My wife, Caroline, and I had only known of Gerald from a distance until 2007 when we were invited to do some work with the Pioneer team. We worked with them for 18 months helping them restructure for the future. At the end of the process, Gerald announced that he didn’t feel equipped to lead the network into the next season. The group began to discuss leadership options but no conclusions were reached. Towards the end of the conversation John Noble suggested: "Why don’t we invite Billy and Caroline Kennedy to lead the network?" We laughed. They all laughed. Later, at dinner, Gerald turned to Caroline and I and simply said: "When John Noble mentioned your names something leapt in my spirit. I think you are the next leaders of Pioneer." That was our ‘Gerald moment’. Our lives haven’t been the same since. Restoration 2" ('R2') took a more relaxed view of cinema, popular music, and ‘secular’ culture, were generally less separatist, (contributing significantly to the resurgence of the Evangelical Alliance), and encouraged the leadership ministries of women. This stream included the ministries of Gerald Coates, John and Christine Noble, and others not now associated like Maurice Smith, Dave Tomlinson and George Tarleton. The numbers attending House Churches grew rapidly in the 1970s; the two hundred operational in 1980 were attended collectively by some ten thousand people.

Allan Anderson An Introduction to Pentecostalism: Global Charismatic Christianity (Cambridge; CUP, 2004) 95

A conference called by Wallis in 1971 was a catalyst in identifying seven key leaders, subsequently augmented to fourteen, who were considered to have apostolic authority. Humanly speaking, it is these fourteen who were the engine behind the growth seen in the 1970s. Eschatologically, the movement sought the emergence of a spotless bride ready to welcome the returning king. In practice, the leaders were bound together in covenant relationships, joined together in a way which would supersede the broken state of the old denominational churches. The fourteen charismatically gifted and proven men were called “apostles.”

Michael White in The Guardian has said that it would be wise not to redefine marriage – a man very well known for speaking his mind. He said that it is universally accepted that a female egg and male sperm is needed to see the continuation of the human race.

Saturday 23rd July

I think he has has been lobbied very strongly for a long time to legalise same sex marriage and probably thought public opinion would allow it through. In the autumn of 1978 the controversial house church leader Gerald Coates was invited to speak at a public city-wide celebration gathering in Plymouth (UK). Tricia and I just married, were invited to lead the worship with our band, at that event. There were gasps from the crowd but Gerald had not finished. He began to eat the bread off the table while he was preaching. This was too much for some people who made their feelings known. Gerald was unperturbed. He said, “What's the problem? We are all going to eat this in a few minutes, I am just having mine early!”. He was making the point that we had made 'breaking bread' into something that it was never meant to be. Vintage Gerald.