Derek Achong

Se­nior Re­porter

derek.achong@guardian.co.tt

Head of the Coun­cil of Shouter Bap­tist El­ders of T&T, Arch­bish­op Bar­bara Gray-Burke, has called for re­li­gious ed­u­ca­tion to be in­tro­duced in non-de­nom­i­na­tion­al schools.

Ad­dress­ing the con­gre­ga­tion at Spir­i­tu­al Shouter Bap­tist Lib­er­a­tion Day cel­e­bra­tions at the Spir­i­tu­al Shouter Bap­tist Em­pow­er­ment Hall in Mal­oney yes­ter­day af­ter­noon, Gray-Burke said prayer was the so­lu­tion for school vi­o­lence and ju­ve­nile delin­quen­cy.

She said, “Keep the prayers in the school. I say bring back prayers in the gov­ern­ment school ... The po­lice can­not do it all,” she said.

Re­fer­ring to re­cent in­ci­dents of crime, Gray-Burke said that she no­ticed a rise in young peo­ple com­mit­ting vi­o­lent crimes through her work as a Jus­tice of the Peace.

“I am watch­ing lit­tle ba­by chil­dren with a shoot­ing case. Par­ents cush­ion your chil­dren and pray with them,” she said.

She al­so ad­vised the con­gre­ga­tion to avoid sit­u­a­tions that re­sult in con­flict.

“If your neigh­bour mash your corn, you don’t need to mash them back. Let them go free,” she said.

Her call came one week af­ter Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley called on the Spir­i­tu­al Shouter Bap­tist to as­sist in the fight against crime while speak­ing at a Peo­ple’s Na­tion­al Move­ment (PNM) cel­e­bra­tion for the hol­i­day, last week­end.

“I want to say to you, the Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tists, as I call out to par­ents across the na­tion, to try and break the cy­cle of what is hap­pen­ing now by pay­ing at­ten­tion to rais­ing your chil­dren. If there is any­thing you can teach the peo­ple of T&T, you, the Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tist, you can teach the peo­ple how to raise their chil­dren with moral and spir­i­tu­al val­ues,” he said.

Gray-Burke al­so ad­vised the con­gre­ga­tion to teach their chil­dren the his­toric in­jus­tices that their an­ces­tors suc­cess­ful­ly fought against.

She re­ferred to the pro­vi­sions of the Shouters Pro­hi­bi­tion Or­di­nance of 1917, the colo­nial leg­is­la­tion that out­lawed many of the re­li­gious prac­tices of the faith, in­clud­ing bell ring­ing, head wrap­ping, and shout­ing.

The re­peal of the leg­is­la­tion on March 30, 1951, is cel­e­brat­ed on the pub­lic hol­i­day an­nu­al­ly.

“You all have a priv­i­lege, and nev­er let it go to waste,” she said.

“There is no oth­er re­li­gion in this hemi­sphere went through tri­als and tribu­la­tions as the shouter bap­tist. Don’t be ashamed to own your name,” she added.

Gray-Burke, who de­scribed her­self as a proud mem­ber of the Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress (UNC) hav­ing served as a sen­a­tor un­der for­mer prime min­is­ter Bas­deo Pan­day, did not shy away from pol­i­tics, as she knocked the PNM Gov­ern­ment’s bid to im­ple­ment prop­er­ty tax.

“How are we go­ing to live? Would we die? Would we turn va­grants?” she asked as she de­scribed the tax as ex­or­bi­tant.

“If we want to save our homes, I am in­struct­ing you not to say PNM till I dead,” she said.

Not­ing that the pub­lic hol­i­day was de­clared while she was a sen­a­tor and that cur­rent Op­po­si­tion Leader Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar’s gov­ern­ment built St Bar­bara’s Spir­i­tu­al Shouter Bap­tist Pri­ma­ry School, she sug­gest­ed that the faith would on­ly be able to achieve its dream of hav­ing a sec­ondary school un­der a UNC regime.

“We want our sec­ondary school. We must have it,” she said.

Yes­ter­day’s cel­e­bra­tions on­ly drew a mod­est crowd com­pared to pre­vi­ous years, part­ly due to par­al­lel fes­tiv­i­ties be­ing held across T&T, in­clud­ing in Moru­ga.

Those present in their tra­di­tion­al colour­ful cloth­ing were treat­ed to an en­er­getic ser­vice syn­ony­mous with the faith, which fea­tured prayers, bible recitals, singing, chant­i­ng, danc­ing, drum­ming, and bell-ring­ing.