A village has reacted with anger over a poster in a church noticeboard stating: "We don't celebrate Pride, we preach Christ crucified."

The poster, which appeared outside Halling Baptist Church in Vicarage Road , sparked controversy yesterday with residents slamming it as 'barbed', 'bigoted', and 'unnecessary' message, aimed at marginalising members of the LGBTQI community.

Among those outraged was Elizabeth Kitchener, who lives on the same street and created her own home-made ' Be Kind' poster, decorated in rainbow colours by four-year-old son Alfred, which she then placed over the sign.

"I was shocked and disgusted to have a bigoted message being publicly shown," she said. "I decided to have a chat with my kids about it and my eldest Alfred said he wanted to colour a rainbow with 'Be Kind' on it.

"I think it's clear a lot of people in the village were not happy with the message shown, I had neighbours smiling with big thumbs up as I was walking back home. The Facebook Post has got a hell of a lot of attention with most of it outrage at such an outdated and bigoted message.

"One person made a very good point, it's one thing not to celebrate Pride, but another thing altogether to be publicly annoyed about it and infer you are opposed to it."

Others in the village disagreed. Paul Kerkham said people were wrong to react angrily, and should just ignore the poster if they didn't like it, adding that it was "not really news worthy."

But others felt it was important to call out and counter such public attempts to marginalise members of society.

Police have reportedly been notified of the sign.

Halling Baptist Church and Kent Police have been approached for further comment.