Former president of the Tobago United Spiritual Baptist Assembly Bishop Mural Dillon believes a feasibility study must be undertaken to determine how the rest of the construction of the church's long-awaited multi-purpose facility at Signal Hill will be carried out.
In 2006, the Tobago House of Assembly (THA) granted the Baptists two acres of land, west of the army camp at Signal Hill, to build the facility.
Work on the project started a few years later but stalled for a while before resuming in 2019. But it was shut down again in 2020 when covid19 was declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organization and the TT government decided to stop non-essential activity to prevent the spread of the virus.
Dillon, who is also the leader of the El Bethel Spiritual Baptist ministry, Mt St George, said members of the church want to complete the project.
'We started the building. A basement was constructed and we were about to cast the ground floor because of the topography of the land, it is a slope. We did a deck pan and then the covid came in and that stopped because you couldn't get people to work,' he told Newsday.
To compound matters, Dillon said the organisation's treasurer also died during the pandemic.
'So things were put on hold for a while.'
Saying members are expected to meet in April, after today's Liberation Day observance, Dillon said he will ask for the future of the project to be put on the agenda.
'I think that we are going to look at it and do a feasibility study as to where we at and how we will progress with it until we complete it. We will have to take it in phases.
'I will throw that out to the committee when that time comes. But I can't give an exact time when it will finish.'
Spiritual/Shouter Baptist Liberation Day commemorates the repeal on March 30, 1951, of the 1917 Shouter Prohibition Ordinance, which prevented them from carrying out activities associated with their faith.
It was declared a national holiday by former prime minister Basdeo Panday in 1996.
To commemorate the occasion in Tobago, Dillon said Baptists will gather at the old First Citizens carpark in Scarborough at 8.30 am for what he called a song service, before their major celebration at the Mt Bethel Baptist Church, Pumpmill, at 10 am.
'At the song service, we may even take the opportunity to say a few words about the faith as the spirit moves us.'
After the song service, the Baptists will walk along Carrington Street before turning into Wilson Road and finally, the Mt Bethel Baptist Church.
Dillon, who is also secretary for social services in Spiritual Baptist Faith Inc, said the global organisation is pushing for the full registration of Baptists as a religious body.
'That is our main intention at this time, to have that worldwide recognition.'
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