Folau is asking for AUS$14 million compensation after he was sacked over a social media post about sin and hell.

His Instagram post in April listed a number of sins – including adultery and homosexuality warning “hell awaits” those who commit them.

Rugby Australia claim he had committed a high level breach of his contract.

In a video posted on his website before mediation, Folau said: “I understand that not everyone shares my faith and some find it difficult to reconcile with their own beliefs.

“I want to be clear that I only share passages from the Bible as a gesture of love.

“We pray that we might all find redemption and peace in the words of the Lord Jesus Christ as we head to today’s mediation, we also ask that He watches over us, so that both parties might realise the courage to uphold the truth.”

Mediation will now continue on Wednesday.

Stay up to date with the latest news stories from a Christian perspective. Sign up to our daily newsletter and receive more stories like this straight to your inbox every morning.

The charity is urging “abolitionists to rise up” and for the “church once again to take a lead” in the fight against slavery.

Today, there are more people in slavery than there were in the 200-year transatlantic slave trade combined and every minute two children are sold into slavery, according to IJM.

IJM’s UK CEO David Westlake told Premier it is a multi-billion pound industry: “It is a £116 billion a year industry that we are all funding. We may not be buying directly from slave-owners themselves, but slavery is hidden in the supply chains of hundreds of the products we use every day.

“Everything from t-shirts, to make-up, smartphones, rice, chocolate, and jewellery- all of these can have slavery in their supply chains. Even here in the UK, there are men, women and children enslaved in the sex industry, in nail bars, cannabis farms and car washes.”

Westlake said International Day for the Abolition of Slavery looks forward to “the abolition of all slavery. Decisive action has been taken to end slavery, most famously Wilberforce and the end of the transatlantic slave trade nearly 200 years ago.”

Westlake said the day provides us a moment to stop and think and ask ourselves the question, “can we live up to our forebearers of 200 years ago and bring an end to the slave trade?”

The Home Office estimates there are around 13,000 slaves in the UK, but many charities…

President Roch Marc Christian Kabore said he condemned “the barbaric attack” in the town of Hantoukoura.

He said several people also were wounded.

In a tweet, Mr Kabore offered his “deepest condolences to the bereaved families” and wished “a speedy recovery to the wounded”.

Islamic extremists have been active in Burkina Faso since 2015.

Jihadists have attacked police stations and churches across the country’s north but also recently have struck in the east.

In October, gunmen generally believed to be Islamic extremists attacked a convoy carrying employees of a mining company in that region, killing at least 37 people.

Stay up to date with the latest news stories from a Christian perspective. Sign up to our daily newsletter and receive more stories like this straight to your inbox every morning.

The whoops of joy from the Congolese approaching the altar with symbolic gifts made for a vivid contrast with the solemnity of most religious ceremonies at the Vatican basilica.

Francis decided to celebrate the Mass to mark the 25th anniversary of the founding of the Catholic Congolese Community in Rome.

The Mass was conducted using a special rite approved by the Vatican in 1988 entitled the “Congolese Missal for the dioceses of Zaire,” the former name of DR Congo.

The Vatican noted that Popes Paul VI and John Paul II had encouraged, as the Vatican put it, “opening the liturgy to the cultural values of the people” of DR Congo.

In his homily, Francis prayed that conflict cease, noting that peace was “gravely threatened in the east of the country”. He decried weapon suppliers, lamenting “conflicts fed by those enriching themselves with arms”.

Recently, rebels in eastern DR Congo have targeted Ebola response workers, compounding difficulties in containing the outbreak.

Francis noted that many in the pews on Sunday had left their homes and loved ones to come to Italy in search of a better life. In an apparent reference to hostility by many Italians to arriving refugees and migrants, the pope said: “The church is the house of God. Here, then, always feel at home.”

Francis’s expressed desires to visit DR Congo as well as South Sudan have so far been thwarted by persistent…

Keith Waters, 53, pastor of New Connexions Free Church in Ely, wrote online on 1st June: “A reminder that Christians should not support or attend LGBTQ ‘Pride Month’ events held in June. They promote a culture and encourage activities that are contrary to Christian faith and morals. They are especially harmful to children.”

A local journalist responded to the now deleted tweet saying he was attacking the LGBTQ community and two days later he was on the front page of the Cambridge Evening News after he refused to apologise to another journalist who approached him before his Sunday service.

Mr Waters said his post was directed to Christians and he was referring to inappropriate outfits children might see. 

The preacher from Ely in Cambridgeshire, who also worked as a caretaker at the Isle of Ely Primary School, said he then experienced a series of harassments and threats, including his wife Joanna being asked by a funeral director what she would like to be done with his body and estate agents contacting them, having been told he was leaving the area ‘in a hurry’.

A local parent from the school he worked in also ranted at him from a car while he was on his bike and the head teacher informed him that he was being investigated for bringing the school ‘into disrepute’ after receiving a handful of complaints.

He was then given a final warning by the head…