Baptists denied march, hold prayer week instead

RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­[email protected]

Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tists were re­fused per­mis­sion to stage a planned march in San Fer­nan­do un­der the State of Emer­gency, but will pro­ceed with a week of prayer from Sun­day.

King Shep­herd Ray Brath­waite, head of the Na­tion­al Con­gress of In­cor­po­rat­ed Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tist Or­ga­ni­za­tions of Trinidad and To­ba­go, said the group in­tend­ed to host prayers and a pro­ces­sion from the Bap­tist Mon­u­ment on Carib Street but could not se­cure po­lice ap­proval.

He said he could not say with cer­tain­ty if the de­ci­sion was di­rect­ly tied to SOE reg­u­la­tions, but that ex­pla­na­tion was giv­en.

The or­gan­i­sa­tion in­stead held a way­side ser­vice on Har­ris Prom­e­nade to mark the start of ac­tiv­i­ties com­mem­o­rat­ing the faith.

This year marks the 75th an­niver­sary of the re­peal of the 1917 Shouter Pro­hi­bi­tion Or­di­nance, which out­lawed Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tist wor­ship.

Brath­waite said the theme, “Let free­dom reign,” re­flects past strug­gles and present free­doms, adding po­lice once sup­pressed the faith but now pro­vide pro­tec­tion.

He said mem­bers con­tin­ue to pray for the coun­try, in­clud­ing ef­forts ad­dress­ing crime and so­cial is­sues.

A se­ries of events is planned at the group’s head­quar­ters in Bal­main, Cou­va, in­clud­ing nights fo­cused on youth, men, women and the di­as­po­ra.

Un­der the cur­rent SOE, de­clared on March 2, 2026, no clause ex­plic­it­ly bans pub­lic march­es or as­sem­blies. How­ev­er, the Emer­gency Pow­ers Reg­u­la­tions, 2026 give the State and the Com­mis­sion­er of Po­lice wide au­thor­i­ty to re­strict move­ment.

Reg­u­la­tion 4(1)(f) al­lows the Com­mis­sion­er to re­quire any per­son to leave or avoid any area, a pro­vi­sion which can be used to block or dis­rupt a planned march.