The obelisk at Carib Street, San Fer­nan­do re­mains a sym­bol of tri­umph in the Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tist com­mu­ni­ty, who over­came the colo­nial op­pres­sion of hav­ing to hide to prac­tice their faith.

Now lib­er­at­ed and recog­nised as a God-fear­ing peo­ple and equal-sect of so­ci­ety, hun­dreds of wor­ship­pers donned their Afro­cen­tric wear and vo­cif­er­ous­ly de­clared their Lord through the streets of San Fer­nan­do on Sat­ur­day for their an­nu­al pro­ces­sion ahead of the March 30 Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tist Day hol­i­day.

Be­gin­ning at the obelisk, lead­ers and moth­ers prayed for the na­tion’s strength, us­ing the tra­di­tion­al cal­abash and flow­ers in anoint­ing the land. The mon­u­ment was pre­sent­ed to the City by the Bap­tist com­mu­ni­ty to mark the first Na­tion­al Shouter Bap­tist Day in 1996. With their colour­ful dis­play, the dis­ci­ples pro­ceed­ed to the Na­tion­al In­sur­ance Board of­fice along Har­ris Prom­e­nade, where there is a Cross in the yard. The Cross re­mains a mon­u­ment of the first Bap­tist church in T&T, which was es­tab­lished by the late Arch­bish­op El­ton Grif­fith.

Rev Wil­fred Ed­wards of the Mount Mo­ri­ah Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tist Church, Vance Riv­er told Guardian Me­dia that the pro­ces­sion com­mem­o­rat­ed the lib­er­a­tion of the Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tist faith and marked the be­gin­ning of a week of ac­tiv­i­ties.

The lib­er­a­tion that Ed­wards spoke of was from the pe­ri­od 1917 to 1951 when the Spir­i­tu­al and Shouter Bap­tist faiths were banned by the then colo­nial gov­ern­ment through the Shouters Pro­hi­bi­tion Or­di­nance. Dur­ing that era, Bap­tists caught prac­tis­ing their faith were ar­rest­ed, fined and im­pris­oned.

“This func­tion is about vis­it­ing the mon­u­ments in re­mem­brance of the an­ces­tors; the fa­thers of the faith who had worked as­sid­u­ous­ly for free­dom. Free­dom is one of the high­est ideals that man can strive for and they have won it through the years by their ded­i­ca­tion and with the help and as­sis­tance from God, who had sus­tained them up to this pe­ri­od of time,” Ed­wards said.

This year’s cel­e­bra­tion al­so ho­n­ours the late Tubal Uri­ah “Buzz” But­ler, who is most­ly known for his strug­gles and vic­to­ries for the work­ing class and was a fore­fa­ther of the trade union move­ment. But But­ler was al­so a preach­er in the Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tist faith.

“He is ac­tu­al­ly a fight­er for us, who be­gan the strug­gle for both labour and for the Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tist faith.”

Wor­ship­pers then gath­ered at the band­stand for prayers and wor­ship.