Glenville Ash­by

By the Yoru­ba tongue and the talk­ing drum, by the hym­nal tone and the tolling bell, and by the scrib­bled seal and the im­pas­sioned plea, the Or­isha faith­ful and Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tists in Brook­lyn, New York, de­liv­ered a clear and weighty mes­sage–We are but one faith! Hun­dreds, brav­ing the bit­ing cold, turned out at the Yoru­ba-Or­isha Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tist Church on Nos­trand Av­enue to com­mem­o­rate Our La­dy of Lour­des Day. A co­terie of spir­i­tu­al lead­ers from T&T, Guyana, Ja­maica, and St Vin­cent paid homage to the pa­tron saint of the church with songs, drum­ming and ser­mons.

It was a day of rit­u­al­is­tic splen­dour, pageantry and the tra­di­tion­al rai­ment of Africa. A long ta­ble laden with fruits, pas­tries and food part­ed the aisle–a dis­play that be­daz­zled and grabbed the at­ten­tion.

Arch­bish­op Sel­wyn Wilkin­son, long cred­it­ed with bring­ing vis­i­bil­i­ty to the faith, beamed with pride: "We first start­ed back in 1974 in Uti­ca, and look what we have ac­com­plished. Imag­ine de­liv­er­ing the in­vo­ca­tion on Na­tion­al Prayer Day in the Sen­ate!"

Grand­mas­ter Philip Lewis of Guyana and Arch­bish­op Sel­wyn Wilkin­son of Trinidad.

And to the wild cheers of parish­ioners and well wish­ers, he added: "This day re­minds me of the Day of Pen­te­cost, where you will see peo­ple speak­ing all kinds of lan­guages: Ara­bic, Yoru­ba, Hin­di, Chi­nese...This is the beau­ty of our re­li­gion. We are a won­der­ful peo­ple who've just got to get our­selves to­geth­er." This was but the open­ing sal­vo. As the drums rolled with gus­to, the en­er­gy was be­com­ing more and more palat­able. Soon, hands were flail­ing and bod­ies sway­ing. Ear­li­er, lead drum­mer Michael Whit­tle of Bel­mont, Trinidad, said: "I love this re­li­gion be­cause the en­ti­ties tell you un­be­liev­able things that turn out to be true. I am talk­ing from ex­pe­ri­ence." The evening was al­so about un­der­stand­ing and ap­pre­ci­at­ing tra­di­tion­al val­ues.

Above: Drum­mers at the Yoru­ba-Or­isha Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tist Church in New York.

Dr Philip Sargeant made this very point: "We come from the Caribbean, where you have to go to church and fear God. Now you see peo­ple leav­ing their land and com­ing here and adopt­ing cus­toms that (are) mak­ing our chil­dren sick. But it feel­ing good, so we do it." Lat­er, Arch­bish­op Su­laneh Lewis, a na­tive of Ja­maica, held court with a stir­ring tes­ti­mo­ni­al of her con­ver­sion to the Or­isha-Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tist faith.

"I used to live in a so-called so­phis­ti­cat­ed area in New Jer­sey, till one day I heard some mu­sic–the drums... Thank God for Arch­bish­op Sel­wyn... He take me to the highs and lows in spir­it work. I even lived in Trinidad and know now how to cook your food...But spir­i­tu­al food is the sweet­est of foods." She vi­brat­ed...and vi­brat­ed. She danced a dance in­ured with an un­earth­ly dis­play of form and move­ment. She was hand­ed a stick of chalk and be­gan in­scrib­ing seals on­to the floor, un­in­tel­li­gi­ble to the unini­ti­at­ed.

Left: Arch­bish­op Su­le­nah Lewis.

By late evening, the at­mos­phere was supreme­ly charged. The crowd had thinned. But now dozens ringed the ta­ble. The drums reigned and the hymns were now a faint mem­o­ry. A litany for the Or­ishas was un­leashed. Arch­bish­op (Sel­wyn) Wilkin­son seized the mo­ment–a ves­sel for some "pow­er." He grabbed a ma­chete and in­sert­ed it in­to his mouth, and down his throat–the wood­en han­dle jut­ting out. Some gasped, hands seal­ing their mouths in ut­ter dis­be­lief. The gates to the spir­it world had swung open. The Or­ishas were in­vit­ed...and they ac­cept­ed.

Glenville Ash­by is a New York-based

jour­nal­ist and au­thor.