Members of the Kirk’s General Assembly unanimously backed a motion calling for all documents relating to the Chinook helicopter crash on the Mull of Kintyre on 2nd June 1994 to be “kept in a safe place and not deleted”.

A total of 29 people died after the aircraft, which was on its way from RAF Aldergrove near Belfast to Inverness, crashed in a ball of flames.

The Church previously called on the department to “revisit” the incident in 2003.

The Very Rev Dr Alan McDonald, who lives in Cromarty in the Highlands, told the General Assembly the response from the church on Mull of Kintyre and nationally was “much, much appreciated” by the families.

He said: “The MoD is reviewing the records of the accident on the Mull of Kintyre, whether they should be retained or deleted.

“The families are once more feeling very vulnerable and their voices are being ignored again.

“Because of everything that has happened to them over the years, the families simply do not want these records to be deleted.

“Their preference is that the records are kept in a safe place where they can be easily assessed from now on.”

Dr McDonald told the General Assembly the MoD had confirmed records, closed in 1995 and 1996, “will be reviewed for release or alternative disposal this year”.

The pilots, flight lieutenants Jonathan Tapper and Richard Cook, were accused of gross negligence over the crash.

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Pastor Bryan Carter of Concord Church in Dallas wants couples to not only agree to ten weeks of counseling but to also decide upon completion if they want to get married.

“If you’re living together and you want to get married but financially it’s not a good season, we’ll take care of the tuxedo, dress and reception, Carter told a local NBC affiliate.

“We’ll help you get there.”

At the end of the pre-marital counseling, couples will have the option of walking down the aisle and saying vows in a group wedding.

While the pastor acknowledged the idea is “radical”, he said he wanted to provide couples with the tools to “follow after Christ”.

If couples decide marriage isn’t for them, the church has offered to help pay for one month’s rent if someone in the relationship will agree to move out.

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Addressing its General Assembly in Edinburgh, the First Minister said the Scottish Parliament owes a “major debt” to the Kirk, which she said provides a model of how to debate potentially divisive issues.

Ms Sturgeon said her speech at the Assembly Hall marked 20 years to the day since she first spoke as an MSP in the same building, which was home to the Scottish Parliament after it was reconvened in 1999 until it moved to Holyrood in 2005.

She said: “Whenever I attend the opening of the General Assembly, as I was privileged to do again on Saturday, I am struck by the extent to which the Church is at the centre not just of people’s spiritual life but of Scottish public life.

“That, of course, has been the case for generations.

“For a long time after the Act of Union, the General Assembly was the most prominent forum in existence in Scotland for bringing people together from right across the country to discuss important issues of the day.

“It therefore served in the words of Professor Sir Tom Devine as a ‘kind of surrogate parliament’.”

She added: “The Church of Scotland, of course, also helped to reestablish the modern Scottish Parliament.

“The 1989 Assembly endorsed the Claim of Right for Scotland, indeed, it was one of the first major civic institution to do so and it passed a resolution calling for the creation of a democratically elected assembly.

“The Church of…

Addressing its General Assembly in Edinburgh, the First Minister said the Scottish Parliament owes a “major debt” to the Kirk, which she said provides a model of how to debate potentially divisive issues.

Ms Sturgeon said her speech at the Assembly Hall marked 20 years to the day since she first spoke as an MSP in the same building, which was home to the Scottish Parliament after it was reconvened in 1999 until it moved to Holyrood in 2005.

She said: “Whenever I attend the opening of the General Assembly, as I was privileged to do again on Saturday, I am struck by the extent to which the Church is at the centre not just of people’s spiritual life but of Scottish public life.

“That, of course, has been the case for generations.

“For a long time after the Act of Union, the General Assembly was the most prominent forum in existence in Scotland for bringing people together from right across the country to discuss important issues of the day.

“It therefore served in the words of Professor Sir Tom Devine as a ‘kind of surrogate parliament’.”

She added: “The Church of Scotland, of course, also helped to reestablish the modern Scottish Parliament.

“The 1989 Assembly endorsed the Claim of Right for Scotland, indeed, it was one of the first major civic institution to do so and it passed a resolution calling for the creation of a democratically elected…

A Public Space Protection Order (PSPO) around the British Pregnancy Advisory Service (BPAS) centre on Rosslyn Road on 1st April 2019 made it a criminal offence for pro-life groups to gather outside. 

Conversations about abortion or other options, counselling, leaflets outlining alternatives to abortion and “any act of approval or disapproval” have also been outlawed.

The legal challenge has been brought by Justyna Pasek, who has for over five years tried to offer women visiting the clinic alternatives to abortion. 

This comes as the ongoing legal challenge to a similar order introduced last year in Ealing is set to be heard by the Court of Appeal on 16th July. 

A crowdfunding appeal to cover the costs of Pasek’s legal challenge rose over £10,000 in one week and crowdfunding for the case in Ealing has raised over £50,000.​ 

The Home Secretary rejected nationwide “buffer zones” last September highlighting that “the majority of activities are more passive in nature”. 

Pasek said in a statement: “I understand what is at stake in Richmond because I have stood outside that abortion clinic many times and offered women alternatives to abortion. 

“I have met hundreds of women who just needed a little help, at the right time and in the right place, in order to keep the child that they…