Island's anti-gay laws.

It was inappropriate to make private homosexual acts between consenting adults a crime, Bermuda's Anglican and Roman Catholic bishops said.

The statement by the bishops is directly opposed to the stand taken by the AME church in Bermuda and increases the pressure on Government to change the law.

In a joint statement, Anglican Bishop the Rt. Rev. William Down and Roman Catholic Bishop of Hamilton in Bermuda the Most Rev. Brian L. Hennessy warned: "We must beware of casting the first stone.'' "As pastors it is our task to show and bring the love of God to everybody,'' the bishops said. "It is to help people to find God's strength to cope with themselves, with their sexual orientation, and with life.

"Therefore, although we do not condone homosexual acts, we do not believe that to classify them as criminal is appropriate.'' In recent weeks, gay and human rights activists in the US and elsewhere have begun a campaign to change a Bermuda law which provides for a prison sentence of up to 10 years for consensual sex in private between adult males.

According to the most recent census figures, Bishop Down and Bishop Hennesy represent the two largest religious denominations on the Island.

In 1991, 16,087 Bermudians identified themselves as Anglican and 8,712 Bermudians said they were Roman Catholic. Those numbers represented 28 percent and 15 percent of the population, respectively.

The African Methodist Episcopalian (AME) Church, the next largest on the Island, remains "very much against the changing of the law'', Presiding Elder the Rev. Conway M. Simmons said yesterday.

In an earlier statement, the AME Church described homosexuality as "an abomination'' and a perversion which spreads AIDS.

In the recent census, 7,011 Bermudians, or 12 percent, identified themselves as AME.

The Anglican and Roman Catholic bishops said: "As pastors it is our task to minister to all God's people.

"We recognise that human beings are created with strong sexual impulses and that for the vast majority of people these impulses are expressed in heterosexual relationships.'' While holding firmly to the Biblical teaching that sexual relationships are expressed through the lifelong marriage of a man and woman, "we recognise also that a significant minority of people are emotionally and physically attracted to people of their own sex.

"For some this appears to be the result of the circumstances and environment in which they were brought up as children,'' the bishops continued. "For others it appears to be something which has been part of their make-up from birth.

"Whatever the cause, this is how they are now.''