This Spot of Ground: Spiritual Baptists in Toronto represents the first detailed exploration of an African-Caribbean religion in the context of contemporary migration to Canada. Toronto is home to Canadas largest black population, a significant portion of which comprises Caribbean migrants and their descendants. This book shows how the development of the Spiritual Baptist religion in Canada has been shaped by the immigration experiences of church members, the large majority of whom are women, and it examines the ways in which religious experiences have mediated the members’ experiences of migration and everyday life in Canada. This Spot of Ground is based on a critical ethnography, with in-depth interviews and participant observations of church services and other ritual activities, including baptism and pilgrimage and field research in Trinidad that explores the transnational linkages with Spiritual Baptists there. The book addresses theoretical and methodological issues also, including the development of perspectives suitable for examining diasporic African religious and cultural expressions characterized by transnational migration, an emphasis on oral tradition as the repository of cultural history, and linguistic and cultural hybridity. This Spot of Ground contributes new information to the study of Caribbean religion and culture in the diaspora, providing a detailed examination of the significance of religion in the immigration process and identity and community formations of Caribbean people in Canada.

If you appreciate Operation World as an adult, your kids will love this invaluable and age-appropriate prayer resource that develops cultural, political, and geographical awareness. This revised edition includes new entries for more countries and people groups, with updated information and prayer points. Young people and adults alike can discover and pray for the peoples of the world.

Tempest in the Tropical Paradise is Michel Reich’s saga of Philippines during World War II. Here are three unforgettable men: Lieutenant Tom Hawkins, an American army fighter pilot; Miguel Cruz, a Filipino aircraft mechanic; Juanito Gomez, a handsome Filipino army officer in love with a woman forbidden to him. From the skies over Luzon, from the jungles in Bataan to the inner lives of historical figures like Manuel Quezon, Douglas MacArthur and Basilio Valdez, Michel Reich captures the drama, romance, heroism, sacrifice and tragedy of World War II in the Philippines.

This book was written primarily for the people of Trinidad and Tobago. Nevertheless, it would be of great interest to the Caribbean Diaspora, and individuals who wish to understand the social, cultural, political, and economic dynamics of a developing Caribbean nation. Partially written in dialect, the text has afforded him a forum to reveal some secret and uncomfortable episodes in his life. His carefree style has allowed ample humor, making the narrative quite entertaining. In his research on the Steelpan, the national instrument of Trinidad and Tobago, he was able to take an unbiased glimpse of the twin-island state and its incomparable sweetness; no mater how twisted, the sugarcane owns its sugar. However, despite the sweetness, many terrible upheavals in the society have caused an unforgivable nasty sourness in the system.

When Trinidad was twelve, his Wiccan parents blew themselves up in an ecoterr attack that killed several Christians. Orphaned and disillusioned, he fled his home—and his best friend Castile—to soldier for the powerful Christian church inside the walled city of Boulder, Colorado. Fostered by a loving priest and trained by a godless warrior, Trinidad learned the brutal art of balancing faith and war. He is the perfect archwarden, disciplined and devout. But when his Bishop turns up with a silver scar she claims is proof of angelic orders to crusade, Trinidad alone knows her story is a lie. The silver is from a mystical, ancient graveyard called the Barren—a place of healing reached only by Wiccan magic, a place that could turn Christianity on its head. Accusing her outright is treason and gaining proof means committing heresy, both of which is a death sentence for an archwarden. Instead, torn between the lure of powerful magic, his love for Castile, and his vows to defend the Church, Trinidad secretly conspires with a violent tribe of ancestor-worshipers and a Wiccan coven to stop the crusade. But as everyone he trusts is mired in betrayal and bent on vengeance, he soon realizes no amount of righteousness can stop the slaughter of thousands.