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These recordings lay bare claims made by a Liverpool church which offered to ‘cure’ gay people through a three-day starvation programme.

As part of an ECHO investigation, reporter Josh Parry visited the Mountain of Miracles and Fire Ministries Breck Road branch posing as a member of the public struggling with their sexuality.

After being invited along to a group prayer session, our journalist was then offered a private counselling session with the church’s assistant pastor, known only as Brother Michael.

During the session he made a series of statements, including that homosexuality is a ‘deceit of Satan,’ that people ‘chose’ to be gay to get ‘celebrity’ status, and that he could be turned straight through prayer and worship.

After revealing our findings to the head of the branch, pastor Dr Desmond Dele Sanusi, he claimed that Brother Michael’s advice was not officially sanctioned and denied that the church discriminated against anyone based on their sexuality or gender.

Today the ECHO is publishing audio clips of the prayer session, as well as the one-to-one session with Brother Michael in order to highlight what experts have described as “dangerous” advice.

“You are a liar, die in the fire, die in the fire”

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Josh attended a group prayer session called ‘My Glory Must Manifest’ after being invited by the church’s pastor.

During the prayer session, which took place on July 20 at the Breck Road branch of the Mountain of Miracles and Fire Ministries, ‘Brother Michael’ - an assistant pastor, repeatedly shouted phrases while the congregation were heard speaking in tongues, crying and sweating.

As can be heard on the audio recording, phrases including “you are a liar, die in the fire, die in the fire” were repeatedly chanted for several minutes while the congregation became increasingly frantic in their movements.

Other prayers included inviting Jesus to “touch the lives” of members of the congregation, and to “manifest his glory”.

“It is a deceit of Satan”

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During a one-to-one counselling session, our reporter was told that homosexuality was a ‘deceit of Satan,’

The recording, captured on a concealed recording device, reveals other claims made by the church’s assistant pastor who promised he could ‘cure’ our reporter and turn him straight.

He said: “You cannot be saying God gave you your penis and make it a rod, and now he created another thing like a hole that it fit properly into it.

“So for you to have a penis, it means you are a man. That is the way you are created.

“I will say one thing as well, you say all these things about ‘I’m feeling I’m confused about my sexuality’.

“Thank God you say that you are looking for deliverance because you have got your deliverance.”

He then went on to claim that several people had already undergone his therapies and were now married with children.

‘Brother Michael’ added: “Yes they are and they are having children. You need to realise this is a deceit of Satan.

“How many professors, and how many airlines that are served, or how many people in Hollywood?

“How many people are coming out except the singers, the boxers, the sports men, except the actors that are coming out to say they are feeling this?

“Their reward is the celebrity. That is what you are following in.

“With the help of God, with prayer, with pray, with the help of god you will have children. You will marry and have your children.

“It was terrifying”

ECHO reporter Josh Parry, who went undercover at the church , today described his experience as “terrifying.”

He said: “I’d found the church on Google as part of some research I was doing into a separate story.

“I went along not sure what to expect, just because I found it hard to believe that anyone would be offering a gay ‘cure’ here in Liverpool. It’s not something you’d expect in 2017.

“What I found was quite scary. It was terrifying. I sat at the back of the church pretending to pray while people around me were chanting ‘die in the fire, kill it with fire’.

“As someone who isn’t really religious, I’ve not experienced a church like that before.

“It was like nothing I’ve ever come across”.

Update: A petition for government to make gay conversion therapy a criminal offence has been launched. You can sign it here.