Ye Shall Dream

The Spiritual Baptist Church, thought to be present in the English-speaking Caribbean from about the late nineteenth century, has long been a fairly potent force in the daily life of the islanders, although its effect has varied depending on the island concerned. Certainly, in Trinidad and St Vincent, the movement has had considerable visibility over the years; and in those countries, its evolution and development have seen the movement take a prestigious place as a respected religious institution in the last two or three decades. However, the movement only extended to Barbados in 1957 when a Spiritual Baptist preacher, a Barbadian by birth, returned to his native island from Trinidad, where he had been living for several years. The Reverend Granville Williams established the first Spiritual Baptist Church in Barbados and has continued to oversee the church's development since its inception.

Ezra E.H. Griffith is Deputy Chairman for Diversity and Organizational Ethics, Department of Psychiatry, and Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Department of African-American Studies, Yale University. He has had a sustained interest in psychiatry and religion for many years. He has been a student of the Barbados Spiritual Baptist Church for over two decades and has published several papers on that faith group and other religious matters.