Read Ruth Gledhill's blog on the bishop here

A senior Church of England bishop said that he has the number of the Labour Government — and it is 666. The Bishop of Carlisle, the Right Rev Graham Dow, told a fringe meeting of the General Synod that the Government was like a demonic beast imposing its morality on the nation.

“It has become a Revelation 13 Government rather than a Romans 13 Government,” he said.

Revelation 13 is one of the most quoted chapters of the Bible by those prophesying apocalypse. By contrast, Romans 13 advocates respect for the law, God and authority.

Bishop Dow was speaking at the release of God, Gays and the Church, a book intended to put the conservative evangelical side in the debate on gay rights.

As The Times reported, in the foreword to the book the Bishop of Winchester, the Right Rev Michael Scott-Joynt, warned that the Church’s integrity had been “gravely undermined” by its implicit acceptance of same-sex relationships and criticised the “public advocating and vaunting of behaviour contrary to the teaching of the Church of England” at a meeting of the synod last year.

Bishop Dow, a devout evangelical and one of the Church's authorised specialists in "deliverance" ministry, was told that many church members feel helpless in the face of the gay rights agenda and was asked what they could do to counter the trend. He responded: "The challenge is to be brave and bolder than we have been, keeping the issue in the public domain, not falling into the trap of being aggressive. We will be called homophobic consantly."

Revelation 13, from the last book of the Bible, is one of the chapters most popularly quoted by those prophesying apocalypse.

It begins: "And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, and upon his heads the name of blasphemy."

It ends: "Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six."

By contrast, Romans 13, also in the New Testament, advocates respect for the law, God and authority. "Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute it due; custom to whom custom; fear to whom fear; honour to whom honour."

The meeting heard about concerns about the ``revolution'' in the way sexual morality is viewed in society - including gay sex and sex outside marriage, as well as the allegedly negative effects of legislation such as civil partnerships for gay and lesbian people.

The Bishop of Chester, the Right Rev Peter Forster, spoke of ``heterosexual chaos''. ``In society today I think it is almost unarguable to say that marriage is under threat,'' he said.

Challenged afterwards about his comments, Bishop Dow said: "I didn't mean to say the Government was demonic. The point I want to make is the change from a positive evaluation in Romans 13 to a negative one in Revelation.'

In a booklet he wrote before he became a Bishop of Willesden in 1992, Explaining Deliverance, Bishop Dow listed some of the manifestations of evil or "destructive" spirits. They included denying Jesus Christ, alternative medicine involving non-Christian spiritual healing, the occult, addictions such as alcoholism or smoking, anorexia and wearing black.

He wrote: "There is a view that both oral and anal sexual practice is liable to allow entry to spirits."

His conservative message was in contrast to that presented in an earlier fringe meeting, organised by the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement.

Professor Michael King, of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, told synod members that lesbian and gay people should have equal rights to all others

in society. He said they should also be entitled to protection from therapies intended to change sexual orientation. "The millennia of exclusion must

stop," he said. "If there is a rational argument in the Church for a type of heterosexual relationship that is thought to be blessed by God, that is thought to be faithful monogamy, then there is absolutely no reason why a model in same sex could not be exactly the same."

Professor King, who helped prepare a submission to the Archbishop of Canterbury's "listening process" on the issue from the College, is expected to make a similar presentation arguing for the Church to accept same-sex relationships at the Lambeth Conference, the gathering of the Church's bishops from around the world, in July. Up to a quarter of the 800-plus bishops are expected to boycott the conference because of the Church's increasingly liberal stance on the gay issue.