The Church of England is calling on Sony to apologise and withdraw one of its top-selling computer games after the company used the interior of an Anglican cathedral for a virtual gun battle.

The Dean and Chapter at Manchester Cathedral say that Sony failed to ask permission to use the nave as a setting for a shoot-out between resistance fighters and their enemies in an alternative 1951. The sequence has caused distress to Manchester clergy who preach regularly against the city’s gun crime problem and promote the cathedral as a centre of peace and reconciliation.

The image of the cathedral is presented in the new Play-Station3 title Resistance: Fall of Man, which has sold more than one million copies. Ted Price, President of Insomniac Games, the developer, said the scenes were designed after an “environment artist” visited Britain.

David Wilson, a Sony spokesman, told The Times: “It is game-created footage, it is not video or photography. It is entertainment, like Doctor Who or any other science fiction. It is not based on reality at all. Throughout the whole process we have sought permission where necessary.”

But clergy at Manchester Cathedral said no clearance for the use of their nave for a gun battle had been sought. Canon Paul Denby, Subdean and Administrator, said: “I think they are going to be in for a surprise because we are not going to let this one go. One million people are visiting Manchester Cathedral through this game.”

Calling on Sony to withdraw the game, which is on sale globally, the Bishop of Manchester, the Right Rev Nigel McCulloch, said: “For a global manufacturer to recreate one of our great cathedrals with photo-realistic quality and then encourage people to have gun battles in the building is beyond belief and highly irresponsible.”