BLOCKING the gates to an atomic weapons research centre and taking communion outside a weapons store aren’t typical activities for a bishop.

But for the Bishop of Chelmsford, Stephen Cottrell, voicing his opposition to nuclear weapons is an important part of his Christian faith.

Bishop Stephen, 52, who grew up in Sylvan Way, Leigh, and attended Belfairs High School between 1969 and 1976, has always supported the peace movement, but it wasn’t until he became Bishop of Reading in 2004 that he began to take part in protests.

The position required him to move to the village of Tidmarsh, in Berkshire, seven miles from Aldermaston – home of the Atomic Weapons Establishment, where the UK’s nuclear weaponry is developed, maintained and scrapped.

Bishop Stephen said: “Suddenly for me, this international issue became a local issue and many of the people I got to know worked at Aldermaston.”

Not long after he moved to the area, a group of Scotsmen travelling to Aldermaston to protest against nuclear weapons invited him along.

“I felt compelled to get involved and after that I got involved in many rallies and protests at Aldermaston,” he said.

“I don’t make myself out to be any big campaigner or hero, but sometimes it does help to have the local bishop there to get publicity.

“One protest I took part in two years ago involved different groups being placed at different gates at Aldermaston.

“Our group successfully managed to block off activity at our gate for a few hours.”

One of Bishop Stephen’s most memorable experiences was holding a eucharist, or Holy Communion, at Faslane, a submarine base and defence equipment site located 25 miles from Glasgow.

He described the experience of taking communion at the site as “intensely moving”, and the event attracted national media interest.

An avid football fan, who took over the Essex diocese in November last year, Bishop Stephen said Christianity had always been at the heart of his strong views on weapons.

“The Christian faith requires me to be a witness to peace,” he said. “There are a whole range of arguments which can be deployed against nuclear weapons and I choose to focus on five.”

He argues nuclear weapons are illegal and cost a lot of money, which could be better used.

He said: “A number of members of the Armed Forces have just received redundancy notices and there’s better ways of spending money on defence than investing it in nuclear weapons – for example, better body armour for troops.”

His other three arguments are moral.

He says the Bible says people should love their enemy. Using nuclear weapons is always a disproportionate response to any violence, and the church has a vision for peace.

However, Bishop Stephen, who is chairman of the Clergy Against Nuclear Arms group, says he understands war may be justified in some circumstances, as long as there is evidence of a real threat, a just cause for taking action and war is used as a last resort.

“The means you deploy need to be proportionate to the threat, though,” he said.

“I’m not a pacifist. I’m prepared to see there are occasions where proportionate use of force could be appropriate.

“I don’t think British troops getting involved in the conflict in Iraq was such a case, though.

“What a nightmare it’s turned into.”