition Ordinance was repealed in 1951, it would be many decades later until the Spiritual Baptist community would officially be granted the significant, symbolic honour of equality of their very own holiday, in 1996.

She said she was proud that UNC’s trailblazing policies have ensured that the Spiritual/Shouter Baptist community is now widely recognised.

She said the Spiritual Baptist community is now celebrated for their immense contributions to our nation’s cultural, social, and religious development.

“I recall with pride that it was under the 1995-2000 Basdeo Panday-led UNC government, during my tenure as attorney general that this momentous act occurred.

“I recall with even greater pride that, under my tenure as prime minister (2010-2015), I further opened the long-promised St Barbara’s Spiritual Baptist Shouter Primary School (in Maloney) – the first of its kind in TT and the world.“

Persad-Bissessar lamented that as Spiritual Baptists gather in their vast, beautiful numbers to celebrate this holiday, it will be in a nation overridden for the past decade by an ever-increasing destructive, unprecedented crime and violence wave.

“I therefore urge the Spiritual/Shouter Baptist community to say a special prayer for TT to overcome this darkness."

“May they shout joyfully to the Lord, all the earth; Break forth and sing for joy and sing praises. (Psalm 98:4), and remind us all that, 'Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres’ (1 Corinthians 13:6-7),” she said.

Spiritual Shouter Baptist Liberation Day will be celebrated on March 30.