London, July 10, IRNA ,Church of England leaders Monday joined a growing campaign against Britain replacing its aging Trident nuclear weapons, warning Prime Minister Tony Blair that their possession was "evil" and "profoundly anti-God."
Blair is expected to announce later this year that his government will update the submarine-based nuclear deterrent with a new generation of missiles.

But in a letter published in the Independent newspaper, 19 bishops entered the debate for the first time by presenting religious, moral and economic arguments against any decision.

"Trident and other nuclear arsenals threaten long-term and fatal damage to the global environment and its people. As such, their end is evil and both possession and use profoundly anti-God acts," they warned.

Their letter said that nuclear weapons are a "direct denial of the Christian concept of peace and reconciliation, which are social and economic as well as physical and spiritual."
"The costs involved in the maintenance and replacement of Trident could be used to address pressing environmental concerns, the causes of terrorism, poverty and debt and enable humanity and dignity to be the right of all," it further added.

The General Assembly of the Scottish Church has already accused the UK government of having double standards in pressing ahead with its plan to replace its nuclear weapons while denying Iran any right.

"It would be the ultimate in hypocrisy if the UK were to be arguing, for example, that Iran should not be developing a nuclear weapons capability, while at the same time we were extending in scope and in time our own," a church report said in May.

Former environment secretary Michael Meacher, who is leading a rebellion by Labour MPs, welcomed the intervention by the bishops in his campaign for a parliamentary vote on renewing Britain's nuclear arsenal.

"It is not an independent nuclear deterrent because (of the possibility) the Americans don't approve it," Meacher said in House of Commons motion, signed by 122 MPs.

"On non-proliferation grounds -- it is impossible to say to countries like Iran you should not have nuclear weapons but we must have ours," he also said.