James Coates is a pastor in Edmonton Alberta arrested and currently in prison for gathering his congregation for worship.
James' wife shared the following:
"James has been in isolation in a cell block since yesterday morning. His hearing didn't go very well. The Crown went for the jugular. The JP say he didn't want to detain him, he wasn't interested in making a martyr of him. He could walk if he just sets aside his God-given pastoral duties but he can't do that. He has a hearing today to set a court date for his charges. It's very possible that they will remand him until his court case. The Crown has called him a danger to the health and safety of Albertans. May God have mercy on our nation. I read to my children the work the Lord is doing in peoples [lives] through James so they can see the sacrifice of their father is not in vain. My prayer is that men will stand! They can't see that if they shut us down on this issue they will shut us down on any issue they deem to be "a danger to the health and safety of Albertans."
In another post she wrote:
"My heart is broken. They tried him in secret. The officers lied to us and told us he wasn't there. They tried to hide him and sneak him out the back door. In the providence of God one of our men was there. The officer only allowed him to tell him that he loved him and were here with him. They pulled him away. They have remanded him as our lawyer seeks the appeal. The conditions of his release are that he would not pastor anymore. I cannot visit him."
"The Crown has called him a danger to the health and safety of Albertans."
"My prayer is that men will stand!"
An abstraction, called "the Crown," labels a Godly real man a danger to notion of "health and safety" of a generalized Albertans. Would that this pastor be surrounded by his congregation both prayerfully and physically, that he might be uplifted. Would that all churches stand while they still can.
May the Lord enable this pastor to stand for the Lord in all the Lord asks from Him. What a reward for those who suffer for the Lord! So many "Christians" today who are "walking" with the Lord until the first "Ouch!"