<i>Bishop Pleads Not Guilty</i>
United Methodist Bishop Minerva G. Carcaño pleads not guilty during her church trial on Sept. 19, 2023, in Glenview, Ill. Carcaño, the suspended bishop of the California-Nevada Conference, faces four charges of violating church law. Beside her are her two counsels, the Rev. Scott Campbell and Judge Jon Gray. (Photo by Paul Jeffrey, UM News.)

First Day of Trial Marked by Procedures, Testimony

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GLENVIEW, Ill. – After 18 months of speculation, the chargeable offenses brought against suspended Bishop Minerva G. Carcaño were made public at last on the first day of a church unprecedented in the half-century history of The United Methodist Church.

Based on three complaints filed against the bishop in March 2022, the charges are:

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

The charges stem from incidents involving the hiring of her daughter, Sophia, as an administrative assistant to Bay District Superintendent Rev. Stacy Current; the renovation of a San Francisco parsonage where the bishop lived part-time with her daughter; the sale and use of the campus of a closed church, Trinity United Methodist, in Berkeley, Calif.; and conflict over a maternity leave for a pregnant clergywoman, the Rev. Chelsea Constant.

Bishop Carcaño pleaded not guilty to all four charges.

Retired Bishop Alfred W. Gwinn, as presiding officer, kept a tight rein on the proceedings. At one point the bishop announced that ushers would "kindly remove" anyone found to be using a cellphone, laptop or other electronic device in the court room, a move intended to protect the identities of the 13 jurors and two alternates. Only an official UM News photographer, Paul Jeffrey, was allowed to take still photos of the proceedings – again, not of the trial jury.

In an effort to stick to a tight timetable and avoid evening sessions, Bishop Gwinn also limited breaks and mealtimes. Most of all, the presiding bishop stressed repeatedly that the jurors were not to discuss the charges and testimony with anyone, including "colleagues, family and friends" outside the courtroom. He asked jurors to report to him anyone who attempted to discuss the trial inappropriately.

The first day of testimony was long, complicated, and at times emotional.

Church counsel the Rev. Janet Forbes, a retired clergywoman from the Mountain Sky Annual Conference, called five witnesses from the California-Nevada Annual Conference on the first day:

  • The Rev. Jorge Dominguez, council on ministries director;
  • Diane Knudsen, conference treasurer;
  • The Rev. Kristin Stoneking, conference council on finance and administration chair;
  • Bette Spencer, a member of Park-Presidio UMC, which held the parsonage in which the bishop and her daughter lived periodically;
  • 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.

Those bringing the complaints were Ms. Knudsen, Rev. Dominguez, Rev. Stoneking, the Rev. Chelsea Constant, Gayle Shearman and Burke Owens. Rev. Brown said he was "solicited" to sign the complaint but that he declined because he didn't think it appropriate to join the complaints when he had already decided to leave the UMC.

Presiding Bishop Gwinn repeatedly urged the trial jurors not to draw conclusions about the extensive testimony from all witnesses until the testimony was finished. He referred often to the section of the Book of Discipline covering the trial procedure. A guidebook, the “Administrative and Judicial Procedures Handbook,” published by the General Council on Finance and Administration, also provides an overview of church trial procedures.

The trial resumed at 8 a.m. Wednesday with cross-examination of Ms. Knudsen by Bishop Carcaño's advocate, Rev. Scott Campbell. Rev. Campbell played a 16-minute edited recording of an online meeting from October 2021 regarding the future of Trinity UMC-Berkeley to which Ms. Knudsen frequently referred as evidence of Bishop Carcaño 's circumventing church law and conference procedures.

Rather than berating the trustees as Ms. Knudsen claimed, the video showed Bishop Carcaño apologizing for a disconnect between the task force and trustees and pledging to do more to facilitate communication among the decision-makers regarding a broker for the Trinity property. The bishop stressed that the Trinity UMC project was the largest such project undertaken by the California-Nevada Annual Conference and that she felt it was her responsibility to assure the largest possible collaboration on the decision.

On the second morning of the trial, Rev. Forbes called the Rev. Mike Harrell, the bishop's executive assistant, who worked with her from July 2021. He testified that the bishop began to distance herself from conference staff after a December 2021 human resources meeting at which the hiring of her daughter and their periodic residence in the Park-Presidio UMC parsonage. He testified that Bishop Carcaño began to consult internal and external sources after that meeting regarding previous work performance of Rev. Dominguez, Rev. Stoneking, Rev. Brown, and Ms. Knudsen.

Per R. Preston Price, Secretary of the Trial in which Bishop Minerva Carcaño is Respondent, a livestream is available, and online observers must to complete a terms-of-use form here. Upon accepting the terms, the livestream will be accessible for each individual session. This process will need to be completed for each court time — morning, afternoon and evening, as applicable.The trial is expected to proceed through Sept. 22.

Veteran award-winning religion journalist Cynthia B. Astle serves as Editor for United Methodist Insight, an online journal she founded in 2011 as a media channel to amplify news and views of and for marginalized and under-served United Methodists. To reproduce this content elsewhere, please email Insight for permission.