2016 Wesleyan Discipline:12. Church Discipline Hearing Participants

12. Participants

5046. Only those who are members or ministers of The Wesleyan Church shall be allowed to participate in a hearing, except as witnesses and only those participating in the hearing shall be permitted to attend the hearing. Nonmembers who consent to testify may be brought in as witnesses at the hearing, but any witness, even a member, should not be allowed in the room except while testifying, unless this prohibition is waived by the chair of the judicatory. Witnesses shall be examined first by the party producing them, then cross-examined by the opposite party, after which any member of the judicatory or either party may put additional questions. All deliberations of a judicatory shall be considered confidential during and after the hearing, and members of a judicatory shall not discuss the matter with anyone outside the judicatory during the hearing.