An Ely pastor who heads an evangelical Christian church admitted he was “unwise” in copying and sharing a tweet urging people to neither support or attend LGBT Pride Month events.

Keith Waters, who leads the New Connexions Church based at Larkfields, High Barn, provoked outrage at the weekend after tweeting his "reminder" to avoid Pride Month events.

"They promote a culture and encourage activities that are contrary to Christian faith and morals," he wrote. "They are especially harmful for children".

When I questioned him about the tweet - and why he had copied and adapted it from a Catholic Bishop in America - Mr Waters apologised.

"I was certainly unwise in copying a tweet on the fly, without enough thought or care," he said.

%image(15880150, type="article-full", alt="The offending tweet that has now been deleted by Pastor Keith Waters. He says he is considering coming off Twitter altogether. "I can see that Twitter may well not be for me" he wrote. PictURE: TWITTER")

"I can see that Twitter may well not be for me and also that modern communication can lead to sloppy communication."

In response to Lib Dem councillor Alison Whelan who called for an apology he responded: I had no intention of causing any upset, and I regret that I have."

New Connexions advertises itself as "a group of friendly and caring people from various backgrounds, and of all ages, who believe the message of the Bible is still relevant in the 21st Century.

"As followers of Jesus Christ we are discovering that He brings meaning, purpose and joy to our lives as we learn more about Him, and seek to love Him and serve Him."

Pastor Waters said: "As I try and make clear, this Twitter account has always had the purpose of addressing Christians and if you are bored enough to trail through the posts you will probably see that.

"To be clear, I believe that all humanity is loved by God and should be loved by His Church.

"It is quite possible that those who disagree with biblical Christianity might disagree with some of the posts, but at no point would I ever wish to deliberately offend anyone

I tend not to remove posts, but neither do I desire to court controversy, so have deleted a tweet which has unwittingly done that."

He added: "It is quite likely too that over the next week or so I will delete my Twitter account."

Pastor Waters said he had now removed the offending tweet.

Cllr Whelan told him: "You need to do more than remove the tweet - you need to make an unreserved apology. The allegations clearly meant by that tweet are offensive".

Former county council communications chief Andy Allsopp watched the exchanges and said he had reported the tweet.

"Not something I'd ever do lightly," he wrote. "But this..."