The Louisiana Presbytery decided, after four hours of debate, to enter a mixed plea to the indictment by the Presbyterian Church in America Standing Judicial Commission according to HaigLaw in his blog entry of January 19.  This one seems to have really been under the radar and my thanks to JHG for bringing it to our attention in an entry on his blog In Light of the Gospel.

Specifically, the presbytery voted to plead “not guilty” to the charge that they failed to properly handle the differences that Teaching Elder Steve Wilkins declared with the “Confessional Standards.”  On the other hand, the presbytery voted to plead “guilty” to the charge that the failed to find a strong presumption of guilt in TE Wilkins’ views being out of conformity and with that vote are forwarding the case of TE Wilkins to the SJC.

It is important to note that count 1 was a technical charge (see my previous post on the subject for more details) so pleading not guilty to that one seems to be more about the precise wording than the intent.

HaigLaw reports that several proposals were floated during the meeting but other approaches, including having the LA Presbytery conduct the trial of TE Wilkins and a vote of confidence for TE Wilkins, could not garner a majority.

I would quote HaigLaw about the meeting: “…I was impressed with the charity with which these
elders debated their divergent views on these issues, and the courtesy and fairness extended to Pastor Wilkins. “

Needless to say, there is also analysis over on Green Bagginses.  I will let that (mostly) speak for itself, but read through the comments if you care about this stuff because HaigLaw contributes to the discussion comments and provides more detail than he did in his original post.  Thanks HaigLaw, or “Grandpa David,” for all of this info. I just added you to my regular reading list.

From that discussion I would state here one point made by HaigLaw, that it was conveyed to them that the SJC would likely drop charge #1 if there were a guilty plea on charge #2.  Also, the discussion touched on the point that TE Wilkins might not be able to avoid trial by resigning from the PCA since the resignation must be accepted.  I have been involved in two cases in the PC(USA) were the pastor resigned, or in polity language “renounced jurisdiction,” to immediately avoid trial.