.gif)
Authorities found his church continued to meet as normal over months rather than comply with capacity, mask, and distancing regulations.
A Canadian pastor arrested for violating public health orders remains in police custody after refusing the conditions of his bail: that he stop holding services that defy COVID-19 regulations.
The case of GraceLife Church pastor James Coates has reignited a religious freedom debate over worship gatherings during government lockdowns.
GraceLife Church in Edmonton, after shifting to livestream for the first few months of pandemic, resumed worship over the summer and has met every Sunday “without incident,” it says.
But authorities repeatedly flagged the church for not capping attendance at 15 percent of capacity, requiring masks, or social distancing, as required by health regulations in Alberta.
GraceLife had been fined $1,200 in December, and this month officers found the church again in violation and issued an undertaking requiring Coates to comply. When the church met as usual last Sunday, they called for his arrest. Coates was preaching on Romans 13:1-4, a message titled “Directing the Government to Its Duty.”
Ultimately Coates turned himself in on Tuesday and was arrested on charges of contravening the Public Health Act and refusing the undertaking, the CBC reported. He has twice refused to agree to the conditions of his release, the network said.
The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms, which is representing Coates and Grace Life, said the pastor “could not, in good conscience, agree to” stop holding church services, as ordered.
The commander of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police in the county said in a statement that it has escalated from “education, an opportunity for compliance, and lastly, enforcement” in regards to GraceLife and its objective “is not to interrupt ...
from Christianity Today Magazine
via
.gif)
.gif)
.gif)
