There are very few places in the world where re­li­gious free­dom and di­ver­si­ty can be com­mem­o­rat­ed on as many lev­els as is hap­pen­ing this week in T&T.

For Chris­tians this is Holy Week, mark­ing the life, death and res­ur­rec­tion of Je­sus Christ.

On Sun­day, the lo­cal Hin­du com­mu­ni­ty joined in world­wide cel­e­bra­tions of Phag­wa, a colour­ful fes­ti­val that has its ori­gins in ac­tiv­i­ties to mark the start of spring, good har­vests and fer­til­i­ty.

Mus­lims, an­oth­er sig­nif­i­cant re­li­gious group in the coun­try, are ob­serv­ing Ra­madan, a time of fast­ing, prayer and re­flec­tion that will cli­max with the cel­e­bra­tion of Eid-ul-Fitr on April 10.

This is al­so a sig­nif­i­cant sea­son for mem­bers of the Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tist faith who are count­ing down to Shouter Bap­tist Lib­er­a­tion Day cel­e­bra­tions on Sat­ur­day, the an­niver­sary of the re­peal of the 1917 Shouter Pro­hi­bi­tion Or­di­nance on March 30, 1951.

This is a pow­er­ful re­flec­tion of the var­i­ous spir­i­tu­al in­flu­ences —Chris­t­ian, Hin­du and Mus­lim sects, African-in­spired syn­cret­ic faiths and the new age be­liefs—that con­tribute to this small but unique cos­mopoli­tan so­ci­ety.

The fact that so many re­li­gious ob­ser­vances are tak­ing place si­mul­ta­ne­ous­ly in a na­tion of just 1.4 mil­lion speaks vol­umes about the har­mo­ny and tol­er­ance that is pos­si­ble, and the pow­er­ful lessons that can be taught to the rest of the world — if on­ly we could get it right.

This di­ver­si­ty, which is too of­ten tak­en for grant­ed, is key to the peace and sta­bil­i­ty that every law-abid­ing cit­i­zen of T&T de­sires.

How­ev­er, while the laws of this land pro­vide for free­dom of con­science and re­li­gious be­lief and prac­tice, in­clud­ing wor­ship, these are priv­i­leges that have not been ful­ly har­nessed for the good of the na­tion.

Had that tru­ly been the case, T&T would not be grap­pling with the ha­tred and vi­o­lence that man­i­fests it­self in the high mur­der rate and gang war­fare that are now so com­mon­place.

There is so much fo­cus on the crime-fight­ing chal­lenges of the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) and oth­er na­tion­al se­cu­ri­ty agen­cies that oth­er in­sti­tu­tions and pro­grammes are over­looked.

Con­sid­er, for ex­am­ple, the pos­i­tive in­flu­ence of the In­ter-Re­li­gious Or­gan­i­sa­tion (IRO), with mem­ber­ship that in­cludes rep­re­sen­ta­tives of the Chris­t­ian, Mus­lim, Hin­du, Or­isha and Baháí faiths.

The IRO can play a vi­tal role in pro­mot­ing trust among var­i­ous faith-based and com­mu­ni­ty groups in this coun­try, as well as in­ter­faith co­op­er­a­tion to con­front the vi­o­lence. There is al­ways room for di­a­logue be­tween re­li­gious and po­lit­i­cal lead­ers on ways to es­tab­lish and pro­mote peace and har­mo­ny in T&T’s crime hot spots.

Al­so, the Gov­ern­ment should be play­ing a much big­ger role in pro­mot­ing re­li­gious tol­er­ance, mov­ing be­yond lip ser­vice, or bizarre al­liances with “spir­i­tu­al ad­vis­ers” and self-pro­claimed prophets to es­tab­lish a prop­er role for re­li­gion in our mul­ti-eth­nic so­ci­ety.

This week of di­verse, re­li­gious ac­tiv­i­ties is thus an ide­al op­por­tu­ni­ty to look at ways to ex­pand tol­er­ance at a wider so­ci­etal lev­el, with more in­clu­sive poli­cies and in­ter­faith di­a­logue.

This sea­son of height­ened re­li­gious ob­ser­vances is al­so an oc­ca­sion to re­flect on the im­por­tance of liv­ing har­mo­nious­ly, show­ing re­spect for each oth­er and pro­mot­ing peace.

Such re­flec­tion could in­spire prac­ti­cal, de­ci­sive ac­tions and mea­sures to im­prove lives and achieve the pros­per­i­ty and sta­bil­i­ty that cur­rent­ly seems so out of reach.