Leading bishops will use their Easter sermons to maintain their tough anti-war stance by denouncing the Allies for allowing anarchy to reign in Iraq and to warn the United States it cannot police the world.
As Easter week begins, their messages will reflect the Church of England's continued concern over the decision by Tony Blair and George Bush to invade Iraq without international backing.
Senior churchmen including the bishops of St Albans and Manchester will make the war in Iraq central to their Palm Sunday sermons today.
On Easter Sunday, the most important date in the Christian calendar, the Right Rev Michael Turnbull, the Bishop of Durham, will use his sermon to highlight "the tragedies of the war", drawing a parallel with the Resurrection of Christ.
"The energies which were applied to war must now be given to the creation of nation based on hope and justice and enlightenment," he will tell his congregation. On the same day, the Right Rev John Gladwin, the Bishop of Guildford, will question the whole motive for the war and the lack of conclusive proof that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction.
Last week, the bishop said that the aim of the war was not to topple President Saddam Hussein but to find and remove weapons of mass destruction. "People were delighted to see a dictator fall, but they will be ambivalent about the whole thing if we find that the causes stated for the war haven't been met," he said.
Another strong opponent of war, the Right Rev Nigel McCulloch, the Bishop of Manchester, said that his position was unchanged and that the "moral justification" was still "highly questionable".
In a statement, he said: "Although I am glad that Saddam Hussein has been defeated, I do believe that we cannot get ourselves into a position where a major power can act as a police force around the world without moral authority."
In a poll conducted by The Independent on Sunday before war began, as many as seven bishops said they were unconditionally opposed to the war, and a further 25 said they would support war only as a last resort and with the backing of the UN.