PM tells Baptists: History no drawback to progress

PRIME MINISTER Patrick Manning urged members of the Spiritual Baptist community not to allow history to prevent them from moving forward and playing a part in Trinidad and Tobago’s overall development. Addressing the Fourth International Convention of Spiritual Baptists at the Hilton Trinidad on Sunday, the Prime Minister said, “It is a matter of record that within the region, the larger part of the history of that community and the Baptist faith has been a history of oppression and struggle. But that struggle must not be allowed to hold back anything in the nature of progress.”

Recalling the well-known psalm, “Weeping may endure for the night, but joy cometh in the morning,” Manning told the assembled delegates, “You have been through many struggles and you have endured. “You have been through trials and tribulations and you have overcome.” He added that the Baptist community now found itself at the crossroads and it was “a whole lot better when you are crossing the intersection and heading in the right direction. “It is time to galvanise those networks and take your followers through that quantum leap that would bring about new dimensions and dynamics towards their economic advancement and empowerment, and towards a more balanced relationship and interdependence with the rest of the world; and for achieving dignity, respect and admiration that is the right of the Baptist community to claim or accord, in much the same way as it might be claimed or accorded to any others within our societies.

There are, of course, no overnight solutions or quick fixes,” the Prime Minister declared. Manning added that as government strived to transform TT into a developed nation by 2020, it would ensure that “no group, no community, no sector and no quarter of our national community is left out.” At Sunday’s convention, a memorandum of understanding (MOU) was signed between the Rose Foundation and AMR Caribbean Ltd, which will give local Spiritual Baptists part equity/part ownership in a new radio station which they hope to establish.