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…

The family, originally from Nigeria, including three children, aged eight, nine and eleven, paid rent for ten years from 2006 to live in the four-bedroom caretaker’s house adjoining the All Nations Church in Hemlington, near Middlesbrough. 

However, when the church became aware of their immigration status two years ago, the church asked the family to leave the property. Home Office rules prevent the family from paying rent to the church due to their status as asylum seekers.

Some members of the church have criticised the church’s decision. 

One member told Teesside Live she is “saddened and sickened” by the church “turning their back”. 

However, the church’s pastor Ian Rowland insisted the church had done all it could do to support the family. 

“We have bent over backwards to help them and this is the last resort,” he told Teeside Live. 

The married couple moved to the UK with their children on a student visa, and achieved university degrees and worked in professional jobs. 

When Middlesbrough Council contacted the church about council tax, they found out for the first time that the family were actually seeking asylum. 

As a result, the church was legally obliged to stop charging the family for rent or any utilities.” 

All Nations began legal proceedings to evict the family when the church and family failed to reach a compromise. 

An unnamed member…