Bishops in the Church of England warn that churches will face restrictions on who they can employ if the Equality Bill is passed as it stands.

In a joint statement, the Bishop of Winchester the Rt Rev Michael Scott-Joynt, the Bishop of Exeter the Rt Rev Michael Langrish, and the Bishop of Chester the Rt Rev Peter Forster said legislation needed to strike a balance between the rights of certain groups to be protected from discrimination and the rights of churches to appoint people who conform to their doctrine and ethos.

The call comes as peers vote on the Government’s Equality Bill in the House of Lords today. The Bill as it stands includes a clause that considerably narrows exemptions in 2003 employment equality laws for religious organisations. Bishop Scott-Joynt and Baroness O’Cathain, an evangelical, have put forward amendments to retain the status quo.

The bishops say they support the wider aims of the Bill to promote fairness in society and address unjust treatment, but warn that churches and other faith groups would be “more vulnerable to legal challenge” than under current law.

“When regulations on employment discrimination were passed as recently as 2003, churches and other faiths were granted certain limited exemptions by parliament to be used when recruiting ministers of religion or others to a small number of lay posts," the bishops said.

“These enabled religious organisations to apply requirements that candidates for certain senior lay posts that involve promoting and representing the religion are able to demonstrate an ability to live a life consistent with the ethos of the religion, as well as sharing the faith.

“The Government have said that they share our view - that the current limited exemptions for organised religions are balanced and should not be further restricted. Yet they are proposing to modify them. They have produced no convincing case for change.”

There are fears that the Equality Bill would lead to more Christians being punished for expressing their faith, and force churches and Christian organisations to employ people who do not share their Christian ethos or beliefs.

The Catholic Archbishop of Cardiff, the Most Rev Peter Smith, has also hit out against the Equality Bill. He said he was “sorry” that government ministers had not sat down earlier with religious groups to work out an amendment “with the right wording”.

He was quoted as saying by the Catholic Herald: "As it is, legal advice indicates that a court might construe the wording too narrowly and if there was a doubt about the legal effect then the only prudent course is to support the rival amendment which deletes the definition entirely. That is the only sure way of guaranteeing this Bill neither widens nor narrows the scope of the current exemption.”