Free Republic

GraceLife Church held an in-person service at an undisclosed location Sunday after Alberta Health Services (AHS) erected metal fencing around the building last week for violating COVID-19 health orders. The Parkland County church posted a video to YouTube on Monday of the service, which was led by pastor James Coates. During the service, Coates described the actions by AHS as having “jailed” the church’s facility. AHS with assistance from RCMP shuttered the building last Wednesday after months of defiance of provincial health orders. It’s unclear where exactly the church held its Sunday service but one performer on the video described...

Officials in Alberta, Canada, shut down a church that broke coronavirus restrictions by erecting chain-link metal fencing around the building. “This is what happens when you have freedom of religion in a free and democratic society: they jail your pastor for freely opening the doors of the church and serving Christ’s sheep and hurting people. Now they’ve chained the doors of GraceLife Church enclosing in chain link fence,” an Instagram post from Erin Coates, the wife of pastor James Coates, reads. Police and health officials blocked off the roads surrounding GraceLife Church and erected the fencing. It is the first...

Alberta Health Services has closed GraceLife Church in Parkland County west of Edmonton.In an emailed statement to CBC News Wednesday morning, RCMP confirmed they were on scene, assisting AHS as they closed the church under Section 62.1 of the Alberta Public Health Act. As of 8:30 a.m., police vehicles and unmarked SUVs were blocking entrances to the church parking lot. In a media statement, AHS said it "physically closed" the church and has prevented access until the church "can demonstrate the ability to comply with Alberta's Chief Medical Officer of Health's restrictions."