Vicar goes to work on a Sabbath

his wife about his health.”

Iommi was diagnosed the blood cancer lymphoma in January 2012 but is now in remission.

Mrs Ogle added: “This is a most wonderful gift Tony offered to the cathedral. He has a huge fan base in the city.

“The cathedral is here to serve everyone so we want to connect with them, too. The words come from scripture and are really positive about people living together in peace and harmony.”

Mrs Ogle spent nine years as Vicar of Huddersfield and brought a freshness and energy to life at St Peter’s.

When she left in 2010 she was one of only three women to have become a Church of England dean.

Iommi, who plays acoustic guitar on the track, says modestly: “They’re a fantastic choir but the guitar player’s crap!”

He added: “Catherine and I gave it a lot of thought, then I recorded the tune on which the piece is based at my home recording studio. I sent it to Catherine, she liked it, and came up with the words, which are based on the psalm.

“Then we recorded the choir inside the cathedral, which has gorgeous acoustics.

“The whole process took around nine months because I was out on Black Sabbath’s final tour, and there were lots of things happening at the cathedral, where work was being done.

“We called in cellist George Shilling, and invited him to work his magic, too, and we’re all very happy with the finished result. “It’s a bit different to Sabbath! “We’ve done instrumental work before with orchestras and it’s something I enjoy doing – but this is completely different.

“It’s something we have started from scratch, a completely new piece of music unlike anything I have done before.

“People used to think we were Satanists but we weren’t. The songs were the opposite – they were all about the dangers of black magic. The closest we came was Black Magic chocolates!”