Post-music and Church Career
Coles provided narration for The Style Council's film JerUSAlem in 1994 and also started a career as a writer and journalist, most notably with the Times Literary Supplement and the Catholic Herald. He came to the Christian faith in his late twenties, after "the best of times, the worst of times", pop success and the deaths of friends as a result of HIV. From 1991 to 1994 he studied for a BA in theology at King's College London. He was selected for training for priesthood in the Church of England and began his training at the monastic College of the Resurrection, Mirfield, in 2003 before being ordained in 2005.
After ordination Coles was a curate at St Botolph's Church in Boston, Lincolnshire, and subsequently at St Paul's Church, Knightsbridge, in London with his dachshund, Daisy as his "faithful assistant". He has been chaplain of the Royal Academy of Music and has also played Dr Frank N Furter in a local concert and conducted an atheist funeral for Mo Mowlam in 2006.
Coles was an inspiration for the character of Adam Smallbone (played by Tom Hollander) in the BBC Two sitcom Rev and advises to the show.
In January 2011, Coles was appointed as the parish priest of St Mary the Virgin, Finedon in the Diocese of Peterborough.
Coles is openly gay and lives with his partner in a celibate relationship, in respect for Celibacy#Christianity the current rules within the Church of England. Commenting on the current Church of England policy on same-sex relationships for clergy, Coles told The Daily Telegraph, ‘‘It's not as I would have it, but then it's not about me.’’
On 1 November 2012 (All Saints Day), Darton, Longman and Todd published his book Lives of the Improbable Saints'’, illustrated by Ted Harrison, a precis of the life stories of nearly 200 lesser-known saints.
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