Baptism in the Spiritual Baptist religion is the primary requirement for meaningful connections and communication with the Holy Spirit, and as such it is the basic initiation into the religion. Through this initiation the candidate receives the publicly acknowledged status of a Spiritual Baptist and becomes a member of a Spiritual family, a church. She is then entitled to gradually accumulate knowledge of the religion by participating in ritual practice, becoming involved in the discourse about the belief system, and by undergoing the mourning ritual. Further channels towards religious knowledge open as the initiated member becomes accessible to Spiritual manifestations and learns to interpret visions, dreams, and other Spiritual messages within the framework of the belief system. The knowledge accrued leads eventually to advancement in the hierarchy of the church. The transition into the status of a Spiritual Baptist is ritualised in baptism with special emphasis on liminality. Pointing is structurally identical with baptism, but whereas the latter aims at initiation into the status of a Spiritual Baptist and culminates in baptism by immersion, pointing prepares an already initiated neophyte for the mourning ritual with the purpose
of acquiring further Spiritual knowledge. Both baptism and pointing are usually performed during Sunday services. Due to their structural similarity, the preparatory phase of the baptism ritual is at times referred to as pointing of candidates.
BECOMING A SPIRITUAL BAPTIST
All Tobagonian Spiritual Baptist churches regard baptism as the entry to the religion and its mysteries and apply a fairly similar ritual structure in their baptismal services. There are several small churches with no resident ritual specialist, a Baptiser, but Baptisers from more prominent churches are invited to perform the ritual when necessary so that all churches can initiate new members and function as Spiritual families.
Baptism is most often organised on Sundays as part of the regular service, starting around 10 or 11 in the morning and finishing in the evening before sunset. Elders say that baptism used to last for days – the candidates would come to the church on Wednesday or Thursday, and the Baptiser would point them, ritually put them down to fast and meditate in the mourner room until Sunday. It was also customary to go to the sea in the night, at four or five in the morning, when it was still dark. The baptismal service would thus start on a Saturday night and culminate in the immersion in the wee hours on Sunday morning.
Elders like Mother Cleorita and Leader Gerald emphasise the enhanced Spirituality of night-time services. Few, if any, churches arrange such lengthy rituals for baptism these days. A Mother pointed out that as most Spiritual Baptist elders in Tobago start to get (literally) old, they have trouble bearing the strenuous night-time ritualising. Moreover, nurses and other members of the congregation used to be more dedicated to their cause in the old days, so that now it is hard to find people to work from dusk to dawn. Mother Cleorita complained that people did not want to stay at the church too late and that it was very hard to find volunteers to wade into the waves at four o'clock in the morning. But many Baptisers still receive Spiritual instructions for the overnight ritual, starting on Saturday night and going to the sea on Sunday morning.
Larger churches, like Mt. Paran, St. Francis, Mt. Arrarat, St. Rita's and St.
Philomen have several baptisms each year. From July 1998 to July 1999 there were five such ceremonies at St. Philomen, the amount of candidates in each varying from one to eleven. In 1987 there were about one hundred baptismal candidates in this church, but after that the annual amount has been fewer than forty. During his career as a Leader, starting from 1970, Leader Gerald of St.
Philomen Church claims to have baptised approximately 500 Spiritual sons and
daughters. There is no limit to the number of initiates, and in the annual Palm Sunday baptismal ceremony at Mt. Paran Church there are always several candidates. This large church has an average of twenty candidates every year, according to Bishop Daniel. On the other hand, smaller churches organise baptisms less frequently, usually with one or two candidates each year.
