Bishop Carcaño Found Not Guilty of All Charges

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A United Methodist Insight Special

GLENVIEW, Ill. – A church trial court of 13 ordained clergy found Bishop Minerva G. Carcaño not guilty Sept. 22 of four chargeable offenses brought against her from three complaints stemming from conflicts around her administration in the California-Nevada Annual Conference.

"I hope that God can use this episode to break open all our hearts," Bishop Carcaño told United Methodist Insight after the verdict was announced.

Bishop Dottie Escobedo-Frank, current president of the Western Jurisdiction College of Bishops, said that she intended for the verdict to bring Bishop Carcaño and her episcopal colleagues to healing. Bishop Carcaño was placed on suspension in March 2022.

"The healing will happen; God will see to it," Bishop Escobedo-Frank told Insight. "We're on that journey now."

Bishop Carcaño was brought to trial on four charges stemming from episodes of conflict under her administration:

  • Disobedience to the order and Discipline of The United Methodist Church.
  • Relationships and behavior undermining the ministry of another pastor.
  • Harassment including racial and/or sexual harassment.
  • Fiscal malfeasance.

Retired Bishop Alfred W. Gwinn, the trial's presiding officer, announced the verdict shortly after 8 a.m. after admonishing the gathering not to show visible emotional reactions to the verdict.

"There is high tension for everybody," Bishop Gwinn said. "But you in the observation area guests are part of these tense feelings; there is a tendency to express feelings for or against verdict, but it's inappropriate to visibly express that now.

"I'm asking you to fold your hands in a prayerful spirit or open your hands as a symbol of the Holy Spirit's presence. We may be comforted or disturbed by the verdict, and I want us to pray for Holy Spirit to come upon us."

Then Bishop Gwinn read the trial jury's verdict that Bishop Carcaño was not guilty of four chargeable offenses. The charges stemmed from three complaints brought against Bishop Carcaño in March 2022 involving several episodes in the California-Nevada Annual Conference:

  • Bishop Carcaño's part-time residence in a San Francisco parsonage belonging to Park-Presidio United Methodist Church;
  • Decisions around the development of former Trinity United Methodist Church across from the campus of the University of California in Berkeley;
  • The hiring of Bishop Carcaño's daughter Sophia Spaniola Carcaño as a part-time administrative assistant for then-superintendent of the Bay District, the Rev. Staci Current;
  • Conflict around the request of a young clergywoman, the Rev. Chelsea Constant, for a 12-week maternity leave overlapping her appointment as a church planter in 2020;
  • Allegations that Bishop Carcaño vengefully attempted to "dig up dirt," as one witness put it, on several conference staff who opposed her decisions.

Church counsel, the Rev. Janet Forbes, brought 12 witnesses to support the allegations against Bishop Carcaño, including several who signed complaints against the bishop. The church's witnesses included:

  • The Rev. Jorge Dominguez, council on ministries director.
  • Diane Knudsen, conference treasurer.
  • The Rev. Kristin Stoneking, conference council on finance and administration chair.
  • The Rev. Debra Brady, a California-Nevada district superintendent.
  • Bette Spencer, a member of Park-Presidio UMC.
  • The Rev. Craig Brown, former director of congregational development who left The United Methodist Church in July 2022 and is now senior pastor of First Free Methodist Church in Seattle, Wash.
  • The Rev. Shinya Goto, superintendent of the Los Rios District.
  • The Rev. Mike Harrell, the bishop's executive assistant.
  • Rev. Chelsea Constant, now appointed to a new church in Dublin, Calif.
  • The Rev. Kathy LaPoint-Collup, who was Rev. Constant's senior pastor and mentor during the conflict over her leave and appointment.
  • The Rev. Paul Extrum-Fernandez, conference pensions executive;
  • Harold Caudle, chair of the conference board of trustees.

In her closing argument, Rev. Forbes, the church counsel, read for the jurors all the specifications related to the four charges and reminded them that a vote to convict the bishop on any specification constituted conviction on that charge. She said the church's case offered 23 exhibits in support of its case.

"This moment is particularly hard for so many of us in part because power is so complex," Rev. Forbes said.

"There is power in the sharing of power toward justice. There is power in the leverage of power for the common good. There is power in the abuse of power that diminishes who uses it and who it's used against. A leader can demonstrate prophetic leadership and do harm in other ways. Institutional power can offer necessary systems of accountability."

In addition to Bishop Carcaño, the Rev. Scott Campbell, the bishop's advocate, called:

  • The Rev. Staci Current, who was superintendent of the Bay District and who hired the bishop's daughter as her administrative assistant, and who requested $100,000 from a district fund to renovate the Park-Presidio UM parsonage.
  • The Rev. Mary Maaga, a member of the conference board of trustees who testified to the bishop's actions during a meeting on the Trinity UMC redevelopment project;
  • The Rev. Odette Lockwood-Stewart, current Park-Presidio pastor who testified that renovating its parsonage benefited the church, with the parsonage now worth about $2.1 million and occupied by tenant whose $3,5000-a-month rent supports the church’s mission.
  • The Rev. Felicisimo Cao, who testified to being approached by Rev. Goto, the Los Rios District superintendent, to sign a letter alleging harassment by Bishop Carcano;

Bishop Carcaño's testimony on the trial's third day marked the first time during her 19-month suspension she was allowed to tell her side of the conflicts under her administration because of the confidentiality requirements of the church's legal process. She described the suspension as "banishment."

Toward the conclusion of her testimony, Bishop Carcaño said:

“Friends, I am embarrassed that I was not able to manage the work of this annual conference and its staff and its relationships in a way that would have prohibited this extended process that has not only affected me but affected the California-Nevada Conference … and has brought disruption to the life of The United Methodist Church.”

In his closing statement, Rev. Campbell characterized the charges against Bishop Carcano represented "a loss of perspective" in the interpersonal conflicts at the base of the complaints.

"It's up to you to determine not who is at fault but whether chargeable offenses were committed," said Rev. Campbell. "Do they justify conviction? These are not remedial measures; these are remedies of the last resort. Has the bishop's behavior been so egregious, so incorrigible, so destructive of the church, not only to remove a bishop from her ministry but to expel her from the church?"

The jurors reportedly deliberated about five-and-a-half hours before submitting their verdict to the presiding bishop. The trial court was composed of 12 ordained elders and one ordained deacon chosen from candidates proposed by the bishops of the North Central Jurisdiction. The trial venue was moved from Pasadena, Calif., in the Western Jurisdiction to the Wespath headquarters.

The four-day trial took place at the headquarters of Wespath Benefits and Investments in Glenview, Ill., a Chicago suburb. The trial was the first such event since Danish Methodist bishop Anton Bast was tried in 1928.

Presiding Bishop Gwinn emphasized the trial's historic and spiritual importance in his closing remarks:

"We now know that the court has determined that the respondent is not guilty of all charges," said Bishop Gwinn.

"We are at the end of the trial but not at the end of healing. We are only beginning to move forward in a healing process. Every trial wounds as much as it helps. We now have a responsibility to help all parties heal.

"The world has watched the church in this process. We pray for each person whose hearts are broken and whose hearts are joyous. May this not be a trial of history for the wrong reasons but be a trial that witnesses to the world of what happens to Christians when they move from this conflict."

Veteran award-winning journalist Cynthia B. Astle serves as Editor of United Methodist Insight, which she founded in 2011 as a media channel to amplify news and views of marginalized and under-served United Methodists. This content may be reproduced elsewhere with credit and a link to the original publication.