Derek Achong

Se­nior Re­porter

derek.achong@guardian.co.tt

Po­lice Com­mis­sion­er Al­lis­ter Gue­var­ro has apol­o­gised for the role of po­lice of­fi­cers in pre­vent­ing Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tists from prac­tis­ing their faith for over three decades.

Gue­var­ro ad­dressed the en­force­ment of the Shouters Pro­hi­bi­tion Or­di­nance be­tween 1917 and 1951 by po­lice of­fi­cers, as he ad­dressed Spir­i­tu­al Shouter Bap­tist Lib­er­a­tion Day cel­e­bra­tions host­ed by the Na­tion­al Con­gress of In­cor­po­rat­ed Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tist Or­gan­i­sa­tions of T&T (NCOIS­BOTT) at its head­quar­ters in Bal­main, Cou­va, yes­ter­day.

“It is a sober­ing re­minder that in our own na­tion­al sto­ry, the law was once used to si­lence cul­ture, iden­ti­ty and spir­i­tu­al ex­pres­sion. That is what they used the law for,” Gue­var­ro said in ref­er­ence to the 1917 Shouter Pro­hi­bi­tion Or­di­nance.

He added, “We ac­knowl­edge that the in­stru­ments of the State, which in­clud­ed at that time the Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Force, as it was known, were used to sup­press your com­mu­ni­ty. To­day, we stand in a dif­fer­ent place.”

He not­ed that since then, the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) has trans­formed and is now com­mit­ted to re­spect­ing cit­i­zens’ right to free­dom of con­science and re­li­gious be­lief and ob­ser­vance.

“We stand as pro­tec­tors of con­sti­tu­tion­al rights and we stand com­mit­ted to en­sur­ing that no com­mu­ni­ty in this coun­try will ever again face the dis­crim­i­na­tion un­der the law for their be­lief or for their her­itage,” Gue­var­ro said.

He not­ed that de­spite the dis­crim­i­na­to­ry colo­nial-age leg­is­la­tion, which was even­tu­al­ly re­pealed, the faith was able to thrive through re­silience, de­vo­tion and an un­shake­able sense of pur­pose.

“We ho­n­our a com­mu­ni­ty, not a man, a com­mu­ni­ty that sur­vived not on­ly hard­ship, but pro­hi­bi­tion,” Gue­var­ro said.

“You all pre­served a faith tra­di­tion that stands to­day as a proud pil­lar of the Trinidad and To­ba­go spir­i­tu­al land­scape,” he added.

Gue­var­ro not­ed that mem­bers of the NCOIS­BOTT are now part­ners with the TTPS in crime-fight­ing ini­tia­tives.

“When you, the Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tists, on the cor­ner pray­ing, they ain’t sell­ing no drugs, you know,” he said.

“We will con­tin­ue to sup­port com­mu­ni­ty en­gage­ment and ac­tiv­i­ties such as ser­vices, march­es and pro­ces­sions all aimed to­wards na­tion­al safe­ty and se­cu­ri­ty, fos­ter­ing peace, uni­ty, and a col­lec­tive re­jec­tion of crim­i­nal­i­ty,” he added.

In his ad­dress, Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tist Arch­bish­op Wayne Jones called up­on the con­gre­ga­tion to re­mem­ber the strug­gle en­dured by the an­ces­tors over 75 years ago.

“To­day, we gath­er in a sa­cred cel­e­bra­tion and thanks­giv­ing as we com­mem­o­rate 75 years of spir­i­tu­al free­dom. A di­a­mond ju­bilee that stands as a pow­er­ful tes­ti­mo­ny to the faith­ful­ness of God and the per­se­ver­ance of our peo­ple,” Jones said.

“To­day, be­cause of their courage, we stand free. Free to wor­ship, free to praise, free to pro­claim the name of our Lord with­out a fear. This free­dom is sa­cred,” he added.

How­ev­er, Jones called on the con­gre­ga­tion to look to­ward the fu­ture with hope.

“The next gen­er­a­tion must not on­ly in­her­it our faith, but un­der­stand it, cher­ish it, and car­ry it bold­ly in­to the fu­ture. Let our church­es re­main places of refuge, heal­ing, and trans­for­ma­tion in a world that is so des­per­ate­ly in need of God’s pres­ence,” Jones said.

“Let us pre­serve the sanc­ti­ty of our tra­di­tions, deep­en our com­mit­ment to spir­i­tu­al dis­ci­pline and con­tin­ue to up­lift each oth­er through prayer, uni­ty, and ser­vice.”

The event was at­tend­ed by hun­dreds of wor­ship­pers dressed in tra­di­tion­al colour­ful dress­es and head-ties and armed with bells, chac-chacs and conch shells.

They spent hours singing and chant­i­ng to the rhyth­mic sounds of a large troupe of drum­mers. The theme of this year’s cel­e­bra­tion to mark 75 years since the or­di­nance was re­pealed was “Let Free­dom Reign.”