Dr Glenville Ash­by

The scene was idyl­lic as a range of re­li­gion-cul­tur­al ex­pres­sions graced York Col­lege Per­form­ing Arts Cen­ter. In­vo­ca­tions, Quran­ic recita­tion, In­di­an clas­si­cal dances, Ro­man Catholic litur­gy, Orisa li­ba­tions, and the tolling bells of Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tist daz­zled. Cou­pled with the mu­si­cal syn­creti­sa­tion of the pan, tas­sa, tabla, and sitar-the au­di­ence was vi­su­al­ly and au­di­bly trans­fixed. It was the first sal­vo in a se­ries of events to mark T&T's 50th an­niver­sary as an in­de­pen­dent state. Hun­dreds, in­clud­ing mem­bers of the Caribbean con­sular corps, packed the pop­u­lar the­atre for the four-hour long in­ter­faith and thanks­giv­ing ser­vice that al­so fea­tured ad­dress­es by the Di­as­po­ra's re­li­gious fig­ures on the theme, Faith in a Mod­ern World.

Con­sul Gen­er­al Rudraw­tee Nan Ram­goolam, who re­ceived a procla­ma­tion on be­half of cit­i­zens of T&T by the deputy Brook­lyn Bor­ough pres­i­dent, used the oc­ca­sion to es­tab­lish the Trinidad and To­ba­go In­ter­faith Coun­cil in New York (TTIFC­NY), to be chaired by T&T Guardian cor­re­spon­dent Dr Glenville Ash­by. Ram­goolam, who took of­fice in Sep­tem­ber last year, em­pha­sised the defin­ing role that re­li­gion has played in civic aware­ness and de­vel­op­ment. "Faith-based pro­grammes suc­ceed where oth­ers have failed, as faith can be a tremen­dous mo­ti­vat­ing force, while re­li­gion mo­ti­vate peo­ple to­ward pub­lic good." She re­it­er­at­ed her gov­ern­ment's sup­port for faith based or­gan­i­sa­tions, and pro­posed ini­tia­tives to strength­en the faith of the Di­as­po­ra. "How can you be pro­duc­tive cit­i­zens in your adopt­ed home­land, while re­tain­ing your iden­ti­ty? We can look to our home­land for fa­mil­ial and pat­ri­mo­ni­al link­ages. There are tremen­dous op­por­tu­ni­ties for ex­change of knowl­edge, skills, and busi­ness op­por­tu­ni­ties with in­ter­est­ed groups in Trinidad and To­ba­go. To­ba­go is al­so the per­fect place to hold re­li­gious re­treats and con­fer­ences," she not­ed. She said that the new­ly formed TTIFC­NY "will be at the fore­front of spir­i­tu­al em­pow­er­ment and a re­newed civic and so­cial com­mit­ment to mem­bers of the Di­as­po­ra."

Glenville Ash­by is a New York cor­re­spon­dent.