The Church of England's General Synod is to be debate the Government's proposals to replace the Trident nuclear weapons system, as well as the crisis in Britain's prisons, it was announced yesterday.

The large numbers of Christians who will be joining the anti-Trident nuclear weapons demonstration in London on 24 February 2007 are being invited to an ecumenical service beforehand. Hinde Street Methodist Church - just north of the famous Oxford Street shopping centre - will host the gathering for worship at 10.30 AM.

The scientists who mind the Doomsday Clock yesterday moved it two minutes closer to midnight, which symbolizes the annihilation of civilization, adding the perils of global warming for the first time to acute nuclear threats.

The government's argument for keeping an "independent nuclear deterrent" is flawed, a veteran Christian campaigner has told MPs.

Catholic Bishop Peter Moran of Aberdeen is the latest church leader to appeal to Scotland’s Christians to write to their MPs in opposition to the planned renewal of the Trident nuclear weapons system. Christian leaders across Britain are also calling for concerted debate and action.

For the first time ever, the spiritual heads of Scotland's Catholics and its largest Protestant church have joined together to make a New Year appeal for peace and social harmony - recalling the sordid history of religiously justified sectarianism in Scotland as the backdrop to their pledge.

On the day that UK Prime Minister Blair declared that Britain could not afford to be without weapons on mass destruction, and that nuclear arms constitute a "final insurance policy", leading church leaders urged him to think again.

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has said that the publication of the UK government's White Paper (formal legislative proposal) on replacement of the controversial Trident nuclear weapons programme should not be used to close down the debate - but to open it up around recognised issues of major concern.

Nineteen Church of England bishops have joined a growing chorus of church voices including Methodists, Roman Catholics, Quakers and the (Presbyterian) Church of Scotland, in urging Prime Minister Tony Blair to halt plans to replace Britain's ageing fleet of Trident nuclear-armed submarines.