PM commends Baptists’ contributions to education, culture

In cel­e­bra­tion of Spir­i­tu­al Shouter Bap­tist Lib­er­a­tion Day, Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar is prais­ing the Bap­tist com­mu­ni­ty for their con­tri­bu­tion to na­tion­al de­vel­op­ment, as she asks them to pray for peace and uni­ty for Trinidad and To­ba­go.

In a re­lease yes­ter­day, she said, “On be­half of the Gov­ern­ment and peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go, I ac­knowl­edge with deep re­spect the en­dur­ing con­tri­bu­tion of the Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tist com­mu­ni­ty to our coun­try’s de­vel­op­ment. Your jour­ney stands as a tes­ta­ment to the sus­tain­ing pow­er of faith. As the Holy Bible af­firms: ‘God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trou­ble.’ (Psalm 46:1) That truth has sus­tained your com­mu­ni­ty and con­tin­ues to up­lift our coun­try. May God con­tin­ue to bless you, your fam­i­lies, and your com­mu­ni­ty, and may His hand al­ways guide, pro­tect and strength­en our beloved na­tion.”

The Prime Min­is­ter added, “To­day, the Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tist com­mu­ni­ty con­tin­ues to make a sub­stan­tial con­tri­bu­tion to na­tion­al life, strength­en­ing com­mu­ni­ties and shap­ing our moral foun­da­tion through faith, ser­vice, and cul­tur­al ex­pres­sion, with its im­pact seen across ed­u­ca­tion, pub­lic ser­vice, cul­ture, health­care and com­mu­ni­ty life. At a time of se­ri­ous na­tion­al chal­lenges, that ex­am­ple car­ries par­tic­u­lar weight. I en­cour­age the com­mu­ni­ty to con­tin­ue to up­hold its tra­di­tions of faith, dis­ci­pline, and ser­vice, and to lift our na­tion in prayer for peace, heal­ing and uni­ty.”

Her mes­sage comes as the Bap­tist com­mu­ni­ty cel­e­brate two mile­stones.

The re­lease added, “On this Spir­i­tu­al/Shouter Bap­tist Lib­er­a­tion Day, I ex­tend sin­cere greet­ings to the Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tist com­mu­ni­ty across Trinidad and To­ba­go as they com­mem­o­rate two defin­ing mile­stones: the 75th an­niver­sary of the restora­tion of your free­dom to wor­ship and the 30th an­niver­sary of this day’s des­ig­na­tion as a na­tion­al hol­i­day. These an­niver­saries mark a de­ci­sive jour­ney from pro­hi­bi­tion to full recog­ni­tion.”

Re­flect­ing on her own lega­cy, the Prime Min­is­ter high­light­ed the “tan­gi­ble in­vest­ment” made, es­pe­cial­ly when it comes to ed­u­ca­tion for Bap­tists.

“The re­peal of the Shouter Pro­hi­bi­tion Or­di­nance in 1951 end­ed a grave in­jus­tice. Full recog­ni­tion, how­ev­er, re­quired na­tion­al ac­tion, achieved in 1996 un­der a UNC gov­ern­ment led by the late Bas­deo Pan­day, dur­ing my tenure as At­tor­ney Gen­er­al. One of the first acts of that gov­ern­ment was to es­tab­lish this na­tion­al hol­i­day, plac­ing the Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tist faith in its right­ful po­si­tion of ho­n­our. In do­ing so, Trinidad and To­ba­go set a glob­al prece­dent and re­mains the on­ly coun­try to have ac­cord­ed this lev­el of na­tion­al recog­ni­tion. That com­mit­ment was strength­ened dur­ing my tenure as Prime Min­is­ter (2010–2015) with the es­tab­lish­ment of the St Bar­bara’s Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tist Pri­ma­ry School, en­sur­ing that recog­ni­tion was matched by tan­gi­ble in­vest­ment in ed­u­ca­tion.”