SPIRITUAL BAPTISTS
STANDING STRONG
AGAINST ALL OBSTACLES
By Roxanne Stapleton
Express
March 30, 2000
Page 32 & 34
|
The National
Evangelical Spiritual Baptist Faith, known as the
Shouters (47 years) Shouter
Baptists
believe in: Coaching
/ teaching. Biblical doctrine. Spirituality / Mourning / fasting. Respect. Honesty.
Humanity. Morality. Family values. |
The
Baptist community has experienced a measure of success in
sharing information on their past struggles.
In previous times, they were not a recognised body, and much of the
things they were identified with, lay behind closed doors. Today it is no longer so.
In
1996 the Government granted a public holiday to the Spiritual Baptist faith, to
be celebrated on March 30, called Spiritual Baptist / Shouter Liberation Day,
in memory of the struggle and in recognition of the Repeal of the 1917
Prohibition Ordinance of March 30, 1951.
In
the Spiritual Baptist Church there was no organisational affiliation or
structure, and the faith grew with the blossoming of individual churches -
"camps", as they were called - established as and when the spirit
gave guidance and instructions. Church
membership was congregational and the control of the affairs of the church
resided in each individual church with the Leader or Mother.
In
those not-too-distant days, the establishment, reading the political potential
of this movement, decided to suppress the Spiritual Baptist movement, thus
sending them underground. In its
formative years, prayer meetings of the early followers of the faith were
always secret and kept in the woods at night.
There
were no churches, as they exist today.
Spiritual Baptist churches took the form of thatched huts or shacks with
wooden altars and benches in the remotest parts of the country. As a result there are no parish churches and
it is not uncommon for eight or nine separate Spiritual Baptist churches to
exist in one area.
The
Baptists suffered much persecution and prosecution resulting from the ordinance
to render illegal the practices of the body known as the Shouters, and the
order of the day was "beat and arrest, fines and imprisonment for the
Spiritual Baptist". Perhaps the
faith, like the early Christian faith, grew and spread in spite of the law.
It
was during those years of active and persistent harassment that the first
organisation of Spiritual Baptists was formed.
BELIEFS
Baptism
is the first requirement of those who are called or chosen to join the
faith. Such initiation is an invitation
to walk in God's way and to follow His will, to divorce oneself from the
carnal, and to follow elements of spirituality, putting down Adam, the first in
flesh, and being raised in Christ.
Before
one is baptized, one is required to attend prayer services in order to be
prepared for baptism. Such preparation
entails lectures, singing sankeys, hymns, and the teaching of the gospel. One has to repent and believe before one can
be baptized. This is called the seat of
repentance. Each candidate is immersed
in water, dipped under the cross, and resurrected into a new life.
MOURNING
Mourning
is basically a Godly sorrow, which entails prayer and meditation with fasting
and self-sacrifice. During the period
of prayer and fasting the aspirant is placed in a secluded room for a short
period of time and is attended by a teacher - who is the pointer - and a
spiritual nurse. There is no set
duration for mourning. It may last for
seven, 14 or 21 days.
The
aspirant develops the special gifts that enable him/her to achieve the moral
light of wisdom, knowledge and understanding and the ability to face up to the
higher calling of his or her spiritual office and the challenges of daily
living.
The
rite of mourning is representative of the culture and social life as practised
by the slaves who were brought to Trinidad and Tobago. It is an African custom that has been
retained.
THANKSGIVING
Feasting
and festival are integral to African life and are attended to with great
ceremony. The ceremony of thanksgiving
is an important aspect of the African's ancestral heritage. Since it contains much religious significance,
it is an important part of the faith.
In
the Shouter Baptist faith, thanksgiving is observed by a special service, consisting
of a candle service, a flower service, an offering service with a table of
fruits, bread and cakes or a week of feasting.
Thanksgiving
is not only giving. There is a
reciprocal benefit, because as one gives one receives many spiritual
blessings. The more you give, the more
you prosper because giving is a sign of generosity, and has its own reward.
PILGRIMAGE
Pilgrimage
is very significant in the Shouters' faith.
It is an important way for one assembly to met another. On a pilgrim journey people meet and bestow
spiritual greetings, extending love, peace, unity and promulgation of the
gospel. In Yoruba ritual pilgrimages
evoked nostalgia in every spiritual person or the believing African.
CANDLE LIGHTING
Candle
lighting is highly symbolic to the Spiritual Baptists or the people of the Shouter
Baptist faith. For them, both the wax
and the light are meaningful. Not only
does the burning of candles play a very important role in the life of every
Spiritual Baptist, but it is also a part of the belief system of the
worshippers.
The
wax symbolizes primitive man in his darkness, whereas the wick represents the
light and glory from this sense of primitiveness. More importantly, this transition represents the movement for a
sense of an unformed consciousness (the first order of things) to that of a
more developed form of consciousness. The
wick represents life's protection from spiritual darkness.
The
Baptists have come a long way. In Wine
of Astonishment, through Earl Lovelace's literary brilliance, the reader
jumps into each character's skin, and can feel their pain.
Their
experiences become an extension of the imagination, rather than a figment. It becomes the epic Baptist journey,
correctly set in Trinidad. You sit at the
window of the pages of the book and become a witness to police brutality, in
its most unfair rawness.
In reality,
such were the experiences of early Baptists in Trinidad and Tobago.