A Christian group has been banned from claiming praying for people can heal them after a woman complained to the Advertising Standards Authority.

The ASA upheld Hayley Stevens’ complaint, but Bath’s Healing in the Streets team have said the decision was an attempt to ban ‘the basic Christian belief that God can heal illness’.

Ms Stevens complained to the ASA last year after being handed a leaflet from one of the Healing on the Streets (HotS) team outside Bath Abbey. The group, like dozens of others from churches across the West, set up outside churches and offer to pray for people for free.

She said she objected to the group’s leaflet and said its claims that the power of God and prayer could cure a range of illnesses, including cancer and depression, could give people ‘false hope’ and was ‘irresponsible’. The HotS group handed a leaflet to people after they were prayed for advising them to continue to take whatever medication they had been given, and to continue to see their doctors.

In a ruling released yesterday, the ASA upheld Ms Stevens’ complaint and told HotS not to make claims which stated or implied that, by receiving prayer from their volunteers, people could be healed of medical conditions.

It was also ruled that the group should not refer to medical conditions in their adverts ‘for which medical supervision should be sought’. It was instructed to amend its advertising on leaflets and websites from ‘God can heal you’ to ‘We believe God can heal you’.

“We told HotS not to make claims which stated or implied that, by receiving prayer from their volunteers, people could be healed of medical conditions,” the ASA statement read. “We also told them not to refer in their ads to medical conditions for which medical supervision should be sought.”

Yesterday, HotS has reacted angrily to the decision and confirmed it will appeal against the findings.

In a statement, the group said: “It seems very odd to us that the ASA wants to prevent us from stating on our website the basic Christian belief that God can heal illness.

“The ASA has even demanded that we sign a document agreeing not to say this, which is unacceptable to us – as it no doubt would be for anyone ordered not to make certain statements about their conventional religious or philosophical beliefs,” they added.

“The response to what we do has been overwhelmingly positive, and we find it difficult to understand the ASA's attempt to restrict communication about this. Our website simply states our beliefs and describes some of our experiences. We tried to reach a compromise, recognising some of the ASA's concerns, but there are certain things that we cannot agree to.”

Speaking exclusively to the Western Daily Press last night, Ms Stevens said she was pleased with ASA ruling but even though she was a campaigning atheist, she denied she had complained on religious grounds.

The 24-year-old from Bradford on Avon in Wiltshire is a regular blogger and speaker at sceptic conferences.

She said: “I have complained before to the ASA about claims to do with healing people, but they were against spiritual healers or people making false claims about treatments. I didn’t even realise the Healing on the Streets people were Christian until I got home and looked at their website.

“My issue isn’t with their Christian faith, it is with the potentially dangerous situation of vulnerable people who think they will be cured of something as serious as cancer.

“I don’t think it is appropriate for them to be out on the streets taking the chance that they could come across someone with, say, mental health issues who should be being treated properly.”