The Spiritual Baptist religion is not systematically evangelical. The only clearly proselytising efforts in the faith are the sporadically arranged missions and to a lesser extent pilgrimages. Missions are aimed at by-passers and people liming on the block, and by preaching the Word the missionaries may attract listeners to eventually join the Spiritual Baptist church. These evangelical endeavours are not systematic or regularly performed, however, and the main purpose is to allow people to hear God’s word rather than to recruit new church members. Although not directly converting people, Baptists do discuss their faith with friends and family members, and some also persuade these to become members of the church by accepting baptism. Sister Penny in St. Philomen Church was quite effective in recruiting candidates, particularly young people she associated with, and Mother Cleorita acknowledged her zeal in a baptism ceremony of five young candidates, including three teen-aged boys, whom she and her cousins had persuaded to accept baptism. Instead of evangelical efforts, visions and dreams commonly cause a person to seek baptism. Leader Brothers explained how he fasted and prayed for nine entire months and then received orders in a vision to go and get baptised:
I met him in a lonely and strange place. He say “You know me?” I say “No Sir.”
He say "How? you doesn’t know me?" I say "I recognise the voice but I doesn’t know." He say "Who does you pray to?" Cause I use to pray to St. Francis but now I pray direct to Christ. He say "Well I am St. Francis, and your prayer was heard, your plea was accepted, and I was sent by God to show you the way." He say that
"You have to baptise." I say "I don’t really… [chuckles] I doesn’t ready…" And he say "Watch. You see the wide ocean there? You have to swim, in that ocean." I say "Sir I cyan swim, I cyan swim." He say "You mus’ not say you cyan, say ‘I’m going to try in the name of the Lord’. Cyan is a coward word," jus’ so he tell me.
And I kneel down and I ask him for pardon. He say "you have to swim." And, the land start to cut, the sea coming in, and he jump down in the water. I afraid, [but] had no choice but to fall in the water. When I fall in the water, the water was clear, and I saw him swimming, songs and hymns, When shall I reach the rockly shore. Swish swash, swish swash, and then I see him climb up a ladder. And he say "Kneel down and let me bless you." He say "You never say you cyan." And I did as he say, and he send me to a man I use to provoke. He use to sell perfume, and I use to call him names, when he smell sweet, understand, so. He said "Go to that man, and he, they having baptism Carnival Sunday 1954. And go to him, and receive your baptism."
This account of St. Francis’ instructions to go and get baptised is a beautifully narrated example of divinely triggered motivation for initiation. It also illustrates the potentiality to transition inherent in baptism as a rite of passage by describing the transformation of Leader Brothers' capacities as a subject in the Spiritual world, plunging into the sea and surfacing as a swimmer.
Quite a few candidates seek baptism in order to find a cure for an illness or to solve other troubles in their lives. Such causes are sometimes questioned by elders who would prefer Spiritual children with less instrumental motives, such as willingness to dedicate their lives to Jesus rather than just to get well. Many initiated members do not attend church regularly, if at all. So, even though Tobagonian Leaders have baptised hundreds of neophytes, the average congregation size remains fairly small. On the other hand, many candidates consider initiation for several years, willing to make a change in their lives but insecure about their ability to handle the transition that baptism brings about.
Because baptismal candidates must be able to make the decision to become baptised by themselves, they are teenagers or adults. The youngest candidate baptised in the ceremonies I have attended was an eight-year-old girl, whose mother was not a Spiritual Baptist but whose older sister was an active member of the church. Most candidates are girls and women under 30 years. Boys and men are also baptised fairly frequently, but their subsequent attendance at services is less common than their female counterparts'.
The ritual specialists in baptism are Baptisers, who are assisted by other elders and nurses. In Tobagonian churches Baptisers are usually male elders with high positions in the church, such as Captains or Leaders.2 Nurses, usually female, are essential for the proceedings in baptism rituals, because they take care of the physical well-being of the candidates throughout the long and demanding service. To become a regular nurse requires no specific Spiritual qualifications, so that all who have been baptised can serve as nurses. Many sisters also come out of the mourning ground as nurses, having received special knowledge and clothes to take care of baptismal candidates or pilgrims in the mourning ritual.
POINTING PILGRIMS ON THE ROAD
Mourners are normally pointed on Sundays and come out on Sundays as well, so that the opening and conclusion of the week-long (or longer) mourning ritual can be embedded in normal Sunday services. The ritual is organised every time a brother or a sister informs the Pointer of the wish to go and mourn, and there are no obstacles for arranging it even for a single pilgrim, although it is preferred to point more than one at a time, given the labour-intensiveness of the ritual.
