Daniel Brocklebank said he received verbal abuse off screen from a church goer who believed it was sinful to be gay.
"A woman came up to me in a supermarket three days ago telling me I was going to go to hell playing a gay vicar," he said.
Brocklebank arrived on the ITV soap in December to play Revd Billy Mayhew and has since started an on screen relationship with another gay character.
He told the Sunday Mirror he was trying to change attitudes: "We're here to cause some sort of stir and you're never going to please everyone. Some of the religious viewers so far have not been too happy.
"Having a progressive vicar in Coronation Street provides the opportunity to educate people and give them a different point of view.
"The church won't survive if it doesn't update. Religion should be all-loving. Why would someone gay of my age join the church when all you get is backlash?"
Andrea Williams, Director of Christian Concern, told the paper: "There's an agenda here to normalise something contrary to the Bible.
"I look forward to the day when Coronation Street introduces a vicar who cares about pointing people away from sinful behaviour."