A church in Belfast has been forced to defend its upcoming event aimed at helping homosexual Christians.
Willowfield Parish Church on My Lady's Road is set to host an Evangelical Alliance-led event next month to help people with same-sex attractions remain celibate and Christian.
An advertisement for the course reads: "The Living Out Course is designed to help church leaders to understand how they can help those who experience same-sex attraction to stay faithful to biblical teaching and flourish at the same time."
However, the church rector David McClay told the Belfast Telegraph that he and his family had been subjected to abusive phone calls, accused of wanting to run a "gay therapy course".
"We have gay people in our congregation every Sunday. We have been totally misrepresented by what has been posted on social media," he said.
He insisted next week's event wouldn't advocate so-called conversion therapy for gay people.
"Same-sex attracted people will be sharing their stories in order to help them become disciple-like and maintain living a celibate life," he said. "It's to help people of all ages who are seeking to be Christian.
"I understand that some people are angry because they have been given the wrong information. I totally refute that we are involved in conversion therapy, nor do the Evangelical Alliance ever run courses like that. The course is designed to better support people in this situation.
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