The larger Tobagonian churches have several mourning rituals each year.
Quite sporadic by nature, the ritual can be organised even twice a month, whereas on the other hand several months may pass without any aspiring pilgrims. Mother Cleorita compared the contemporary "slackness" of Tobagonian practitioners to the "old days," when the St. Philomen Church could have four or five mourners every two weeks, the record being eight pilgrims at the same time.
Nowadays the St. Philomen Church has approximately five mourning rituals per year, the participants ranging from one to five pilgrims. Such pace is, of course, easier to handle as far as the officiators are concerned; finding volunteers available to work with the pilgrims is not easy. Leader Brothers, who founded St.
Rita’s Church in Plymouth in 1971, has pointed over 2900 pilgrims during his long career in the religion and has, moreover, kept records of each pilgrim’s tracks, narrations of their Spiritual journeys, in notebooks.
In the pointing and mourning rituals I have attended the vast majority of neophytes has been female. The youngest pilgrim that I know of was twelve years old on her first Throne of Grace (a metonym of the ritual), but most were adults.
The only requirement for becoming a pilgrim is initiation into the faith. Most pilgrims get a Spiritual calling to go and mourn. This may be a dream, a revelation during praying and meditating, or a vision in church. Many want to perform the ritual when they are sick, be it diabetes, heart disease, cancer or another difficult illness. Occasionally it is the Pointer who receives Spiritual commandments to put down, to point, a particular member of the Spiritual family.
For example, Mother Cleorita told her granddaughter, Sister Penny, to go to mourn immediately after her Baptism. On another occasion, in May 1999, St.
Philomen Church was having a ceremony of Indian prayers when the Spirit showed Mother Cleorita that a newly baptised young sister had to be put down to mourn immediately. In what was called an emergency pointing Mother Cleorita laid bands on the sister, who was then taken to the mourner room to fast and pray for seven days. The sister had no time to make arrangements with her job, family or plans to travel, but nobody questioned the priority of the ritual, since the instructions came from the Holy Spirit through a very reliable interpreter.
Pointing and the subsequent mourning ritual are officiated by a Pointer, assisted by nurses or labourers. The gift to point mourners, to lay bands on them, give them the secret key word, and administrate the prolonged ritual is received after numerous Thrones of Grace. Only elders like Leaders, Teachers and Mothers are advanced high enough to acquire such a demanding responsibility.
The Pointer, then, is the ritual specialist of pointing and mourning, although some other Minister may run the church service during which pointing is performed. The Pointer points pilgrims on their journey, shows them the way, and guides them as they travel in the Spiritual world. In most of the larger,
well-established churches there are more than one Pointer. Some Pointers have more esteem than other, less experienced ones; many aspiring pilgrims come as far as from Trinidad, Toronto or New York to certain Tobagonian churches whose Pointers have the reputation of being exceptionally skilful. Pointers’ clothes are black, long dresses for women and gowns for men, but in accordance with specific Spiritual directions, other colours may be worn as well. Headties, sashes and belts of various colours can be added to the attire, mainly to indicate a Spiritual connection to a saint or a Spiritual nation. Most nurses or labourers, ritual assistants, are women, but occasionally a brother may take up the task. When Brother Errol announced his intention to serve as a male nurse during a whole week’s mourning ritual, the congregation of St. Philomen reacted with cheers and support. It is practical for the nurses to wear simple cotton dresses and headties because they have to march with the candidates for hours in the hot church, and many of them have to accompany the candidates into the sea or the river.
Aprons protect the nurses’ dresses, but also mark their uniform. Some Mothers make a specific point of wearing aprons as an orthodox, old-time custom essential to the proper continuation of the faith, and allow no sisters in their mourner rooms without aprons.
