Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar hailed the ad­vance­ments of the Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tist com­mu­ni­ty over the last three decades.

She said while the Shouters 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. “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,” Per­sad-Bisses­sar re­called.

She added, “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 the first of its kind in Trinidad and To­ba­go and the world. In­deed, it will al­ways be a source of deep pride for me that the UNC’s trail­blaz­ing poli­cies over the past three decades have en­sured that the Spir­i­tu­al/Shouter Bap­tist com­mu­ni­ty is now wide­ly recog­nised and cel­e­brat­ed for their im­mense con­tri­bu­tions to our na­tion’s cul­tur­al, so­cial, and re­li­gious de­vel­op­ment.”

The Op­po­si­tion Leader said as the 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.

She urged the Spir­i­tu­al/Shouter Bap­tist com­mu­ni­ty to say a spe­cial prayer for T&T to over­come this dark­ness.