An Advocacy Expert Responds to Bishop's Suspension Issues

by

Special to United Methodist Insight

The recent release of "A Public Call to Lift the Prolonged Suspension of Bishop G. Carcaño" shows some important things.

For one, the call from California-Nevada ethnic caucuses shows there was no serious effort to correct the Disciplinary violation of the handling of the Administrative Review Committeee on the jurisdictional level. Even with the Judicial Council pushing the jurisdiction to set one up, the jurisdiction chose to refer the case to a counsel for the church to get to one of the few places where a suspension has no time limit, a vote by the committee on investigation to suspend, which can occur before there is even a hearing by the Committee on Investigation with the respondent. And according to earlier Judicial Council rulings, a suspension may not be indefinite but must have a termination date.

For another, a lot of ethnic pastors have supported Bishop Carcaño one way or another, which counters a possibility that as an advocate, she may have lost her sensitivity to work well with everyone to protect her co-workers in advocacy or because some of those co-workers may have stabbed her in the back for whatever reason.

For a third, in civil criminal investigations, the names of the accusers and the name of the accused are kept confidential until indictment, when the only the name of the accused is finally revealed.  The accusers become known as witnesses at the trial.

For a fourth, in the Church, a suspension has to be announced and thus becomes an indictment no matter what else is said or done. And no fair process is available in our denomination prior to that action to protect the respondent.

As a veteran of the civil rights battles in Alabama, the Rev. Dr. Thomas Lane Butts, put it, "Turn on the lights and let everyone see what's going on." Whether church leaders like it or not, that is what this call does. "What all is going on" does mean that the light shines in all directions, and not everything we will end up seeing will be "pleasing" in our eyes, let alone in God's.

As things stand, Bishop Carcaño, the church officials involved in the "just resolution" process, the majority on the Judicial Council, and the denomination have black eyes resulting from the handling of this case so far.

As a veteran of the civil rights battles in Alabama, the Rev. Dr. Thomas Lane Butts, put it, "Turn on the lights and let everyone see what's going on." Whether church leaders like it or not, that is what this call does.

"What all is going on" does mean that the light shines in all directions, and not everything we will end up seeing will be "pleasing" in our eyes, let alone in God's.

In any case, denominational leaders now will have to decide whether to take their chances that they have done this the best way, all things considered, and let the chips fall where they may, or they will have to look at more options to see if this can be resolved in a better way.

Offhand, I can think of four options for them.

One, get Bishop Carcaño to ask all her supporters to let things go and accept the suspension and retirement.

Two, they can give her a hearing before a Committee on Investigation of the jurisdiction, and if it forwards the complaints as judicial charges, put the bishop on trial.

Three, bring in an independent third party trained mediator/conflict resolution expert with experience to deal with all parties, with the hard-headed, egotistical, scared, confused, anxious, sympathetic, racist, non-racist, jealous, woke and unwoke, angry, antagonistic, and supportive people. And that's just the bishops!

Four, encourage the Judicial Council to reconsider on their own JCD 1450 or at the request of the bishops now responsible for handling the case.

If we think a few more minutes, we can probably come up with a half dozen or even a dozen other options, with the realization that more than one may be needed to resolve the situation. When feelings are running so high, it is easy to have a failure of imagination.

May some cooler heads prevail, and some positive things come from this awful situation.

The Rev. Jerry Eckert, retired from the Wisconsin Annual Conference, wrote this response based on years of work with Associates in Advocacy (AIA). While he is an emeritus member of AIA, he does not represent them or speak for them. AIA was formed to support those who are called to be advocates for pastors and laity facing the complaint processes of the United Methodist Church.