Emancipation Day needs Thanksgiving

THE EDITOR: I cannot comprehend how the Emancipation Support Committee of TT could even contemplate celebrating Emancipation Day annually without the inclusion of a Thanksgiving Ecumenical Service or by commencing the day’s activities by playing the national anthem and offering a Thanksgiving prayer by a priest or pastor from one of our several denominational churches, as we cannot afford to leave God out of our celebrations which should not only be celebrated in Port-of-Spain but throughout the whole of TT. I must remind members of the Committee that it was God who freed the first set of slaves, when he sent Moses down to Pharaoh in Egypt with a message “Let my people go that they may serve me” Exodus 7(16) 8(1) 10(3). It was God who inspired Abe Lincoln of the USA and William Wilberforce of the UK to free our ancestors in America and England respectively, and consequently in all British Colonies from slavery.

Although I am a descendant of slaves, I will not participate in the Emancipation Day celebration march, unless and until some sort of thanksgiving prayer or service is included in the programme. I must also remind the Committee that it was God who inspired and moved Sir Winston Churchill of the UK and Franklyn Delano Roosevelt of the USA to free the Jews from tyranny, oppression and slavery in Nazi Germany during the second World War. So we all must give thanks to God for freeing our ancestors from slavery, and to remind ourselves that the God whom we serve is a God of freedom, and that we did not get our freedom to do as we like or to abuse, wound, kidnap, kill or steal from our brothers and sisters as we are doing today, but “to serve God”. Slaves were not allowed to serve God; they drove their slave masters to Church on the Sabbath to serve God, but the slaves themselves had to remain outside to tend the horses and carriages, all the other slaves went to work in the fields 12 hours per day seven days per week which obviously angered the Lord who had decreed that “for six days you shall work but the seventh day is the Sabbath of rest,” Exodus 31 (15) - (17). God wants everyone to serve Him. So please Emancipation Support Committee members, let us commence celebrations on Emancipation Day with the National Anthem, a Thanksgiving Service or prayer not only in Port-of-Spain, but throughout all of Trinidad and Tobago.

PASTOR MARTIN TAYLOR
Arima