Mother Thelma and Mother Pauline of St. Philomen Church work as a nurses at almost every baptism and pointing ceremony; although grandmothers with countless duties and chores at home and work, they leave their family to move to the church every time a major ritual is conducted. Unlike in the relatively short baptismal services, nurses who work in the mourner room have to make remarkable personal sacrifices as they leave their work, home and family behind for at least seven days, abstaining from worldly activities like eating and drinking what they want, meeting friends, having marital relations, listening to the radio or watching TV, or going shopping. They spend the entire duration of the ritual at the church compound wearing Spiritual clothes and engaging in prayers and services. Most importantly, they take care of the practicalities:
cooking for all the participants, washing clothes, and seeing to the needs of the initiates are among the prosaic chores that fall on the nurses.
Since Spiritual Baptist churches are completely dependent on their congregations’ small donations in collections and on the income from occasional ticket sales for pilgrimages, they have no funds reserved for rituals like mourning.
The aspiring pilgrims are therefore expected to pay for their own paraphernalia.
The Pointer may give a list of necessary items to the aspiring pilgrim, or the latter may give a lump sum of money to the Pointer, who takes care of the shopping.
The paraphernalia required may include numerous packs of candles – white as well as other colours, bottles of oil, honey, Kananga Water, Florida Water, other scented waters or perfumes, talcum powder, polyester cotton of various colours to
make the bands; in some churches the pilgrim buys his or her own pail used as a toilet during the ritual. It is also customary for pilgrims to bring their own mugs, towels and underwear. Women equip themselves with a pack of sanitary pads.
Furthermore, since several people have to labour with the pilgrims throughout the ritual, food and drink must be provided although the pilgrim herself fasts.
Altogether the costs amount to hundreds of dollars,3 ranging from three to six hundred in Tobagonian churches. This is a considerable amount of money, the monthly income of many Spiritual Baptists being as low as 800-1500 dollars.
Charging people who want to go to mourn is a controversial matter for elders. Given the low income level of the majority of Spiritual Baptists, spending several hundreds on a religious ritual is difficult and may hinder or even prevent some brothers and sisters from going to mourn. The Spiritual family may try and collect money to help an underprivileged member to raise the sum needed, but since the largest churches may have dozens of pilgrims every year, the financial burden becomes too heavy for the congregation, should they try to pay for each pilgrim. The money question is not irrelevant, though, as it is considered highly reprehensible to "make money" by doing Spiritual work. Gifts received from God are not to be taken advantage of, and gossip is heard of elders who have misused their gifts and charged people, ending up losing their gifts altogether. It is thus not merely an issue of benevolence or generosity but touches the very basis of the ritual itself, the Pointer’s Spiritual integrity. Elders seldom discuss their fees for mourning in public, although no official secrecy is sworn upon them, to protect their churches from other churches’ accusations of over-charging. Nevertheless, although money and fees related to Spiritual work are under close scrutiny within the Spiritual Baptist community, no Tobagonian church has ever been accused of cashing in under the cover of religion. "Money-making" is generally associated with North American TV-evangelists whom Tobagonians see on their cable channels on Sundays, and abhorred as alien to the Spiritual Baptist religion.
TRANSITION INTO THE LIMINAL
Victor Turner’s theory of liminality and anti-structure (1967, 1969, 1974) helps to assess the transformations in Spiritual Baptist knowledge and practice. These transformations come about through liminal spaces, either in rituals or, less evidently, in visions and dreams. As rites of passage, baptism and mourning adhere to the tri-partite structure of separation, margin and reaggregation analytically dissected by van Gennep and further elaborated by Turner (1967, 5;
Victor Turner’s theory of liminality and anti-structure (1967, 1969, 1974) helps to assess the transformations in Spiritual Baptist knowledge and practice. These transformations come about through liminal spaces, either in rituals or, less evidently, in visions and dreams. As rites of passage, baptism and mourning adhere to the tri-partite structure of separation, margin and reaggregation analytically dissected by van Gennep and further elaborated by Turner (1967, 5;