Am­bi­ka Ja­gas­sars­ingh

am­bi­ka.ja­gas­sars­ingh
@guardian.co.tt

“In the great dark­ness there is dawn to be had.”

These were the words Prime Min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley shared with the na­tion yes­ter­day, as he host­ed a Na­tion­al Day of Prayer, the third of its kind to oc­cur since the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic.

Speak­ing at the Diplo­mat­ic Cen­tre in St Ann’s, Port-of- Spain, dur­ing the Na­tion­al Ser­vice of Re­flec­tion and Thanks­giv­ing, as the coun­try con­tin­ues to strug­gle in the face of a ris­ing crime wave where mur­ders have reached record fig­ures, Dr Row­ley urged cit­i­zens to keep their faith strong, re­gard­less of their de­nom­i­na­tions and teach­ings.

“With­out faith, we are lost. We have to have faith in our­selves, faith in our neigh­bours, faith in our teach­ers, faith in our doc­tors, faith in our lead­ers, faith in our coun­try, as we have faith in our gods.”

He said that as he lis­tened to the var­i­ous re­li­gious heads speak­ing at yes­ter­day’s ser­vice, it was in­ter­est­ing to note that they all went to their re­li­gious books in times of need, since he al­so did the same.

Read­ing from Psalms 145:14 from the Holy Bible, Dr Row­ley said, “The Lord up­holds all who are falling and rais­es up all who have bowed down.”

He ex­pressed his hope that the pan­dem­ic was com­ing to a close, since its im­pact was felt not on­ly through­out the coun­try, but around the world.

“We are ex­pe­ri­enc­ing hope­ful­ly, but not cer­tain­ly the end of the pan­dem­ic...It has been with us for years, it has punched us like a hit in the so­lar plexus, it has burnt up our sav­ings, it has tak­en some of our loved ones.”

Dur­ing his ser­mon, Arch­bish­op of Port-of-Spain Charles Ja­son Gor­don left some words of wis­dom to the con­gre­ga­tion.

“Out of suf­fer­ing, we emerge bet­ter and out of chal­lenge we emerge stronger and clear­er with far more in­sight.”

He spoke of the tu­mul­tuous pe­ri­od T&T went through dur­ing the pan­dem­ic, and con­tin­ues to go through as the coun­try slow­ly emerges from its grip.

“A lot of what we see in our so­ci­ety is re­al­ly trau­ma that is be­ing played out in our schools, as we saw the up­surge of vi­o­lence. Trau­ma played out in our streets; we’ve seen the up­surge of vi­o­lence. Trau­ma played out in our fam­i­lies, as fam­i­lies have had to be face to face,” Arch­bish­op Gor­don said.

He added that a lot of times when per­sons are trau­ma­tised, the pri­ma­ry re­ac­tion is anger, which needs to be dealt with ap­pro­pri­ate­ly.

“The trau­ma that we are ex­pe­ri­enc­ing as a na­tion is some­thing that we have to con­scious­ly un­der­stand and con­scious­ly work to heal,” the Arch­bish­op em­pha­sised.

The Arch­bish­op added that if cit­i­zens were to be re­spect­ful of each oth­er, things may im­prove.

“If we be­come a peo­ple who re­spect one an­oth­er and a peo­ple of com­pas­sion and a peo­ple of grat­i­tude, we’ll do our spir­i­tu­al work to­geth­er and you know then we could all gath­er and say may every creed and race find an equal place.”

Lead­ers from sev­er­al re­li­gious per­sua­sions op­er­at­ing in T&T, in­clud­ing Pun­dit Dr Ram­per­sad Paras­ram, Imam Maulana Atif Ma­jeed Su­laimani and Rev­erend Keron Khellawan, al­so prayed for the coun­try dur­ing the cer­e­mo­ny.

The cer­e­mo­ny was al­so at­tend­ed by sev­er­al Min­is­ters, mem­bers of Gov­ern­ment and May­or of Port-of-Spain Joel Mar­tinez.