Bishop Minerva G. Carcaño — The United Methodist Church’s first Latina bishop — testified that she feels great responsibility for the costs that the trial process she is undergoing has brought upon the church.

“Not only to the California-Nevada Conference, but the Western Jurisdiction and the cost to all of you,” she told a jury of fellow United Methodist clergy.

“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.”

The jury heard from the bishop and other witnesses who defended her work in the California-Nevada Conference as the trial of the bishop entered its third day at the headquarters of Wespath, the denomination’s pension agency. This is the first trial of a bishop in The United Methodist Church or any of its predecessors since 1928.

Carcaño also testified that her suspension over the past 18 months has left her feeling “banished” from her family of faith.

“I am not to engage with any United Methodists,” she said. “I was told that I could not serve in any way. I was not to be present in any one of our churches throughout our global United Methodist Church.”

 

The Rev. Staci Current testifies on Sept. 20, the second day of a church trial of United Methodist Bishop Minerva G. Carcaño in Glenview, Ill. Current, the first witness for Carcaño, is pastor of Temple United Methodist Church in San Francisco, California. Photo by Paul Jeffrey, UM News.

During the first two days of the trial, the jury heard from witnesses called by the counsel for the church — essentially the prosecution — to testify where they think the bishop violated the limits of her authority on financial matters and engaged in retaliation against critics. Starting late afternoon Sept. 20, the counsel representing Carcaño began calling witnesses who could defend the bishop, including the bishop herself.

Carcaño, who was elected bishop in 2004 and has led California-Nevada since 2016, is facing four charges.

She is accused of disobedience to the denomination’s order and discipline, the undermining of another pastor, harassment and fiscal malfeasance. The charges — listed in the denomination’s Book of Discipline among the denomination’s chargeable offenses — stem from three complaints filed by people in the conference. She has pleaded not guilty to all of the charges.

The Rev. Staci Current, a former district superintendent and now pastor of Temple United Methodist Church in San Francisco, challenged many of the accusations that previous witnesses had leveled against Carcaño.

Both Current and Carcaño testified that there was no retaliation against clergy who criticized the bishop — that every appointment consideration was made with the hope of serving the interests of United Methodist ministry.

Bishops appoint superintendents to help oversee pastors and churches in a district and help advise in pastoral appointments. Ultimately, bishops have responsibility for fixing appointments of a conference’s clergy.

Current quoted a statement by the conference’s chancellor, the person who serves as a conference attorney, who said that there was no retaliation.

“Decisions by the bishop that are claimed by some to be taken in retaliation are in fact demonstratively tied to longstanding discussions that predate any claims of nepotism or other matters,” the chancellor wrote.

One issue in the case is Current’s hiring of the bishop’s daughter, Sofia Spaniolo Carcaño, to be the district superintendent’s administrative assistant in 2021 and the fact that Sofia was living rent-free in Park Presidio United Methodist Church’s parsonage in San Francisco.

Current testified that Sofia served a desperately needed role as an administrative assistant as well as providing crucial protection and weekly maintenance in an otherwise unused house that had been subject to break-ins.

The bishop also used the parsonage as housing when working in San Francisco during one week a month at Current’s request. Current argued that the use of the parsonage for the bishop’s housing saved the denomination’s Episcopal Fund a great deal of money on hotel expenses. She said the church also welcomed the bishop to use the parsonage.  

Previous witnesses had raised concerns that the parsonage was part of Sofia’s compensation as an administrative assistant. Current also testified that staying in the parsonage was not considered part of the compensation and in fact Sofia had resided in the parsonage before her hiring. The bishop paid for the utilities.

Current testified that she requested and received authorization from the bishop’s cabinet of fellow district superintendents to use money from the First St. John’s Fund to renovate it so it could eventually be suitable housing for future use. The First St. John’s Fund is designated for church development in San Francisco.

“When the contractors got out there, they found out that the lead bathtub upstairs was starting to fall through the second floor into the first floor,” she said. “And they discovered pipe leaks and all kinds of stuff.”

 

Several United Methodist bishops are in attendance at the church trial of Bishop Minerva G. Carcaño in Glenview, Ill. Among them are, from left, retired Bishop Marcus Matthews, retired Bishop Elias Galvan, Bishop Carlo Rapanut, and Bishop Dottie Escobedo-Frank. Photo by Paul Jeffrey, UM News.

The Rev. Odette Lockwood-Stewart, the pastor of Park Presidio United Methodist Church since Dec. 1, 2022, testified that after the renovation, the parsonage is now worth about $2.1 million and has a tenant who is paying more than $5,000 a month. That revenue is going to support the church’s mission.

Another issue before the jury is how the bishop handled a dispute over the development of property of the closed Trinity United Methodist Church in Berkeley, California.

Both Current and the Rev. Mary Maaga, a member of the conference board of trustees, disputed that the bishop had usurped the trustees’ due diligence in efforts to choose a real estate broker to help develop the property.

Current and Carcaño also disputed witnesses’ accounts of the third matter in the case — the handling of the maternity leave and appointment of the Rev. Chelsea Constant when she was pregnant with her first child.

Carcaño said it was untrue that she ever denied Constant the full 12 weeks of maternity leave Constant requested. The issue in Constant’s case was that Constant planned to start a new church, and the bishop did not want to expend conference funds reserved for new church starts to pay for Constant’s leave. Carcaño also said the conference was dealing with a shortage of clergy associate pastor roles.

Ultimately, the bishop appointed Constant three-quarter time to her current appointment as an associate pastor and one-quarter time to her planned new church.

“I want our sisters to succeed,” the bishop said. “I want this church to be supportive of clergywomen, and we are the bearers of the children of this church in this world.”

Hahn is assistant news editor for UM News. Contact her at (615) 742-5470 or [email protected]. To read more United Methodist news, subscribe to the free Daily or Friday Digests.