It is one of the most famous places of worship in Britain – but St Paul’s Cathedral is banning Christians from preaching from the Bible on its doorstep.

One man was arrested while reading the scriptures aloud within the cathedral’s grounds after security staff called police.

And another pastor has told of how he, too, was asked to leave after preaching about sin in the shadow of the London landmark.

Different rules: The Occupy London anti-capitalist camp that blighted the landmark in 2011

Their treatment is in stark contrast to Occupy London anti-capitalists, who were allowed to set up a sprawling tent city outside the cathedral for four months in 2011.

Christian groups last night condemned the cathedral’s stance against preachers as ‘an attack on religious freedom’ and called on the Government to intervene.

Bus driver Allan Coote was arrested for a breach of the peace when he started reading from the Bible on the cathedral’s land in March.

The 55-year-old, from East London, says he never received a complaint from the public, but was asked to move on by St Paul’s security staff. When he refused, saying he had the right to spread the word of God, police were called.

Mr Coote’s wife, Marie-Shirley, recorded the ensuing encounter on her mobile phone and the footage, showing an officer reading the street preacher his rights, was recently posted on YouTube.

Mr Coote says he was put into a police van, driven a few hundred yards from the cathedral and released without further action.

Undeterred, he returned in April to read the Sermon On The Mount aloud. Three officers from City of London Police approached and told him to stop. He again refused, but this time the officers allowed him to finish and leave.

Allan Coote being arrested after refusing to stop reading bible scriptures aloud on its grounds

Yesterday, as he again returned to the cathedral to read aloud from the Bible, Mr Coote said: ‘I am not hurt or angry, but very surprised that St Paul’s would support the Occupy London people but not support the reading of the Bible.’

The Reverend Peter Simpson, a pastor at the Free Methodist Church in Penn, Buckinghamshire, said he endured a similar experience outside St Paul’s two years ago, when he and a colleague were ordered to leave. ‘We did not say anything inflammatory as far as I can recall,’ he said.

‘We were just preaching from the Bible but were told to move. We did not want to break the law so we moved to the edge of the grounds marked by bollards and preached from there.’

The Barnabas Fund, which campaigns against the persecution of Christians, has launched an online petition urging Parliament to intervene. Dr Martin Parsons, head of research at the charity, said: ‘This illustrates the slippery slope down which the UK is losing its heritage of religious freedom.

‘One of the first aspects of freedom of religion to be established in England was the freedom to read the Bible in public. A Royal decree specifically forbade clergy from stopping anyone reading the Bible in public. Now St Paul’s Cathedral is trying to stop someone reading the Sermon On The Mount in public.’

A spokesman for the cathedral said: ‘In order to provide a prayerful and safe space for all, St Paul’s has a policy of limiting any form of public oration, protest, demonstration, preaching or other source of disturbance to people.

‘Our policy is to allow a short interval and then ask the person to stop, and to involve the police if they refuse to do so or to move off the cathedral’s land.’

Arguments within St Paul’s about how to deal with the protest by Occupy London divided the Church and led to the resignations of the cathedral’s dean and canon chancellor before the protesters were eventually evicted.