Anxious wait for pastor prosecuted for preaching outside hospital

A retired pastor who was prosecuted after preaching a sermon outside a hospital in Northern Ireland faces an anxious wait to seek out out the decision in his case. 

Pastor Clive Johnston had a court hearing on Wednesday – the unique hearing was postponed from last December – after which the judge reserved judgment in his case until 7 May. 

He was prosecuted in reference to an open-air sermon on John 3:16 that he preached inside a ‘protected access zone’ outside Coleraine’s Causeway Hospital, in Northern Ireland, in 2024. 

He was charged with attempting to ‘influence’ people in search of to access the hospital’s abortion services despite the sermon being preached on a Sunday when the clinic was closed. He also didn’t mention abortion during his sermon, and he didn’t display any banners or placards on the subject. 

An exchange with law enforcement officials captured on video showed them telling the pastor he should share the gospel in a “protected” place just like the hospital chaplaincy and never contained in the ‘protected access zone’.

Pastor Johnston is being supported by The Christian Institute, which called his prosecution a “shocking” attack on freedom of speech and religion.

Following Wednesday’s hearing at Coleraine Magistrates’ Court, Pastor Johnston said: “I’m glad the judge has decided to go away and have a take into consideration this case before issuing his ruling because there’s loads at stake.

“We held a small, open-air Sunday service near a hospital. We made no reference by any means to the difficulty of abortion. And yet prosecutors say the buffer-zones law is so broad that holding our Sunday service was a criminal offence.” 

He added, “It’s a difficult thing to undergo but we’re upheld by the prayers of God’s people and we’ve drawn near to Christ for help and strength. Christ is essentially the most precious thing on the planet to us and that’s the reason we’re so keen to speak about him within the highways and byways of this land that we love.”

The case has caught the eye of the US State Department which last week called it “concerning” and said that it was “monitoring” developments.

A US spokesman told The Daily Telegraph: “The United States continues to be monitoring many buffer zone cases within the UK, in addition to other acts of censorship throughout Europe.”

Referring to the case of Isabel Vaughan-Spruce, the spokesman added: “The UK’s persecution of silent prayer represents not only an egregious violation of the elemental right to free speech and non secular liberty, but additionally a concerning departure from the shared values that should underpin US-UK relations.”