The Westboro Baptist Church, the Kansas group infamous for picketing funerals and bearing signs reading the slogan ‘God Hates Fags’, has announced the death of its founding member, Fred Phelps Senior.

Phelps’ estranged son Nathan wrote a Facebook post revealing that he was ‘close to death’, and expressed anger that his family had blocked those who’d left the church from saying their goodbyes.

Nathan Phelps also said that his father, 84, had been excommunicated from the church in August last year, but such claims were subsequently disputed by the remaining members of the Church.

A spokesperson for the church told the press that Phelps had been cared for in a health facility in Shawnee County.

Fred Phelps Senior is survived by his wife and thirteen children.