May 1 is usu­al­ly the day cel­e­brat­ed by labour around the world as May Day.

How­ev­er, yes­ter­day, the In­ter-Re­li­gious Or­gan­i­sa­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go (IROTT) an­nounced that it is sug­gest­ing a day of prayer for the na­tion, in light of “all the ac­tiv­i­ties tak­ing place in the coun­try and world at large.”

In a me­dia re­lease, the IRO head­ed by Rev­erend Dr Knol­ly Clarke, said it is aware of the glob­al pan­dem­ic caused by COVID-19 and its many vari­ant strains.

The group said it con­tin­ues to sup­port the World Health Or­ga­ni­za­tion (WHO) and the Min­istry of Health in mak­ing the right de­ci­sion for our coun­try.

The Na­tion­al Day of Prayer in­vites heads of all re­li­gious or­gan­i­sa­tions to par­tic­i­pate.

Ac­cord­ing to the IRO, May Day has many mean­ings and sig­nif­i­cance, and it is of the opin­ion that it is a good day “to ask Cre­ator God, in all his won­drous names and man­i­fes­ta­tion, to make a hal­lowed call of spir­i­tu­al help and guid­ance, to bring peace, pro­tec­tion, heal­ing, mu­tu­al re­spect and un­der­stand­ing to the peo­ple of this na­tion.”

The or­gan­i­sa­tion said it has writ­ten to Pres­i­dent Paula-Mae Weekes and Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley, who have both ac­knowl­edged re­ceipt of the let­ters.

Ac­cord­ing to the IRO, Weekes has en­dorsed the sen­ti­ments ex­pressed by the IRO that this spir­i­tu­al call will pro­vide com­fort, re­new faith and reignite hope for the peo­ple of this na­tion.

The IRO is al­so call­ing on the na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty, fam­i­lies, the Op­po­si­tion and oth­er lead­ers in the coun­try to par­tic­i­pate in their own spaces even as they con­tin­ue to ad­here to the COVID-19 guide­lines.

The IRO not­ed that COVID-19 has posed in­nu­mer­able chal­lenges to church­es all over the world. It not­ed that mem­bers of many church­es will be slow to re­turn to church gath­er­ings and some may nev­er re­turn at all, and the day of prayer is a way of con­nect­ing spir­i­tu­al­ly for one pur­pose.