Baptists must stop hiding

Spiritual Baptists must stop hiding who they are, and publicly share their faith.

This was the call of Agriculture Minister Clarence Rambharat as he spoke at Spiritual Shouter Baptist Liberation Day celebrations in Couva yesterday. Rambharath said a lot of what is practised in the Baptist faith was still a mystery to the people of TT.

“Our country must first have an understanding and respect for the Baptist faith,” Rambharat said to the congregation at St Ann’s Church of Spiritual Metaphysics, McBean, Couva. He said many Baptists were ashamed to own up to their religion. “We do not know who the prominent businessmen, doctors, lawyers and teachers in the Baptist faith are,” he said. Adding that while everyone else was proud of their religion, there were people who follow the Baptist faith and were hiding.

Liberation, he said, was the key word of the holiday. “Liberation means freedom and with freedom comes responsibility to move forward.” He continued to say that in all faiths, older people attend the masjids, temples and churches and the younger ones find excuses not to go. He urged the audience to raise families in their faith.

He spoke of plans for a cathedral, which the Prime Minister, a week ago, promised land for the Baptist community to build on.

Rambharath said they were the ones who must build it. “I know it will not be built by 2020 but whatever year you finish the cathedral I will be there as a member of Parliament.”

Minister of Community Development, Culture and the Arts Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly, who gave the main address, received high praise from Spiritual Baptist Archbishop Patrick Brown who said she can become a prime minister of TT.

He said the two times he invited the minister, she was willing, and attended his church for Liberation Day celebrations.

And Gadsby-Dolly won over the congregation’s hearts when, rising to speak, she declared, “What a day to be a Baptist. This is the day the Lord has made, we will rejoice and be glad in it.” She received thunderous applause when she sang this hymn.

The minister praised Government Senator Foster Cummings who she said was a Baptist to his heart and has been fighting like a lion for the faith’s rights.

And she too commented on plans for a cathedral.

“You have a Prime Minister who sees the needs of the Baptist people and is willing to say publicly that those needs will be met,” she said. She also advised that if Baptists have to go forward and take their place in TT, they must do so as one united body, and called on members to speak with one voice in order to push forward and accomplish their goals.

“There is now a pathway to building a cathedral,” she said, “but someone has to clear it in order to reach the goal.”

In 1917 when the Shouter Prohibition Ordinance was passed banning them from practising their faith, now one knew how far Baptists would have come, but they had, she said. The ordinance was repealed on March 30, 1951, and a holiday to commemorate the lifting of the band was declared in 1996 by the Basdeo Panday administration.

“Twenty years from now you will see a lot of development for the Baptist faith,” Gadsby-Dolly assured the congregation. “This Spiritual Baptist faith is a legacy for our African ancestors. Think about how it was for them. How they had to speak in one voice to get ahead.”

Cummings said in order for the cathedral to become a reality those in the Baptist faith will have to own up to it, put labour into it and put love in accomplishing it.

A pastor in the faith, Cummings called on members to research their history and see who was involved in the struggle in the early days. Apart from the cathedral, Cummings said he was happy that Government promised a cemetery for the faith. “In the past, we had to beg others to bury our dead. Now we will not have to do that,” he said.