NB Pastor who spent a week in jail is back in court this week — for holding church in a tent

Phil, his associate pastor Cody Butler, and their church, His Tabernacle Community Church in Saint John, New Brunswick have been at the centre of a fight for religious freedom during the pandemic lockdown on society. The church and pastoral duo have been under constant surveillance by law enforcement and health authorities after refusing to police their congregation for COVID restriction compliance from the pulpit.

Restrictions when His Tabernacle Church first came on the radar of the province required places of worship to encourage vaccination, contract-trace congregations right down to the pew church goers sit in, force worshippers to mask and social distance, enforce arbitrary capacity limits, and ban singing.

For refusing to be the eyes and ears, and the enforcement arm of the state inside their church, Phil, Cody, the church and their families were visited repeatedly and watched by cops. Cody was arrested and hauled out of the church as he was giving the Thanksgiving Sunday service. Phil was summoned to court and sent straight to jail for over a week. The church has been locked by the province, and Phil has been giving services in a tent outside in a maritime winter — and now he's in trouble for that!

Thankfully, Phil and the church have had your support which provided him with a top-notch lawyer at no cost to him through a partnership with the registered Canadian charity The Democracy Fund and through crowdfunding donations to a special website, www.SavePastorPhil.com.

Thanks to the generosity of Rebel News viewers, Phil can stay focused on what he needs to do as a pastor; helping his community, feeding and clothing the poor, and ministering to his flock because the weight of the legal battle is lifted off his shoulders.