An atmosphere of praise and worship filled the People's Pentecostal Family Church (PPFC) for the opening ceremony of Praise Festival 2015.

The festival began on October 25 and will end on October 30, 2015. This year the festival will feature a series of sessions from a Dominican born overseas based pastor Reverend Dr. St Clair Mitchell.

The festival is held under the theme 'Let Everything that Have Breath Praise the Lord'.

According to the Pastor of PPFC Reverend Casmus John although the festival is usually held before independence, the church felt that now was the perfect time to stage it since the country is coming out of a disaster.

He said that following the storm he heard many reports of praise testimonies of individuals who lost their houses and property.

Therefore, "there are so many reasons to give God praise," said Rev John.

Meanwhile, Government representative Minister of Education and Human Resource Development Petter Saint Jean said "If there is a time that Dominica needs God it is now."

He noted the church of God has an awesome responsibility to restore Dominica to a state of normalcy and to ensure that the country gets back better and bigger than it was before the passage of Tropical Storm Erika.

Saint Jean added that the Government cannot do it alone and needs the intervention of God.

"The church is the only organism known to man able to touch God on behalf of the nation," Saint Jean added.

Furthermore, he said that if the churches rise up in unity Dominica will rise from the ashes of Erika to be a mightier nation.

"I call the church to rise up in perfect unity…forgetting our own ideology standing as a people called by God and intercede on behalf of Dominica and I believe that if the church does that Dominica will rise from the ashes of Erika and Dominica together will become a mighty nation, a mighty force to be reckoned with," he said.