The leader of global ‘gay cure’ church Exodus International has declared that gays cannot be turned straight and that so-called ‘reparative therapy’ may be dangerous.

Exodus president Alan Chambers is said to have shocked the ‘ex-gay’ movement with his volte-face and is facing accusations of heresy, the New York Times reports.

Speaking at the group’s annual meeting last week, he said homosexuality cannot be “cured” and that people can be damaged by therapy designed to turn them heterosexual.

Mr Chambers is said to have repeated his views in a number of public statements.

In January, he told a told a Gay Christian Network conference that “99.9 per cent” of gay people going through the controversial therapy had not experienced any change in their sexual orientation. He also apologised for the “ambiguity” of the group’s former slogan ‘Change Is Possible’.

Speaking to the New York Times this week, Mr Chambers said that while the Bible condemns homosexuality, he believes that gay people who continue to have gay sex can still go to Heaven.

He said: “I believe that any sexual expression outside of heterosexual, monogamous marriage is sinful according to the Bible.

“But we’ve been asking people with same-sex attractions to overcome something in a way that we don’t ask of anyone else [with other sins].”

Mr Chambers, who says he used to be gay, added that he was happy in his heterosexual marriage.