Kevon Felmine

Still seek­ing so­cial ac­cep­tance by the wider pub­lic, the Na­tion­al Con­gress of In­cor­po­rat­ed Bap­tist Or­gan­i­sa­tions of Trinidad and To­ba­go (NCI­BOTT) has an­nounced plans to host a week-long Tubal Uri­ah "Buzz" But­ler Vil­lage in San Fer­nan­do. As part of the Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tist Lib­er­a­tion Day cel­e­bra­tions, Bish­op Leon John spoke about plans yes­ter­day dur­ing a me­dia con­fer­ence at the St Pe­ter's Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tist Church in Vista­bel­la, San Fer­nan­do. The vil­lage, which is sched­uled to run from Sat­ur­day to the March 30 hol­i­day, will fea­ture ed­u­ca­tion­al fairs from a gov­ern­ment min­istry each day be­gin­ning at 10 am.

There will al­so be small busi­ness booths per­tain­ing to craft, food, mu­sic, pas­tries and the Bap­tist faith. The evening pe­ri­od be­gins at 6 pm when a cul­tur­al show will fea­ture El­la An­dall, sax­o­phon­ist Fran­cis Prime, the T&T Po­lice Band and Je­unes Agape. John said the Bap­tist com­mu­ni­ty was still scarred by the era of the Shouters Pro­hi­bi­tion Or­di­nance, when mem­bers were so­cial­ly dis­crim­i­nat­ed against in prac­tis­ing their faith.

De­spite ad­mit­ting that much had changed over the past decade in terms of de­vel­op­ment and pub­lic per­cep­tion, he said many peo­ple were still un­com­fort­able not on­ly with the Bap­tist faith but with African cel­e­bra­tions. The bish­op said he want­ed to bring about more change and urged the pub­lic to en­gage in their cel­e­bra­tions. "A promi­nent fea­ture of the Spir­i­tu­al Shouters Bap­tist Lib­er­a­tion Day cel­e­bra­tions this year is the stag­ing of the Tubal Uri­ah 'Buzz' But­ler Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tist Vil­lage. This vil­lage is de­signed in a tan­gi­ble and phys­i­cal sense to demon­strate what Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tists and the wider pop­u­la­tion all as­pire to: name­ly bet­ter life and em­brac­ing op­por­tu­ni­ties for per­son­al growth and de­vel­op­ment." He said But­ler emerged as the leader of the trade union move­ment, but was al­so a spir­i­tu­al leader in the Bap­tist faith and there­fore it was fit­ting to mount the first ever Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tist Vil­lage in ho­n­our of his con­tri­bu­tions. Sat­ur­day's launch of the cel­e­bra­tions will kick off with the an­nu­al street pro­ces­sion at the Bap­tist Mon­u­ment at Carib Street, San Fer­nan­do. A mas­sive ral­ly is sched­uled to take place as well as the bless­ing of the vil­lage. Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar and oth­er politi­cians have al­so been in­vit­ed to speak.

Cel­e­bra­tion sched­ule

March 24

Street pro­ces­sion through San Fer­nan­do

Ral­ly at Band­stand on Har­ris Prom­e­nade

For­mal open­ing of the Tubal Uri­ah "Buzz" But­ler Vil­lage

Small busi­ness booths (Op­er­a­tional)

Cul­tur­al

March 25

Church pil­grim­age to Bap­tist Vil­lage

Min­istry of Health In­ter­ven­tion

Small busi­ness booths (Op­er­a­tional)

Cul­tur­al show

March 26

Min­istry of Health In­ter­ven­tion

Small busi­ness booths (Op­er­a­tional)

Cul­tur­al show

March 27

Min­istry of Peo­ple and So­cial De­vel­op­ment

Small busi­ness booths (Op­er­a­tional)

Cul­tur­al Show

March 28

Min­istry of Agri­cul­ture

Small busi­ness booths (Op­er­a­tional)

Cul­tur­al show