There’s warm applause as Archie Coates takes to the stage. He’s wearing an unbuttoned shirt over a white tee, black jeans and box-fresh trainers. He speaks into a headset microphone, looking like a centrist dad giving a Ted Talk. “It feels like we’re always on the verge of some collective panic attack,” he tells the crowd. “And I love that the very first words of the resurrection are not ‘tah-dah!’” — at this point he does jazz hands — “but they’re words of comfort.”
Coates is not giving a Ted Talk, but the Easter address at Holy Trinity Brompton (HTB), an Anglican church in South Kensington where he is lead vicar. His sermons are all livestreamed on YouTube and have Diary of a CEO-esque titles like “Step into your calling” and “Everyone’s a leader”. This one is called “How is Easter relevant today?”. The congregation is multi-generational, and there are a notable number of young people.
