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A controversial New Zealand church has outdone themselves with a publicity stunt just in time for Christmas: a billboard illustrating the Virgin Mary clutching a positive pregnancy test.

Auckland's St Matthews in the City Church commenced with its jovial, some would say downright offensive, advertising campaign to 'avoid the sentimental and trite' and 'spark thought and conversation'.

"It's real. Christmas is real. It's about a real pregnancy, a real mother and a real child. It's about real anxiety, courage and hope. This billboard portrays Mary, Jesus' mother, looking at a home pregnancy test kit revealing that she is pregnant. Regardless of any premonition, that discovery would have been shocking. Mary was unmarried, young, and poor. This pregnancy would shape her future. She was certainly not the first woman in this situation or the last," Vicar Glynn Cardy said.

It is not the first time St Matthews has provoked outrage with a promotional campaign. In 2009, one of its billboards showed Mary and Joseph in bed with the tag line: 'Poor Joseph, God was a hard act to follow.'

For this new campaign, the vicar also had some very compelling things to say. "As in the past it is our intention to avoid the sentimental, trite and expected to spark thought and conversation in the community.

"This year we hope to do so with an image and no words. We invite you to wonder what your caption might be. Although the make-believe of Christmas is enjoyable - with tinsel, Santa, reindeer, and carols - there are also some realities," Cardy said, referring to the very real problems of those so well below the poverty line that tinsel and Christmas lights are the least of their worries.

The billboard, which was put up outside the church last night, will stay in place until Christmas Day.