An­na-Lisa Paul

Se­nior Re­porter

an­na-lisa.paul@guardian.co.tt

Arch­bish­op Bar­bara Gray-Burke is pre­pared to op­pose the in­stal­la­tion of Stu­art Young as Prime Min­is­ter to the Privy Coun­cil if she has to.

De­clar­ing the move was un­con­sti­tu­tion­al, she told re­porters at the Spir­i­tu­al Shouter Bap­tist Church, Mal­oney, “We are not in a com­mu­nist coun­try.”

Com­ment­ing on the se­lec­tion of Young by for­mer prime min­is­ter Dr Kei­th Row­ley, she urged both men to go.

“You step down. You put a man we didn’t vote for. We did not vote for him so he too, could go,” she said

Burke said she was go­ing to “fight that with every inch of blood in my veins be­cause that is un­fair.”

Young came in for a heavy tongue-lash­ing from the Bap­tist leader for sug­gest­ing that the word “Shouter” be re­moved from the hol­i­day. She said that showed his ig­no­rance of Bap­tist cul­ture and the his­tor­i­cal and re­li­gious strug­gles they faced through the years.

Burke ex­plained the name of the hol­i­day held much sen­ti­men­tal val­ue.

In an ad­dress at the Diplo­mat­ic Cen­tre on March 22 dur­ing a cel­e­bra­tion of Lib­er­a­tion Day, Young urged the Spir­i­tu­al Bap­tist com­mu­ni­ty to con­sid­er whether the word Shouter was an ap­pro­pri­ate de­scrip­tion of their faith.

Young said Shouter Bap­tist was a colo­nial term that had been cast up­on be­liev­ers of the faith.

De­clar­ing her po­lit­i­cal loy­al­ties, Burke said the Bible said un­grate­ful­ness was worse than witch­craft.

She re­called that when Bish­op El­ton George Grif­fith begged for­mer Prime Min­is­ter Dr Er­ic Williams for a hol­i­day, fol­low­ers of the faith were de­nied for 25 years be­fore the late Bas­deo Pan­day agreed to ho­n­our their re­quest. For this, she said, they would be eter­nal­ly grate­ful.