The Island's top churchmen have split over Bermuda's plan to end the death penalty.

Senior members of the Catholic and Anglican faiths welcomed proposals to ax the rope as a punishment for premeditated murder.

But the presiding elder of the African Methodist Episcopalian religion said he was in favour of retention.

Anglican Bishop of Bermuda Ewen Ratteray -- head of the Island's largest flock -- said: "I'm against capital punishment because violence begets violence and it's inappropriate to react violently to violence.'' Bishop Ratteray added his view was personal because the church in Bermuda had not discussed the issue during his tenure.

But he said: "I do not subscribe to `an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth' -- that's an Old Testament concept which is totally at odds with the Gospel.'' He added: "There should be punishment, of course, for anybody who takes somebody's life.

Church debates death penalty "But taking a person's life because they have taken another's is inappropriate.

"If the state is to engage in that kind of activity, it's as bad as the person they're punishing because they're doing exactly the same thing, except legally -- I'm glad it's been abolished.'' The House of Assembly voted 19 to 13 on Friday to strike capital and corporal punishment from the law books.

Bishop Ratteray added that statistics from the US proved the prospect of death for murder did not prevent killing.

He said: "It's certainly not a deterrent -- look at the US where they reintroduced it and violent crime has not decreased. If anything, it's increased.'' The Rev. Malcolm Eve, AME presiding elder, also said his church had not adopted an official opinion and views would vary from pastor to pastor.

But he added: "It should be retained -- there is debate on it, but it's just my personal view. In regards to corporal and capital punishment, to not have it, in my opinion, is the cause of the situation we're in now. The violence which is being perpetrated in our country.

"We have this lowering of standards and we're allowing too many things to happen -- it's just pulling the country down.'' Catholic Bishop of Hamilton Robert Kurtz was off the Island and not available for comment. Pope John Paul II, however, is understood to have spoken out against the death penalty in recent times.