By
Norma Scipio,
Founder and Editor
'The Spiritual
Baptist Online News Magazine is not part of, or is it an arm of any Archdiocese,
or a link of any organization whatsoever,
nor is any Archdiocese responsible for the formation of this News Magazine or
its operation. We believe that rendering the 'News Magazine' unattached will
encourage all organizations to recognize that our purpose is to serve the entire
Spiritual Baptist community and not just one section.'
'The first of its kind for
members of the Spiritual Baptist organization worldwide. . . . an online
news magazine.'
I started my early years in
Journalism in Trinidad
and Tobago where I worked with the Target Newspaper, an industrial based
newspaper ran by Trinidad's fearless editor and publisher, Patrick, ‘Choko’ Chookolingo, now deceased. I then moved back and forth between the Sunday
Punch, TnT Mirror and the Bomb newspapers. Later, I went on to the Daily
Newspapers, namely, the Trinidad Guardian Newspaper and the Trinidad Express Newspaper.
Dating back to those early
days, I always wanted a news medium for members of the
Spiritual Baptist community. There were two reasons. I learnt that
members of the traditional press were not always willing to give much space on
their pages or time on the airwaves for what the ‘Baptists’ had to say.
Secondly, members of the
faith felt as though they believed that to get their story in the media they must have a
'connection'.
It was only the grassroots
papers, i.e. the weeklies, which were willing to listen to the cause of the
'Baptists' who were seen as the underdog.
I remember once while working
with the Trinidad Guardian Daily newspaper,
that I asked about 'Baptist' articles being printed in the papers. A senior
journalist
replied, “the Baptists always come after the fact.” What he meant was that
the 'Baptists' were only seen at their offices bearing the message of doom and gloom after a
calamity occurred. He was referring to those people who sometimes
had a 'vision for the nation'.
He was not aware that
many of these people lived away from the city and were unable to pay
transportation to reach the newspaper offices in a timely manner. Some of
these people were accustomed giving their messages walking from village to
village and only ventured into the City hoping that the newspapers would assist
them in reaching a greater number of people when they were advised by others to
take this path.
However, the then Editor-in-Chief, Therese Mills, rebuffed the
statement and assured me that it was okay with her that I write articles on the
faith for Newspaper. Sometime later, under the guidance of the Editor Lennox
Grant, I ran a series of articles called ‘FAITH.’ This was an
effort to enforce to members of the Trinidad and Tobago community that the
Spiritual Baptist religion is a Christian based religion.
However, I believe that
little has
changed. Despite the fact that others have continued on this line, there need to
be a medium that the Baptists can call their own. We need to know what is
taking place with our brothers and sisters at home and abroad. We need to
acknowledge that not just one country can be described as the home country for
members of the Faith. Our religion has stretched beyond the Caribbean to the United
States, United Kingdom and also on the African continent.
Through the use of the
internet and the Spiritual Baptist Online News Magazine we can easily learn what
our brother and sisters are doing abroad. We can feel connected although we may
be thousands of miles apart. Unification of the churches has been a shared
concern among our leaders, here is where we can start and continue with positive
interaction.
Should there be one common
agreement among members of the Spiritual Baptist family is that we have come a
long way. According to one Elder of the Faith, ‘from hiding to preach the gospel
in secret-forested-areas, we then moved to the street corners; from carat-houses
we moved to our own churches, ‘koutias,’ temples, shrines and prayer-rooms or
prayer-houses, spiritual healing schools etc.
Our growth has been so
tremendous that we have Churches as large as Cathedrals. Among the examples are
the St. Paul's Spiritual Baptist Church in Cap-de-ville, Point Fortin, Trinidad, founded by
Archbishop Ivan Lancaster, and St. Michael's Paiwing Spiritual Bapitst Church
also in Cap-de-ville, Point Fortin founded by Leader Neville
Thomas and Mother Thomas, both now deceased.
In our midst today, are well
educated members of the Faith who have pursued higher education, as compared to
those of the early days of the religion who could neither read nor write.
Those elders were born in the
late 1800s, and the first decade of the 1900s. They who bore the
handicap of being illiterate, yet were gifted with the skill of retaining what
was read to them have all passed onto the great unknown. We are proud that
today, standing in our midst are members who can all boast of having earned a
sound education. In fact, one can safely say that 99.5% of the members
Spiritual Baptist family are literate.
Many others have moved on and
have gained academic qualifications such as Bachelors’ degrees, Master’s degree,
and Doctorates in Medicine, Philosophy and Theology. Others have acquired
professional qualifications as nurses, doctors, lawyers, teachers, professors,
administrators etc.
To be educated along these
lines is excellent, however, we need to keep abreast with what is happening in the
world today. We are in the age of technology and as a body of people we need to
move ahead. We need to omit “I can’t” from our vocabulary and replace it with
“I need to know how to.”
Fortunately in every church
there are members who are computer literate. Let this be an opportunity for
sharing, teaching and learning! Have small classes where those who already are
computer literate can teach those who are computer illiterate. Should each
church, (between now and the end of the year) through the kind services of one
of its members who is already computer literate teach five members how to use
the internet think how much more improved we will be.
As I mentioned at the
launching of this news magazine on August 19th, 2006
at the Marriott Hotel in downtown Brooklyn, our effort is to
link the Spiritual Baptist churches worldwide through our pages via the
internet.
The Spiritual Baptist Online News Magazine is not part of, or is it an arm of
any Archdiocese, or a link of any organization whatsoever, nor is any Archdiocese responsible for the formation of this
News Magazine or its operation. We believe that rendering the 'News Magazine'
unattached will encourage all organizations to recognize that our purpose is to
serve the entire Spiritual Baptist community and not just one section.
Based on this we
invite ALL churches in the Spiritual Baptist global community to be part
of the Spiritual Baptist Online News Magazine.
In the meantime please visit
our site regularly and view what our global family is doing. Remember wherever
you are, as long as you are a member of the faith this magazine is for you.
We
are an independent institution and free ourselves of any attachments. Wherever
you are, whoever you are WELCOME TO PARTICIPATE.
Our readers
can contact us:
(718) 778-1682
(718) 354-7226
or
editor@spiritualbaptist.org
* Norma Scipio holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Legal Studies and is
presently
working on her Master of Public Administration degree.
