Politics followed the Opposition Leader, Tony Abbott, to the pulpit today with a reading of the Judas betrayal at the annual ecumenical church service for MPs at St Paul's Anglican Church in Canberra.

Coincidentally, Mr Abbott delivered the passage, chosen by the church, directly after one given by Liberal turncoat and new Speaker Peter Slipper.

Mr Abbott - a devout Catholic and former seminarian - read John 13:1-11, which appeared to carry a pointed message for those who deal in the darker arts of politics.

The passage recounts Jesus washing the feet of his disciples at the Last Supper after Judas had made his pact with the devil to betray the messiah.

It goes on to say that Jesus knew one of his disciples would betray him and he tells his followers "not all of you are clean".

Mr Abbott's office said it was customary for the church to allocate the passages.

The full text of Mr Abbott's reading is here.

And the movie metaphors keep on coming in federal politics.

In his first Coalition party room meeting of the year, Mr Abbott borrowed a line from Hollywood star Clint Eastwood as "Dirty" Harry Callahan.

"[The government] say that they want the focus to be on the economy," Mr Abbott said this morning.

"Well if I can plagiarise for a moment: 'Make my day,'" he said, which earned him rapturous applause from the party room.

Yesterday, Prime Minister Julia Gillard said that the economy would be the key political battleground of 2012.

Last month Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese borrowed some lines from the 1995 film, The American President in his speech to the National Press Club.

Away from Hollywood, Mr Abbott's Press Club speech last week made reference to the words of US presidents Barack Obama, Richard Nixon and Abraham Lincoln.

- with Judith Ireland

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