John Coats

John BS Coats (born July 8, 1906 in Ayr , South Ayrshire , Scotland , † December 26, 1979 in Chennai , India ) was a Scottish theosophist , president of the Adyar Theosophical Society (Adyar-TG) and bishop of the Liberal Catholic Church ( LKK). Often its name is abbreviated to JBS Coats .

Live and act

Childhood, youth, work and marriage

Coats was born on July 8, 1906 in Ayr, at Sundrum Castle , where he also spent his childhood. The Baptist Coats family owned J. & P. ​​Coats Ltd. (today Coats Ltd. ), even then the world's largest sewing thread manufacturer with more than 50,000 employees. After elementary and secondary school, he attended Eton College from 1918 to 1924 . This was followed by an 18-month language stay in France , followed by joining the family business and two years at the company in Glasgow . The group then employed him for three years in its Vienna branch, where he also learned the German language. When his wish to be able to work again in the UK was not granted because too many family members were already employed there, he left the company. Back in England, he started working on the London Stock Exchange . In October 1933 he married Betsan Coats and the marriage had three children.

In the Adyar-TG

In October 1932, Coats joined the local lodge of the Theosophical Society Adyar (Adyar-TG) in London, and later his wife followed suit. In the London Lodge he met Alice Bailey , Curuppumullage Jinarajadasa and Rukmini Devi Arundale as well as George Arundale , with whom he had a friendship throughout his life. From 1935 he worked increasingly for the Adyar-TG, traveled to numerous countries, was involved in the World Federation of Young Theosophists , of which he was president for some time, and took on administrative tasks in Adyar . At the end of 1938 he returned to England, was elected General Secretary of the English section of the Adyar-TG in 1941, held this position until 1946 and then accepted an invitation to the USA, where he worked for several years. The time after 1949 again led Coats to numerous countries on several continents, where he visited lodges and worked for theosophy. In the 1950s, he also became the bishop of the Liberal Catholic Church (LKK), a spin-off of the English Old Catholicism , consecrated . From 1953 he was secretary of the European Federation of the Adyar-TG and elected its president in 1959, in this position he remained until 1968. He traveled around the world again for the Adyar-TG and after the death of Nilakanta Sri Ram on 8 April 1973, he ran for the office of President. Finally he was elected and was President of the Adyar-TG from October 11, 1973.

As president

On the occasion of the 100th anniversary of the existence of the Theosophical Society (TG), a theosophical congress took place in New York in 1975 , in which theosophists from all over the world and from all directions took part. As the first president of the Adyar-TG, since the great split of the TG on April 28, 1895 into the Adyar-TG on the one hand and the Theosophical Society in America on the other, Coats found words of reconciliation and offered cooperation on the part of the Adyar-TG. He also admitted that Henry Steel Olcott and especially Annie Besant would not have been right to accuse William Quan Judge of several offenses in connection with the Judge Case against theosophy, which had led to the split. He also accepted Judge as a co-founder of the TG, which had always been hushed up by the Adyar-TG since the split. At the same time he agreed to open the archives in Adyar in order to deal with the past. In fact, there was a relaxation between the competing TGs in the next few years and some divisions could be worked through. But everything went very slowly and some things were thwarted by the “hardliners”, and the secret documents were only released to a limited extent, not least because of the work of Radha Burnier , who was in charge of the Adyar Library at the time , and this action was negative. Coats himself did not crack down on the delay enough to meet this delay, and he finally died on December 26, 1979, before his intentions could have borne fruit and a rapprochement could have taken place. Burnier, as his successor, did not continue the relaxation course that had begun.

Death, Succession, and Obituary

John Coats died on December 26, 1979 in Chennai at the age of 73. The cremation of his body took place on the premises of the Adyar-TG. Radha Burnier was elected as his successor . Although his attempt to come to terms with the past and to bring the different TGs together could only be realized to a small extent, Coats is still seen by some today, after Olcott, as the 2nd "great" President of the Adyar TG.

Web links

• Biography and picture (English)
• The birthplace Sundrum Castle (English)
• History of the Coats family business