At stake was whether the commission would allow the video and Session minutes to be entered into case record, against the Session’s protests.
The judicial commission of the Northwest Georgia Presbytery assigned to the ongoing complaint of Stuart Michelson vs. Session of Midway Presbyterian Church has ruled on the record of the case in favor of the complainant.
The most notable aspects of this ruling favored two key positions taken by the complainant on the perfected record of the case. The complainant requested the inclusion of a video recording of the controversial congregational meeting from July 2020 that resulted in the complaint being filed, as well as Midway Session meeting minutes dating back to January 2019.
The commission’s ruling stated in part:
“We find the recordings of the July 19, 2020 Midway Presbyterian Church congregational meeting shall be included in the perfected record of the case as evidence in the case (BCO 42-5). Further, guided by BCO 35-7 we request the Clerk of Session to produce a transcript of the meeting and submit it to the Chair of this commission no later than October 26, 2020. Any expenses incurred for the transcript will be split evenly between the parties.”
And
”We find that the session minutes dating to January 2019 and included in Mr. Michelson’s August 10, 2020 complaint to the NGP are evidence and shall be included in the perfected record of the case.”
It is unclear why the respondents from Midway’s Session sought to prevent a video archive of the events alleged to be unconstitutional or minutes that presumably provided timeline context from being added to the record.
Now a that a perfected record exists for this case a hearing is likely to follow soon.