Thea Smith and Becky Heath-Taylor will be the first women to play for the Archbishop of Canterbury XI, in a match to encourage stronger relationships between church denominations.

 Ms Heath Taylor is currently in training for priesthood at Trinity College, Bristol and Ms Smith is due to be ordained the day before she heads to Rome for the match.

Ms Smith told Premier it was exciting to help represent positive change within the church.

She said: “The face of women’s sport is changing and the church has caught wind of that.

“And the face of our ecumenical church relationships are changing and improving.

“Thy Kingdom Come at Pentecost last weekend is a great example of this, the number of denominations that are involved in that now is incredible. Pope Francis and Justin Welby worked particularly closely on that.”

The two sides will go head to head on Thursday 4th July at the Capannelle Ground in Rome.

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The heavyweight champion won after just two rounds in the ring, maintaining his unbeaten record.

In a video on the YouTube channel iFL TV, Fury is shown gathering his team before praying: “Heavenly father we come to you in the mighty name of Jesus.

“Give both men strength tonight, give both men the power to give their best performances and let both men come out of the ring safely.

“As I walk through the valley of the shadow of death i will fear no evil and those who bring weapons against me shall not prosper.”

In an unusual move, Fury asked a Muslim member of his team to pray also.

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The first new state Catholic school in six years is set to open.

The government announced 22 new free schools last week and will give permission to Hampton Waters Roman Catholic voluntary aided school in Peterborough.

It would be the first new Catholic state school since 2013 and would take pupils from the Catholic faith.

Some have said the move is a backwards step that would lead to “further ghettoization”.

The Catholic Education Service has refused to open new free schools because of a 50 per cent cap on faith based admissions if they were oversubscribed.

Director of the Catholic Education Service, said: “We remain hopeful that given the government’s commitment to the voluntary aided route this will be the first of many.

“However, there remains a need for more Catholic schools in England.

“While this one is, of course, welcome, more will be required to fulfil the parental demand for Catholic school places.”

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The call for study on the proposal was contained in the working document, released on Monday, for an October meeting of South American bishops on the Amazon.

The document, prepared by the Vatican based on input from the region, affirmed that celibacy is a gift for the Catholic Church.

But it suggested officials study “the possibility of priestly ordination for older men, preferably indigenous and respected and accepted by their communities, even if they have stable families, for the region’s most remote areas”.

The idea of ordaining so-called “viri probati” – married men of proven virtue – has been around for decades to cope with a priest shortage and decline in vocations overall.

But it has drawn fresh attention under Pope Francis, history’s first Latin American pope, thanks to his familiarity with the challenges facing the Amazon church.

The October 6-27 meeting on the sacramental and environmental needs of the Amazon will draw bishops from Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, French Guiana, Guyana, Peru, Suriname and Venezuela.

Brazil’s bishops have long pushed for the Church to consider ordaining viri probati to minister in remote parts of the Amazon where by some estimates there is one priest for every 10,000 Catholics.

The celibacy question has been a mainstay in Catholic debate given it is a discipline, not a doctrine, and therefore can change.

The Catholic charity said Iván Duque Márquez’s first official visit to the UK since he was elected last year is a chance to “save the peace deal” with the country’s largest guerrilla group, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).

Ulrike Beck, CAFOD’s Colombia Programme Officer, said: “This is a crucial time to address the challenges and rescue the deal.

“When Ivan Duque became president of Colombia last year, the future of the country seemed bright – after five decades of internal armed conflict, a peace agreement was reached in 2016, and although fragile, peace seemed possible.”

However, negotiations with the South American country’s second largest guerrilla group – The National Liberation Army (ELN) – have broken down, shattering hopes of a peace deal with FARC.

Beck added: “The UK has a key role in supporting the peace process, being the pen-holder for the UN resolutions establishing the UN missions to monitor its implementation.

“Over the last year, the humanitarian situation has got worse for people living in rural areas and threats and killings targeting rural community leaders and human rights defenders have increased.

“Since the signing of the peace agreement more than 400 community leaders and other human rights defenders have been killed, many of them local leaders who were key for the implementation of the agreement.

“The UK is Colombia’s…