The Spiritual Baptists have come a long way from being beaten into submission. Gillian Caliste can now examine the light that has held the faith together and brought them national attention. We have this church. But is our own.
Black people own it.
Swaying bodies would give themselves to the rhythm, to the song of the invisible force that commanded them to move. The spiritually possessed would shake and spin and smash themselves against wood and concrete as if their bodies were not their own. I would later learn that one's body is no longer one's own when the Holy Spirit takes charge - that the Holy Spirit cannot be denied when It comes calling. But back then, I would watch the rituals of the Spiritual Baptists through my child's eye, half fascinated, half terrified - my terror fuelled by eerie tales people told about the worshippers. The candles, too, intrigued.