![]() The attention of the world is shining a bright light on Christianity in Canada, for better or worse. The church over which he cares is deprived of their minister. His wife and children are deprived of his presence. Credit must be given to this brother who is willing to pay the price for the convictions he holds in his service for Christ. This is a tragic situation on numerous levels. The church had been ordered closed in late January for refusing to adhere to the AHS COVID rules. ![]() The RCMP observed from the outside, noting the church’s continued non-compliance. Sunday, March 7, the church’s associate pastor, Jacob Spenst, again preached to a packed service, limited only by the fire code capacity of the church, the third time since Coates’s arrest. This seems likely to go to Canada’s Supreme Court for final adjudication. As of last Friday, a provincial court judge refused to release Coates when he appeared before him, meaning James will be held until the three-day court date of May 3–5 which will decide his fate. Those consequences fell hard on Coates when on February 16, after turning himself in to provincial authorities, he continued to refuse to comply with the rules going forward so the judge felt there was no other alternative but to keep him in custody until he relented, or a judge ruled otherwise. The church had been in repeated defiance of the masks mandate, social distancing requirements and limited seating orders (15% of fire code capacity) and had been warned numerous times that there would be consequences. ![]() By now many evangelicals in the United States are aware that James Coates, pastor at GraceLife Church remains in the Edmonton Remand Centre for violating the Alberta Health Services COVID rules at the church.
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