|TOP|The leaders of Scotland’s two largest denominations have spoken out against plans by the UK government to embark on a replacement programme for the Trident missile system.

The Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, the Rev Alan McDonald, was joined by the president of the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland, Cardinal Keith Patrick O’Brien at a packed meeting in Glasgow Tuesday evening.

As the one year anniversary of the 2005 Make Poverty History Campaign approaches, Rev McDonald challenged Chancellor Gordon Brown over the huge cost of a Trident replacement, asking how many lives could be saved if the £25 billion needed to renew the nuclear warheads programme went to aid or debt relief instead.

“Precisely how obscene is it to spend £20 million to simulate a nuclear weapon when so many of the 6 billion inhabitants of earth still exist on less than a dollar a day?” asked Rev McDonald.

“The statistics about Trident are chilling,” said the Kirk Moderator. While each submarine can carry 16 missiles, each missile can be armed with up to 12 nuclear warheads with a range of 6000 miles. Meanwhile one Trident submarine can carry the equivalent of 750 Hiroshima atom bombs.

|QUOTE|“The potential for the indiscriminate destruction of countless men, women and children is almost beyond belief. The threat to the future of creation is beyond imagining,” he warned.

In his speech, the Kirk Moderator went on to warn however that even if the Trident replacement were free, the UK should reject it.

“But even if a Trident replacement cost nothing, even if the system came free from the land of George W Bush, we should still have nothing to do with it. Because it’s wrong, morally, and theologically wrong.”

He went on to stress the calling of Christians to walk in the footsteps of Jesus Christ and the way of the Gospel.

“Our Christian faith teaches us that we are not powerless in the struggle to preach the gospel about the love of God. We can make a difference in the world.

|AD|Each one of us must decide the most faithful way of living our daily lives as disciples of Jesus Christ.”

He also addressed the additional question of who would be the target of the nuclear weapons.

“But for Christians, as people who believe in the resurrection, the answer to that question about who we point these missiles at is, the target would be Jesus Christ, the Son of God, along with millions of his brothers and sisters. For people of faith this is no way to love our neighbour.

“For people who believe in the Creator God, ‘Son of Trident’ is not the way to care for this beautiful world or to hand it on to our children and our children’s children. Let us not replace Trident. Just don’t do it!”

Meanwhile, Cardinal O'Brien claimed that, "Far from being weapons which keep peace, nuclear weapons in fact prevent peace and we, the UK and other nations of the world who possess such weapons, are therefore also a stumbling block to peace."

He concluded his remarks by declaring; "We have a chance to be a nation of peace. Let us bury our belligerence, let us beat our swords into ploughshares and call on the world to follow our lead."