Bishops Meeting May 2023
Scenes from the recent United Methodist Council of Bishops meeting, the first in-person gathering held in three years. (Council of Bishops Photo)
May 1, 2023
An open letter to:
United Methodist Council of Bishops, c/o Bishop Thomas J. Bickerton, President
General Commission on Religion and Race, c/o Rev. Dr. Giovanni Arroyo, General Secretary and Bishop Cynthia Moore-Koikoi, Board President
General Commission on the Status and Role of Women, c/o Dawn Wiggins Hare, General Secretary and Bishop Tracy S. Malone, Board President
United Methodist News Service Photo by Mike DuBose
Bishop Minerva Carcaño
Bishop Minerva Carcaño speaks during a session on the Call to Action at the Pre-General Conference Briefing Jan. 20, 2012 in Tampa, Florida.
We, the undersigned clergy of the California-Nevada Annual Conference—who are People of Color, LGBTQIA+ people, mental health advocates, those who reside at various intersections of these, and allies—have witnessed a significant amount of public commentary and advocacy regarding the complaint process involving Bishop Carcaño over the course of the past 12+ months. The vast majority of this commentary has been solely focused on how difficult, even harmful, this has been for Bishop Carcaño. While we have no doubt that the past 12+ months have been personally and professionally difficult for Bishop Carcaño, the degree to which concern for the full body of the California-Nevada Conference has been absent from these public statements, compels us to speak out. Sadly, we believe that the Western Jurisdiction’s ongoing commitment to honor the Disciplinary process, including the mandates of confidentiality, has provided space for others to create a thin narrative focused solely on engendering support for Bishop Carcaño.
We acknowledge that our institution has enacted or been complicit in perpetuating systemic oppression and harm including, but not limited to racism, sexism, and homophobia. Some of us have experienced and witnessed this firsthand. We, too, are eager for justice to be done. However, those advocating for an immediate end to Bishop Carcaño’s suspension, do so by their own admission without any objective awareness as to why the suspension was implemented. To expedite this process, absent this awareness, is irresponsible, reckless, and does harm to faith in our systems of accountability.
We understand these public calls come from a place of care and concern, but to raise the prophetic voice against systemic oppression without objective knowledge of a particular situation does a disservice to justice itself. While there are, without a doubt, those within the California-Nevada Conference who would welcome Bishop Carcaño’s return to active service, we believe that her return to active service as Resident Bishop of the California-Nevada Conference without the accountability required by a Just Resolution agreement or the findings of a trial court, would create a depth of conflict and division that could undermine the mission and ministry of the Annual Conference for years to come.
In the peace of Christ,
Jeanelle Ablola
Brian Adkins
Brandon Austin
Gayle Basten
Lindsey Bell-Kerr
Dave Bennett
Greg Bergquist
Alison Berry
Diana Bohn
Jola Bortner
Dawn Blundell
Debra Brady
Elizabeth Brick
Felicisimo Cao
Carolee Caterall
Mark Cordes
Pamela D. Cummings
Amy Beth Durward de Macias
Dirk Damonte
Andrew Davis
Kevin Dotts
Madi Elsea
Marilyn Ericksen
Carol Estes
Mahsea Evans
Janet S. Everhart Hartliff
Renae Extrum-Fernandez
Don Fado
Donna Farrell
Anthony Fatta
Virginia (Ginger) Foster
Susan Foster
Kristen Gallagher
Dana Gill
Alice Ann Glenn
Katie Goetz
Jennifer Goto
Shinya Goto
Deborah Grundman
Luke Ham
Caiti Hamilton
Nobuaki Hanaoka
Michael Harrell
Neal Harrell
Ofa Uepi Ha’unga
Lee Hayward
Vickie Healy
Tony E. Hoefner
Hubert Ivery
Eileen Johnson
Alan Jones
Manohar Joshi
Hope Kawashima
Colin Kerr-Carpenter
Sungrae Kim
Kathy La Point-Collup
Denice Leslie
Emily Lin
Kelly Love
Ella Luna Garza
Steve Lundin
Maggie McNaught
Kathi McShane
Akiko Miyake-Stoner
Kim Montenegro
Corazón Moran
Janet Mueller
Jennifer Murdock
Mallory Naake
Lee Neish
Cate Noellert
John Oda
Melanie Oliver
Betty Pagett
Emily Pickens-Jones
Jacey Pickens-Jones
Linda Pickens-Jones
Jay K. Pierce
Schuyler Rhodes
Kim Risedorph
Angel Rivero
Nathan Sam-Whistler
Kenneth Schoon
Chris Shiber
Kim Smith
Susan Grace Smith
Becky Stockdale
Sadie Stone
John Sublett
Carolyn Talmadge
Gerardo Vazquez
Audrey Ward
Tom Widlund
Motoe Yamada Foor
Michael Yoshii
Mariellen Yoshino
For Spanish Translation: https://www.facebook.com/CalNevAlliance/posts/106532132437296
This post is republished from the group's Facebook page.