IT was the cheeky church message aiming to bring more people to their knees, but a provocative slogan plastered outside a Gold Coast congregation has been sent to purgatory.

A sign outside the Surfers Paradise Anglican Church of the Holy Spirit was the talk of the Gold Coast yesterday after the bold proclamation that ‘Forgiveness is swallowing when you’d rather spit’ was displayed on their sign.

media_camera The words had been removed by Wednesday morning.

While many thoughts quickly turned to sexual innuendo, church officials insisted the meaning was far more innocent and was imploring people to swallow negative thoughts rather than spit them out.

However, late yesterday, the church was over-ruled by head office, with the sign ordered to be taken down. On Wednesday morning, the sign was blank.

Reverend Mike Upton told The Courier-Mail he was no longer allowed to speak about the matter, and referred questions to the Brisbane Diocese.

A spokesman for the Anglican Church Southern Queensland Diocese confirmed the decision to have the offending words removed.

“Once the Diocese became aware of the sign we agreed it was appropriate that the words should be removed,” he said.

They would not comment on why Reverend Upton was gagged from talking to the media about the issue.