Christians take to streets for Palm Sunday amid SoE

KAY-MARIE FLETCH­ER

Se­nior Re­porter

kay-marie.fletch­[email protected]

Port-of-Spain res­i­dents woke up to the sounds of hymns and sight of wav­ing palms yes­ter­day, as dozens of Catholics and An­gli­cans joined to­geth­er in a dis­play of re­li­gious sol­i­dar­i­ty to pray for the cap­i­tal city.

The an­nu­al Palm Sun­day pro­ces­sion took place as the coun­try re­mains un­der a State of Emer­gency (SoE) and the cap­i­tal con­tin­ues to be a tar­get for crim­i­nals.

Since the SoE came in­to ef­fect on March 3, there have been at least 22 mur­ders record­ed.

The Trinidad and To­ba­go Po­lice Ser­vice’s (TTPS) Port-of-Spain di­vi­sion alone saw a surge of vi­o­lence re­cent­ly, with three mur­ders oc­cur­ring in just six hours on a sin­gle day.

Bish­op of the An­gli­can Dio­cese of Trinidad and To­ba­go, Right Rev­erend Claude Berkley, be­lieves the pro­ces­sion was a bold step and a re­minder of the dif­fi­cult de­ci­sions need­ed to bring the city back to good or­der.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia fol­low­ing the pro­ces­sion yes­ter­day, Rev Berkley said, “In spite of the fact that there are mur­ders, there’s crime, there’s vi­o­lence, we have had a bless­ing of the city, and it speaks to every­one to take a de­ci­sion, per­son­al and col­lec­tive­ly, about how we can change our lives for the bet­ter… I re­flect­ed briefly on us hav­ing a palm cross and fronds of palm, which are signs of peace, and the guns that the po­lice had right next to us.”

De­spite the crime, the Bish­op said he ob­served a high­er turnout this year than the last, which he be­lieves is a sign that the pub­lic still be­lieves in God’s pro­tec­tion.

The pro­ces­sion took place from Aber­crom­by, to Knox and Fred­er­ick streets, then In­de­pen­dence Square, be­fore re­turn­ing to Aber­crom­by Street.

It was led by Berkley and Mon­sign­or of the Mi­nor Basil­i­ca Cathe­dral of the Im­mac­u­late con­cep­tion Fa­ther Mar­tin Sir­ju.

Port-of-Span May­or Chin­ua Al­leyne al­so took part in the pro­ces­sion.

Al­leyne said, “It was very beau­ti­ful to see all the per­sons com­ing out from the An­gli­can church as well as the Catholic church join­ing to­geth­er for the cel­e­bra­tion. This is the sec­ond time that I’ve at­tend­ed here at the Cathe­dral. I grew up in the All Saints An­gli­can Church and Palm Sun­day is a very im­por­tant cel­e­bra­tion on the cal­en­dar for the Chris­t­ian com­mu­ni­ty as we en­ter Holy Week.”

In her mes­sage to the na­tion yes­ter­day, Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la Per­sad-Bisses­sar urged cit­i­zens to pause and re­flect on their prin­ci­ples.

Per­sad-Bisses­sar said, “As Holy Week be­gins, I urge all who ob­serve to pause, re­flect, and re­new their com­mit­ment to the prin­ci­ples that guide us. Let this not be on­ly a re­mem­brance of what Christ en­dured, but a recom­mit­ment to how we live. Let us not on­ly pro­claim Him in word, but re­flect Him in ac­tion, in how we treat one an­oth­er, how we serve, and how we up­hold what is right.”

“On be­half of the Gov­ern­ment and peo­ple of Trinidad and To­ba­go, I ex­tend sin­cere wish­es for a peace­ful, blessed, and spir­i­tu­al­ly en­rich­ing Holy Week. May this sa­cred sea­son bring re­newed faith, strength of char­ac­ter, and abid­ing grace to all. And may God’s con­tin­ued bless­ings rest up­on every fam­i­ly and guide our na­tion in peace, uni­ty, and pur­pose.”

But what is the sig­nif­i­cance of Palm Sun­day?

Among the dozens of Catholics who took part in the pro­ces­sion yes­ter­day, An­ua Lei­th said, “Palm Sun­day is def­i­nite­ly the Sun­day be­fore East­er when Je­sus made His way in­to Jerusalem, and I think it is a sig­nif­i­cant time for Chris­tians on this earth.”

And one de­vout An­gli­can, 87-year-old Holy Trin­i­ty Cathe­dral ush­er She­lah Work­man said, “The Palm Sun­day means the be­gin­ning of the suf­fer­ing that Je­sus went through for us so that we can be free from sin and live a life of faith for Him.”

While young and old Chris­tians were al­lowed to move through the streets, the Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tist com­mu­ni­ty, cel­e­brat­ing their pub­lic hol­i­day to­day, were pro­hib­it­ed from hold­ing their march in San Fer­nan­do.

Ini­tial­ly, the Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tists be­lieved they were de­nied ap­proval to host a planned march be­cause of SoE re­stric­tions, but po­lice said it was due to a late ap­pli­ca­tion.