Insulting and disrespectful

“Divine intervention must now come into play,” Gibbs-De Peza said yesterday at a news conference at Baptist Boulevard, Maloney.

“We are upset about this. We think it is insulting and disrespectful because it is not just one group or one church but a combination of churches that will be celebrating tomorrow (today).” Gibbs-De Peza said the committee, which was formed last year to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the 1917 Shouter Prohibition Ordinance, had requested $1 million from the Government to host this year’s festivities.

“We wrote to the Minister of Community Development, Culture and the Arts (Dr Nyan Gadsby-Dolly) and the Prime Minister (Dr Keith Rowley) since September last year giving them a run down or our plans from November (2016) because it is a year of activities,” she said.

Gibbs-De Peza said members of the committee were told subsequently to focus on activities strictly for Liberation month and not the entire year.

“Then the minister told us to pick out the major events and apply individually for funding.

They said they will see what could happen.” She said she was surprised when, on Tuesday, they received just $20,000. “We have never received such a little bit of money.” Gibbs- De Peza said the committee had invited Baptist delegations from Barbados, St Vincent and Grenada.

She said this year’s celebration would mark the first time that a number of Baptist organisations have come together under the umbrella of the National Congress and National Evangelical Spiritual Baptist Faith.

Shouter Baptist celebrations, led by Episkopus Archbishop Barbara Gray-Burke, will also be held today at the Empowerment Hall in Maloney - a stone’s throw away from the Centenary committee’s event.

This year also commemorates the 66th anniversary of the repeal of the Shouter Prohibition Ordinance as well as the 21st anniversary of Liberation Day being declared a public holiday in Trinidad and Tobago.