FOR the Prime Minister, one of the most significant and disturbing features of the letter is that it carries the imprimatur of the Archbishop of York, Dr David Hope.

The Blair Government did not have a direct supporter of the war in Iraq on the bench of bishops but the Archbishop of York was the closest thing.

An Anglo-Catholic who is politically on the conservative wing of the Church, he argued for a second UN resolution before British and US forces were committed to action.

When Mr Blair and President Bush decided to go ahead without it, Dr Hope chose to give them the benefit of the doubt, basing his guarded support on intelligence reports that weapons of mass destruction (WMD) did exist.

He became increasingly exasperated when no such weapons were found.

Sources close to the Archbishop indicated that he now feels deceived and frustrated that, given the absence of WMD, no good reason for going to war has been revealed.

Having started at the opposite end of the spectrum to the Archbishop of Canterbury, a barely reconstructed leftwinger who opposed the war from the start, he now feels that Rowan Williams has been proved right all along.

But the letter remains primarily the initiative of the Archbishop of Canterbury. Dr Hope did not speak in the debate in Liverpool on June 8, on the second day of the four-day bishops’ meeting in Liverpool.

Every bishop was invited to the meeting — traditionally held in Liverpool each year, a few weeks before the July meeting of the General Synod in York — including the assistant and suffragan bishops. They were all sent a copy of the letter yesterday.

One of the main concerns raised during the debate was the effect of the treatment of Iraqi detainees on interfaith relations. Bishops made reference to the recent Runnymede report that highlighted growing Islamophobia in the wake of 9/11, and gave warning that it could contribute to a climate of extremism.

Among the bishops particularly exercised about Britain’s Muslim communities and interfaith relations were the Bishop of Leicester, the Right Rev Timothy Stevens, the Bishop of Bradford, the Right Rev David James, and the Bishop of Southwark, the Right Rev Tom Butler. Bishops concerned about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict included the Bishop of Exeter, the Right Rev Michael Langrish, and the Bishop of Chelmsford, the Right Rev John Gladwin.

During the debate, a consensus emerged that some form of communication with the Prime Minister needed to be made, especially about the treatment of Iraqi detainees. The shock created by the photographs of prisoner abuse was felt in the Church from parish level upwards.

The bishops were responding partly to pressure from the top down, from the idealism of Dr Williams, but also from the bottom up, with parishioners talking to clergy throughout the country about their concerns and clergy passing these concerns on to the hierarchy. Clergy working in multi- cultural areas told bishops of the interfaith tensions caused by the abuse of detainees.

But the wider context for the letter was the debate over sovereignty in Iraq and whether the arrangements arrived at for the transfer of power have a wide degree of legitimacy.

On Israel, the archbishops were expressing concerns among the bishops that the new steps towards a settlement should not be on Israel’s terms only. Their ideal would be for new life to be breathed back into the Middle East “road map” and for the US Administration to take a more neutral role with brokering an Israeli-Palestinian settlement.”

CHURCH AND STATE AT WAR

1956: The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Geoffrey Fisher, went to 10 Downing Street to tell Anthony Eden that the action in Suez was wrong

1982: The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Robert Runcie, offered the Church’s full support to the Government in the Falklands conflict but later enraged Margaret Thatcher when, in the postwar memorial service, he said prayers for relatives of the Argentinians killed, as well as for the British

1991: Dr George Carey, selected but not yet enthroned as Archbishop of Canterbury, described the Gulf War as “justifiable” but refused to call it “just”. He said: “People are getting hurt, including civilian populations”

1999: Dr Carey said that the use of force in Kosovo “must always be a matter of regret” but that “Nato was correct to take the action”

2002: Church of England bishops issue a document saying that war against Iraq without further backing from the United Nations is unacceptable

2003: The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, and the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster, the Most Rev Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, issue a joint statement highlighting their doubts about the “moral legitimacy” of the conflict in Iraq and warning of the “unpredictable humanitarian consequences”

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