The US evangelist is due to host a mission event at the city’s FLYDSA arena as part of an eight day tour next June.

The Rt Rev Dr Pete Wilcox released a statement on Wednesday encouraging churches not to attend on the grounds that Graham’s views “represent a risk to the social cohesion of our city”.

The statement read: “I’m afraid I cannot support the Graham Tour mission event at the FlYDSA Arena on 6th June next year, at which Franklin Graham is due to speak, and so will not be encouraging parishes in the Diocese of Sheffield to support it either.

“Mr Graham’s rhetoric is repeatedly and unnecessarily inflammatory and in my opinion represents a risk to the social cohesion of our city.

“I gladly took part in Billy Graham’s Mission England in 1984 as a candidate for ordained ministry, and in his LiveLink Mission in 1989 as a curate. But to my sadness I detect a tailing off of humility and generosity in the Graham organisation since those days.”

The son of legendary Billy Graham held a rally in Blackpool last year in which thousands attended, his visit was met with objection though with a petition calling for him to be banned from entering the country due to past comments on Islam and homosexuality.

The preacher has previously described Islam as “an evil and very wicked religion” and spoken out against LGBT rights, saying Satan is behind same-sex marriage.

The Billy…

His final masterpiece will illuminate the external dome of St Paul’s Cathedral to celebrate the artist and poet’s birthday.

Blake described Ancient Of Days 1827 as “the best I have ever finished”.

The artist wanted his work to adorn the walls of churches and public buildings but his dream was not realised during his lifetime.

Martin Myrone, senior curator of pre-1800 British art at Tate Britain, said: “He had a lifelong ambition to see his paintings painted on a large scale….

“It was never going to happen. It was a pipe dream.

“Ancient Of Days is the very last thing he was working on.

“It’s the thing he was colouring and painting in the very last days of his life.

“He is said to have stated it is the best thing he has ever done.

“It’s an extraordinary work of art.”

A projection of the work will be seen on the south side of the dome.

The actual work itself, an illustration for Blake’s book Europe A Prophecy, is only 17cm by 23cm.

It shows a long-haired, bearded figure crouching from the heavens.

“It represents an idea of a perhaps rather oppressive, law giving judgmental God,” the curator said.

“Blake was a very committed Christian but he had his own interpretation of religion….

“What you see is a realisation of a judging God looming from the heavens.”

Blake’s birthday is November 28, when he would have been 262 years old.

He died in 1827, aged 69.

His talent was not widely…

Raheel Arif is being inducted into Denny Old Parish Church linked with Haggs Parish Church and will become its first full-time spiritual leader for five and a half years.

The 47-year-old said he was very excited about taking up this “wonderful and priceless ministry” in the Falkirk Council district.

Mr Arif and his wife Humaira and their children, Rhea and Roshaan, fled to Scotland from Pakistan in September 2011 after extremists threatened their lives because of their faith.

At the time, he was the vice-principal of a secondary school in Peshawar, partly run by the state, and the only Christian out of a staff of 52.

Mr Arif said a plot was mounted against him and his conspirators tried to have him arrested for blasphemy.

They were unsuccessful but a complaint led to him being demoted to his previous role as a biology teacher and his enemies then turned their attention to his family.

Mr Arif took his wife and children to Grangemouth to visit his cousin Rev Aftab Gohar, minister of Abbotsgrange Parish Church, in the summer of 2011 to lie low until things got back to normal.

But when they returned to Peshawar two months later it quickly became clear that his enemies would never leave them in peace so they decided to return to Scotland and seek asylum.

Mr Arif, who grew up in a Christian family and was very active in his local church in Pakistan and involved in…

The 30-year-old said he upped the compensation claim by A$4m to include potential lost earnings from match performances and sponsorship deals.

In a claim filed on Wednesday he also said the Wallabies would have had a “superior performance” at the Rugby World Cup in September if he had been playing.

Folau, who was one of Australia’s highest-paid athletes, was fired in May after he made comments on social media that Rugby Australia deemed “anti-gay”.

Folau posted on his Instagram account in April that read: “Drunks, homosexuals, adulterers, liars, fornicators, thieves, atheists and idolators – Hell awaits you.”

A panel found him guilty of a “high level breach’ of the players” code of conduct and upheld a decision by Rugby Australia to sack him.

Folau’s case will be heard in the Federal Circuit Court in February 2020.

In June, Folau raised more than A$2m in a crowdfunding campaign to help with court fees.

An earlier fundraiser on GoFundMe was shut down by the company from promoting discrimination.

Last week Folau was criticised by Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison for saying that the country’s deadly bushfires were linked to the nation’s stance on abortion and same-sex marriage.

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Ball, 87, was jailed at the Old Bailey in 2015 for sexual offences against 18 young men over three decades.

The self-styled confidant to the Prince of Wales was released from prison in 2017, having served 16 months.

A spokesman for Charles previously said it remained “a matter of deep regret” that he and others were “deceived” by the clergyman.

After his release, Ball went to live with his twin brother Michael Ball in Cornwall before they moved to Langport, Somerset.

An inquest in Taunton heard Ball suffered ill health and depression in the years leading up to his death.

On June 4 this year, he was admitted to Musgrove Park Hospital in Taunton before being discharged on June 12.

He was readmitted the next day following a fall, having sustained fractures to his rib and left clavicle.

Ball was discharged on 20th June but fell while attempting to climb stairs to his bedroom hours later.

He died at Musgrove Park Hospital on the morning of 21st June from respiratory failure and multiple rib fractures.

Tony Williams, senior coroner for Somerset, concluded that Ball’s death was accidental.

“Peter Ball suffered a number of falls during which he has sustained multiple rib fractures and gone on to develop a fatal respiratory failure,” the coroner said.

“He was a retired bishop. My conclusion will be one of accidental death.”

The inquest was not attended by members of Ball’s family…