God has no place in politics and should not have been used by churches in the United States to influence the presidential election, a council representing 342 Christian groups around the world said.
The World Council of Churches (WCC) told US member churches in a letter that they should not ask whose side God was on in an election but only offer "a moral and spiritual compass for their community, their nation and the world".
The letter, by WCC general secretary Rev Samuel Kobia, chided some US churches for presenting God in partisan terms.
It was released late on Wednesday.
Preachers in some US churches, mostly among conservative evangelical Protestants but also some Catholics, made clear during the campaign that they preferred President Bush over his Democratic challenger Senator John Kerry.
Rev Kobia wrote: "The harsh claims that make most of the headlines, that invoked the judgment of a partisan God, have provoked deep concern around the world
"We do not ask whose side God was on in this election. Rather, like Abraham Lincoln when he confronted a divisive war, we seek to be found on God's side." - (Reuters)