BREAKING NEWS
Suspended Bishop Minerva G. Carcaño's trial is moving out of the Western Jurisdiction, according to an announcement on the jurisdiction's website.
The announcement said the location and dates of the trial may be announced by Aug. 4.
Bishop Carcaño was scheduled originally to go before a church trial Aug. 21-25 at First United Methodist Church in Pasadena, Calif., with retired Bishop Alfred W. Gwinn presiding. It isn't currently known whether Bishop Gwinn will still be the presiding officer when the new venue and dates are announced.
The trial will be the first time in UMC history that an active bishop has faced a church trial on charges that will be described when the trial convenes. Bishop Carcano has been suspended from active ministry since March 2022, an unprecedented length of time for a suspension.
The lengthy suspension has been the subject of outrage among racial/ethnic caucuses and has drawn requests from two church monitoring agencies to review the legal process around the complaints. The General Commission on Status and Role of Women and the General Commission on Religion and Race both submitted formal requests of the western Jurisdiction College of Bishops to be brought into the otherwise confidential legal process.
Last week Religion and Race published a second letter to Western bishops seeking a response to its monitoring request.