“It’s not as though the church is being singled out in any way, shape, or form.” That March, after much debate, the church chose compliance. Coates argued compliance was the correct course at that time because of the health concerns, and because authorities were not individually targeting or persecuting GraceLife. Romans Chapter 13 commands believers “to submit to the governing authorities, recognizing that they’ve been given authority from God,” he acknowledged. But the Book of Hebrews, on the other hand, “exhorts us not to forsake the gathering of the saints.” In it, he acknowledged church leaders were “wrestling” with what to do. As in all his pronouncements, Coates cited scripture. Later that month, two days after Alberta reduced gathering limits to 15 people and ordered the closure of “non-essential” businesses, Coates recorded a message for GraceLife members. The church defied Alberta government public gathering restrictions on the weekend and held a church service where almost 300 people attended, many without face masks and ignoring social distancing regulations. “Nevertheless, we understand our role in being prudent leaders and want to ensure the health and safety of each member to the best extent possible.” Face masks and hand sanitizer in the lobby of GraceLife Church in Parkland County, Alberta. “We can have full assurance and confidence that our God knows what is going on, and has a purpose for these times we are going through,” church leadership wrote in a bulletin. GraceLife publicly acknowledged the pandemic for the first time the following day. Deena Hinshaw announced Alberta’s first COVID-19 health restrictions, banning gatherings of more than 250 people - with places of worship among the exceptions. On March 12, 2020, Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr.

A spokeswoman for the Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF) said Coates was granting “a limited number of interviews with select media outlets that have provided fair, unbiased, balanced and accurate coverage of GraceLife Church.” Since his imprisonment, Coates has given interviews to Rebel News, while his wife Erin appeared on Tucker Carlson’s Fox News program. Through his legal team, he declined an interview. One graduate, Adam Tyson, has given sermons at rapper Kanye West’s Sunday Services.Ĭoates became a pastor at GraceLife in 2010. The seminary website lists hundreds of “trusted” churches with ties to alumni. MacArthur has repeatedly praised Coates’ actions from the pulpit.Ī radio and television host and author of numerous books, MacArthur holds considerable sway in evangelical circles. Graduates from his programs go on to lead churches around the world. Sections of GraceLife’s bylaws are borrowed directly from those of Grace Community Church. Master’s Seminary was founded in 1986 by John MacArthur, an 81-year-old evangelical pastor who preaches at Grace Community Church, a megachurch that shares a campus with the seminary.

Screenshot of Master’s Seminary Founder John MacArthur. Coates is a graduate (he holds both master’s and doctoral degrees), as are associate pastor Jacob Spenst and Mike Hovland, pastor of a “plant” church in La Crete, a hamlet 600 km north of Edmonton. Unlike more mainline protestant denominations and some evangelical groups, GraceLife and its associated churches believe that the human authors of the Bible received direct, divine guidance, and that, through a “literal grammatical-historical” analysis, a believer can discern a passage’s “one true interpretation.”Ī significant part of GraceLife’s theological foundation was laid at The Master’s Seminary, a theological school in Los Angeles, California. GraceLife is formally non-denominational and adheres to a literal interpretation of the Bible, which its roughly 400 congregants believe is “the authoritative, inerrant, infallible, and supremely sufficient Word of God.” GraceLife, as the church has been known since 2012, was formally incorporated in November 2005 as Grace Reformed Baptist Church of Edmonton. The church’s chairman and founder, Paul Claassen, is a retired RCMP officer who worked as a sergeant in the Edmonton-based technological crimes section. GraceLife Church sits a few minutes west of Edmonton on a plot of land in Parkland County, across a field from a corn maze and down the road from an RV storage facility. This story attempts to answer those questions. How did GraceLife - a once little-known church on the outskirts of Edmonton - become such a flashpoint in Alberta’s battle against COVID-19? And how did authorities decide - after months of waiting - to finally take such dramatic action?

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