CHURCHES throughout the Salisbury diocese - especially those in military areas - were urged this week to keep their doors open for people wanting to pray for loved ones fighting in Iraq.

With some 500 troops from camps on Salisbury Plain involved in hostilities, the three bishops of the diocese called for support of armed forces families and their friends living in local parishes.

"Please make sure that our churches are open, and if they cannot be all day, there needs to be a notice saying when they are," said Bishop of Salisbury David Stancliffe, Bishop of Sherborne Timothy Thornton and Bishop of Ramsbury Peter Hullah in a joint statement.

Bishop Stancliffe has been an outspoken critic of war in the Gulf but in the joint statement said that, now battle was being waged, the focus of thinking, preaching and praying needed to shift from the moral questions to those affected by the conflict.

The bishops' statement declared: "First, we have a duty to pray and help others to pray that these hostilities may lead to a greater degree of freedom, justice and peace for a greater number of God's people, and not just in Iraq,

"We will pray for our armed forces and their families and friends, but we will pray equally for the peoples of Iraq, both those directly engaged in the conflict and the civilians who are caught up in it.

"We will continue to pray for the leaders of the nations, especially for our prime minister and government, for the work of the United Nations and for the establishment of a just and lasting peace throughout the whole of the Middle East.

"Second, where the causes of this conflict may be misunderstood, we have a responsibility to enlarge our understanding of the history of Iraq and of the nature of Islam.

"We share a common humanity with Muslims, yet some will seek to exploit this conflict as a means of division.

"There are not large numbers of Muslims in this diocese but such as there are need our friendship and understanding. This is a conflict between states, not between faiths."