‘Free at last!’ Spiritual Baptist archbishop shouts 

Seventy years after Spiritual Baptists in St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) first marked their “liberation day”, an archbishop declared on Wednesday that they were “free at last” as they observed the inaugural annual national holiday approved by Parliament in honour of the faith.

Archbishop and Primate of the Spiritual Baptist Archdiocese of SVG, Melford Pompey noted at a worship service of Spiritual Baptists at Victoria Park that SVG is the birthplace of the faith.

He, however, noted that Trinidad and Tobago has had a Spiritual Baptist national holiday for years. 

“This is the turn for St. Vincent and the Grenadines. … It is here the foundation was laid for the Spiritual Baptists, and so, today, we can shout, and if you can just raise your hand and shout, ‘Free at last! Free at last!’” Pompey said.

“We have a holiday and we can shout for joy. ‘Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the morning’,” Pomoey said, quoting the Bible and the theme of the service. 

Pompey said any member of the faith who was not proud of the day was “not a true Spiritual Baptist”.

“We, as Spiritual Baptists, we are proud. We are proud to be Spiritual Baptists. Gone are the days when the people who joined the Spiritual Baptist, we say they are from the poor and working class, they didn’t have a job title,” Pompey said. 

“But today, we are attracting doctors and lawyers. We’re attracting politicians. We are attracting nurses, we are attracting civil servants,” he said at the service that heard addressed from Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves, Minister of Ecclesiastical Affairs Curtis King, Minister of Culture Carlos James, and Central Kingstown MP, St. Clair Leacock, an opposition MP who spoke on behalf of Opposition Leader, Godwin Friday.

“We are attracting everyone, and what is left for us to do as Spiritual Baptists is to hold our heads up high and let our life living show,” Pompey said.

He urged members of the faith to “show that the God we serve is a God that looks from above and blesses the poor and the rich, the black and the white, the intelligent, and also not so much intelligent. 

“Today we are happy that as Spiritual Baptists, we were able to march the streets of Kingstown today,” Pompey said. 

On Aug. 27, 2024, Parliament passed, with bipartisan support, a law declaring May 21 a public holiday in honour of the Spiritual Baptist faith, which historians say was founded in SVG.

A colonial law passed on Oct. 1, 1912, outlawed Shakerism and it remained in place until March 22, 1965, when it was repealed by the Legislative Council, led by Ebenezer Theodore Joshua, the country’s first chief minister. 

However, on May 21, 1951, a case filed against Spiritual Baptists in Georgetown who were represented by Robert Milton Cato, who became the first prime minister, failed.

Since then, members of the faith have held May 21 as the date of their liberation, although their persecution might have continued even after the case. 

The worshipers at the service on Wednesday included members of the faith who had travelled from Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Grenada, the United States and the United Kingdom.

Pompey lauded the efforts of the members of the committee in making the event “a day that all Spiritual Baptists can be proud of. 

“If you are not proud of this day, then you’re not a true Spiritual Baptist,” said Pompey, who is also chair of the National Spiritual Baptist Day Committee of SVG.

“I remind us, when the people assembled in the upper room to receive the consolation of the Holy Spirit, they were with one accord. And today we can say, today we have fought, and today we have prevailed.”

He thanked God for “answering prayer”. 

“This road was not an easy one, the journey, the struggle and the freedom, they were real, but today we can raise our hands and say, ‘We are, we are, we are free, we are triumphant!’” Pompey said.

“Today, as a spiritual Baptist, celebrate!” Pompey said, adding that people would like all elements of Spiritual Baptist worship.

“… but I can assure you today that what we do, we must ensure that from heaven we can hear the voice I am well pleased today.”

Pompey said that the celebratory activities have included visits to schools to help with morning devotion. 

“And the report so far is encouraging. I believe that the time has come with this inaugural spiritual Baptist day that we can start teaching the Spiritual Baptist in our schools,” Pompey said.

“I believe the time has come, just like prior to National Hero’s Day or even Independence, that day before that the Spiritual Baptist can go into the schools, teach our children let them know what we went through, our struggle, our journey and our triumph,” Pompey said.  

He said that more and more young people are getting into the Spiritual Baptist faith.

“We’re no longer looked at as the faith that is being discriminated [against], although some people want to [against] discriminate us. But we will stand and be resolute. 

“We will be resilient in our efforts and allow everyone to see that the same God of Isaac, of Jacob and of Abraham is the same God we worship here today.”
Pompey said he was happy with the results of the hard work of his committee. 

“I am happy that you have turned out in your numbers, and you show how true you are to this noble of faith we call the Spiritual Baptist,” he said and urged members  “to continue the journey. 

“It is not going to be an easy one from here, but through many dangers, toils and snares we have already come. His Grace has brought us safe thus far, and His grace will lead us home.”

Pompey urged Spiritual Baptists to unite, telling them, “Stop the tearing down of one another. 

“Stop believing you are better than each other, but unite as one for united we stand, divided, we fall, and God Himself want us to unite as one people because we are one people, one nation, one nation for we receive one baptism under God.”

Pompey urged members to bring up their children in the Spiritual Baptist faith.

“Get them to go and take water baptism and take a throne of grace like you did in the Spiritual Baptist Church, and by so being the strength of the Spiritual Baptist will continue to grow.”