SAN FRANCISCO – Activists for a nonprofit charity designed to help the poor have vowed to fight a lawsuit launched by the California-Nevada Annual Conference (CNAC) of the United Methodist Church (UMC), claiming the church was trying to take over the charity because it was not religiously conservative enough.
The CNAC is a regional religious body representing 370 United Methodist Churches across California, including San Francisco.
For almost 100 years the GLIDE Foundation in San Francisco has been noted for its rousing Sunday services attracting an eclectic gathering of locals, celebrities and tourists, a San Francisco Chronicle posting said. The foundation, associated with the Methodist Church, has received millions in donations to do charity work.
“We are deeply concerned the CNAC are willing to jeopardize the important work we do in what appears to be an attempted hostile takeover,” Karen Hanrahan, chief executive of the GLIDE Foundation told the Northern California Record. “GLIDE has, and will always be, about serving the underserved and about bridging gaps, not widening them.”
Based in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco, GLIDE Foundation was founded in 1929 by San Francisco philanthropist Lizze Glide.
A chief investor in the foundation in recent years has been business magnate Warren Buffet, who donated millions to finance its activities through auctions held on eBay.
The organization is involved in providing free daily meals to the poor, crisis intervention and a women’s center, family youth and childcare, anger management for men, legal and health services and a charter school .
GLIDE Foundation's parent organization is the United Methodist Church.
Bishop Minerva G. Carcano, the first Hispanic woman to be elected in 2004 to the episcopacy of the United Methodist Church, has served as resident bishop of the San Francisco Episcopal Region and as leader of the United Methodist CNAC since 2016.
On Dec. 11, the Church under Carcano filed a lawsuit against GLIDE in the San Francisco Superior Court alleging the charity’s real and personal property were held in trust for the denomination (Methodist Church) and that GLIDE Foundation was attempting to sever ties with the Methodist Church. The allegation said the charity attempted to free itself of identity with the denomination and its documents, and removed Bishop Carcano from its board, an alleged violation of trust agreements.
Hanrahan indicated the CNAC and UMC under Carcano’s direction filed suit against GLIDE attempting to gain control over the organization and its assets because the charity had become too inclusive of non-Methodists.
“Bishop Carcano claimed that our willingness to welcome people of all faiths and religions to our Sunday celebration service made it no longer Methodist,” Hanrahan said in a news release.
Hanrahan said the suit asks the court to uphold Carcano’s claim that all of GLIDE Foundation's real and personal property belongs to the CNAC and that the charity had strayed from its founder’s intent.
However GLIDE Foundation Board Trustee Mary Glide, whose great-great-grandmother was founder Lizzie Glide, said in the news communique her ancestor would be proud of the job the organization is doing.
“As a Methodist I believe Lizzie (Glide) would be proud of the inclusive, loving work we’re doing today and saddened by the actions of the CNAC,” Mary Glide was quoted.