Paula Lindo – Our histories, stories, present, future.

Like many other Christians, members of the Spiritual Shouter Baptist faith have a personal relationship with how they practice their faith. How they minister to others is also a matter of personal choice and the talents they have.

Well-known Baptist singer Beverley “Sister Bev” Irish said she doesn’t think there is much difference between the Spiritual Shouter Baptist faith and other branches of Christianity. “Everyone worships in their own way, but I think if we’re all worshipping and we’re worshipping towards God, I think that is the mark right there.”

She said she came to the faith through her family. “I need to make it clear that my faith is in God, my faith is not in the religion but because of my ancestral background, the struggles of my grandparents and my parents within the Spiritual Baptist faith, I’m there. I haven’t changed anything, I have no intention of changing anything but I love God, I worship God, that’s where my faith is, in God.”

She said there are often misconceptions about the religion and said her personal view might be different from others. “If you look at our way of fellowship, all that we do within the Spiritual Baptist faith comes under and from John the Baptist, and John the Baptist was a baptiser, so the Spiritual Baptists, we just put the spirituality into it and we say we are of the Spiritual Baptist faith. Now you will speak to Spiritual Baptist people and everybody will give you a different etymology on what is a Spiritual Baptist.”

Irish said she represents the Spiritual Baptist faith all over the world through singing. “That has been one of the most prominent things in my life, where I fellowship all over the world, singing and doing the Baptist sankeys. The sankeys are one of the things that we have within the Spiritual Baptist church. It’s more an ancestral thing, long ago when our ancestors were having struggles, they used to hum and sing, they used to raise little sankeys, little hymns and they would sing it in the church and it would make them feel more release in whatever it is that they’re doing. I am the person who sings all those Baptist sankeys that you hear people singing on the roadside, I am the Sister Bev who sings all those little sankeys in those little hymnals, I have seven albums of them and you can find some of my recordings online. I live in Boston, and I come home every year from Christmas, until Liberation and then I go back. This year I have a concert on April 6 at Naparima Bowl in San Fernando.”

Elder Marlene Browne, who is a teacher within the church, said although her parents were Baptists, she grew up as an Anglican. “When I reached a certain point in my life I got a call and I began worshipping as a Baptist. I have a prayer room and Bible Study called Sankofa’s Prayer and Healing School where I teach. Every two months or so I would keep a service. It’s not a church but it’s a service to keep the place heated up and nice, just a reminder of something, and people from the prayer room and friends of mine would attend. I have two churches that I attend, they are my next of kin spiritual brothers and sisters, that’s in Couva and Barataria.”

Browne is a Traditional Elder in the faith, “which signifies that I’ve come through a lot, physically and spiritually, and then from your spiritual life you are able to understand your carnal life, because then you understand why things happen and you’re able to look at things in a much different way. During my time in life, I had a lot of problems and I have grown, learned and struggled in the Baptist faith and now I’m at a point where all the struggles that I had, made me the finished product that I am. Now I understand what life is about, why it is, why we had troubles, why we had struggles and all these teachings and experiences that we have is what brings us to the point of the finished product. You cannot be a teacher unless you have experiences, so after all the healing has taken place, you understand why and you are now able to teach and pass on.””