A church in Manchester, which recently opened it's doors, is already the centre of attention, but for the wrong reason after the pastor and members of the congregation got into a heated argument during service.

THE WEEKEND STAR heard that some two weeks ago as the pastor preached his sermon to a packed church, a number of persons in the congregation began thinking that the words of the spiritual leader was being hurled at them.

This made for a war of words between the pastor and those he was said to have offended, eventually leading to the spilling of so-called 'secrets'.

"All now I can't believe seh this happen at church. Is the hot topic on the streets down here. Pastor and di people dem end up in one big argument inna di church and a let out each other secret,"45-year-old Marcia Higgins explained when she contacted this newspaper earlier this week.

Higgins, who said she was at the church during the argument, said the pastor was in the middle of his routine Sunday morning sermon and was speaking about hypocrites in the church when things got hostile.

hypocrites

"Pastor did a preach seh yu have people weh seh they are Christians but only act dat way when dem at church. Him did a seh when u see some of them out a road yu wouldn't believe say dem a Christian," she said, noting that it was at that point other members of the congregation suddenly intervened.

"Out a nowhere one woman just jump up and seh a she di pastor a throw word pon. But it neva stop deh so, some other man and woman get up and start cuss seh a nuh sermon him a preach; a throw him a throw word," she explained.

Some jaw-dropping allegations were then thrown back and forth as the group of irate church-goers, all said to be from one district in the parish, and close friends, verbally challenged the pastor.

Among these allegations were damning questions of the pastor's sexuality to which he reportedly responded by claiming that at least three of the women from the group with which he was arguing were cheating on their husbands with younger men.

When THE WEEKEND STAR contacted the pastor, he admitted that the incident indeed occurred.

Asking to be referred to as Father Hines, the pastor explained that he was simply doing God's work and would not let evil people get the better of him.

"I guess you heard the details and I can only admit, so yes, something of that nature happened the other day," he said. "Let me explain though, it's obvious those people were on some sort of mission to get me out or something 'cause they are not members of the church. That morning was the first time they were coming to my church. I knew them from before just not through my church."

The pastor wondered why anyone would question his sexuality, saying: "I am a pastor and a man of God. I have a wife, and we have brought four children into this world."