Fel­low cit­i­zens,

To­day, the na­tion joins mem­bers of the Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tist com­mu­ni­ty in com­mem­o­rat­ing their hard-won right to wor­ship, con­gre­gate and prac­tise their re­li­gion with­out fear of dis­crim­i­na­tion or sanc­tion. Covid-19 re­stric­tions oc­ca­sion a scal­ing back of the cel­e­bra­tions, a pity giv­en the usu­al ex­u­ber­ant phys­i­cal man­i­fes­ta­tion of the an­nu­al ob­ser­vances. How­ev­er, the joy and ju­bi­la­tion of the Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tist faith­ful have with­stood many tri­als in the last cen­tu­ry and will un­doubt­ed­ly best the chal­lenges of the pan­dem­ic while serv­ing to in­spire and heart­en all of us in the na­tion­al com­mu­ni­ty.

The re­peal of the Shouters Pro­hi­bi­tion Or­di­nance, on this day sev­en­ty years ago, was a tremen­dous vic­to­ry over the colo­nial sta­tus quo, bring­ing to an end years of so­cial and le­galised op­pres­sion of Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tists. Un­der threat of ha­rass­ment, de­ten­tion and fi­nan­cial penal­ty, Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tists kept their cus­toms alive, meet­ing se­cret­ly, protest­ing pub­licly, and chal­leng­ing the ju­di­cial sys­tem to over­turn the egre­gious ban. Re­sis­tance came from var­i­ous sec­tors of so­ci­ety and found cham­pi­ons in fiery trade union leader Tubal Uri­ah But­ler, ca­lyp­son­ian At­ti­la the Hun and politi­cian Al­bert Gomes, among oth­ers.

Ac­tivism, open and be­hind the scenes, was the im­pe­tus for the Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tist lib­er­a­tion move­ment, and their jour­ney pro­vides a valu­able blue­print for the present-day groundswell of ef­forts to bring about so­cial trans­for­ma­tion, par­tic­u­lar­ly in the ar­eas of racism and gen­der-based vi­o­lence. The cam­paign­ers were or­gan­ised and em­braced a com­mon goal and were pre­pared to make sac­ri­fices, nev­er wa­ver­ing in their com­mit­ment to the cause. Their ex­pe­ri­ence teach­es us that change is of­ten not achieved overnight and can be te­dious, even painful, but that with sus­tained and con­cert­ed ac­tion, it is al­ways pos­si­ble.

Crit­i­cal­ly, when we gain mo­men­tum and ac­com­plish in­cre­men­tal tar­gets, we must con­tin­ue to press for­ward and de­mand bet­ter for our­selves as in­di­vid­u­als, com­mu­ni­ties and na­tion. The Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tists ex­em­pli­fied this, when af­ter the re­peal of the Or­di­nance, they con­tin­ued to ad­vo­cate for their rights and dig­ni­ty, work­ing to dis­pel long­stand­ing so­cial prej­u­dices, and ob­tain­ing a pub­lic hol­i­day in recog­ni­tion of their strug­gle and sta­tus.

As we mark this oc­ca­sion, we bring to mind the Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tist lega­cy of temer­i­ty, per­sis­tence and ac­tion in the face of ad­ver­si­ty. Their fight for and achieve­ment of equal­i­ty, jus­tice and re­spect is a salu­tary les­son that we all can fol­low.

I ex­tend to the Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tist com­mu­ni­ty and the na­tion warmest wish­es for a safe, hap­py and joy­ous cel­e­bra­tion of Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tist Lib­er­a­tion Day.