People make their way to the entrance at Highland Park United Methodist Church in Dallas, on Tuesday, July 16, 2019. (Vernon Bryant/The Dallas Morning News)
Vernon Bryant/Dallas Morning News
Highland Park United Methodist Church leadership has asked its congregation to consider the possibility of leaving the United Methodist Church, a decision that could have broad implications for the denomination nationwide and the North Texas church that is home to thousands of members.
The ask made at a town hall Sunday is the clearest sign yet that Highland Park UMC’s leadership is rethinking its place in the United Methodist Church, the second-largest protestant denomination in the U.S., following a bitter legal dispute with the regional body.
Church council leadership said if advanced, the question would be decided by a congregational vote.
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Highland Park is a prominent and wealthy church that gives millions of dollars annually to the United Methodist Church. Media was not permitted to attend the town hall, and a portion of the meeting was livestreamed and recorded.
“We’re here to invite all of you into questions we have asked ourselves personally since Aug. 10,” church council chair Caroline Nowlin said, referring to the date the United Methodist Church conference filed a lawsuit against the local church. “That question is, knowing what we know now, should our church remain part of the United Methodist Church?”
Nowlin said the church council will not make the final decision. It may recommend that it sever ties with the UMC and then the question would be up for vote by the congregation. The church says it has more than 15,000 members and has an average attendance of over 4,000 people.
“If that vote occurs, your vote will determine our church’s future,” Nowlin said.
The conference said in a statement that as United Methodists, “we share a covenant that connects us to one another and calls each of us to honor the commitments we have made together.”
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The Horizon Texas Conference, the regional governing body of the United Methodist Church, sued the church in August, alleging it had quietly tried to cut ties with the denomination years ago in amendments it made to its corporate documents. The local church changed its official corporate name to Highland Park Methodist Church, removing the word “United.”
The church’s “doing business as” name remains Highland Park United Methodist Church.
“The Horizon Texas Conference has asked, and continues to ask, that Highland Park United Methodist Church restore its governing documents in accordance with those shared commitments,” the conference said in a statement shared with The Dallas Morning News Monday. “That has been our request from the beginning.”
In a Tuesday letter to congregants, Horizon Texas Bishop Ruben Saenz Jr. said he does not want Highland Park UMC to become a different church.
“I want it to keep being the church it has been for more than a century,” Saenz said. “A congregation of United Methodist Christians, in covenant with the wider connection, offering Christ to Dallas and the world.”
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Church leadership told the congregation during the town hall that Highland Park UMC would have more money to conduct its ministries if it leaves the United Methodist Church. But many questions remain, such as what would happen to the church’s ordained ministers, what would happen to the church’s property and assets, and how a departure would affect the personal relationships between the members of Highland Park UMC and other United Methodists.
“We have to keep in mind that there are many, many questions that haven’t even been asked, let alone answered,” said William B. Lawrence, the former dean of the Perkins School of Theology at Southern Methodist University, former president of the judicial council of the United Methodist Church and professor emeritus of American church history.
Related: Highland Park United Methodist Church legal dispute prompts questions of authority and power
Dispute centers over documents and path to lawsuit
The conference has said the local church violated numerous ecclesiastical procedures when it made the changes to its corporate documents, and alleged Highland Park UMC did not tell its congregation about the changes. The conference is asking for the church to change its name back.
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Even as it asks its members to weigh a departure, Highland Park UMC maintains it never left the United Methodist Church and never intended to, saying it has given over $12 million to the United Methodist Church in the past four years.
The church has said it changed its name and made other changes to its corporate documents during a period of uncertainty in the United Methodist Church. From 2019-2024, nearly one-quarter of UMC churches left the denomination over disagreements related to same-sex marriages and gay and lesbian clergy. And at the time, the United Methodist Church was suing Southern Methodist University over changes it made to legal documents that distanced itself from the United Methodist Church.
Highland Park UMC neighbors SMU.
Court documents from Highland Park UMC have said the church needed to ensure it was positioned to “thrive as a place where people holding divergent views on a variety of issues found a common ground for another 110 years, no matter what happened to the Conference or the denomination.”
Related: Read the documents in the legal dispute between Highland Park UMC and United Methodist Church
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Highland Park UMC’s leadership has said the lawsuit blindsided them, and the two parties have offered conflicting accounts of what led up to the filing. The church council has already formally declared it no longer recognizes the authority of the conference bishop,
“I also really don’t have any confidence in the entire episcopal leadership of the current Methodist church, and I find it hard to trust them as well,” Greg Swalwell, a member of the church council, said during the town hall.
In a statement, the Horizon Texas Conference said it strongly rejects the accusations against Bishop Saenz’ honesty and character.
“The conference and its clergy and staff have acted in accordance with its responsibility to uphold the covenant we share as United Methodists,” the conference said. “The conference has consistently communicated its concerns about Highland Park’s governing documents and its request that those documents be restored and the relationship between Highland Park and the Conference be reconciled.”
In his letter, Saenz said he recognizes the frustration of the church’s leaders.
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“The door to conversation remains open,” Saenz said. “My hope is not for one side to win. My hope is for restoration and reconciliation.”
Related: ‘Not a decision I take lightly’: UMC bishop addresses Highland Park UMC congregation in message
Highland Park UMC leaders present vision for post-denominational church
Several church leaders said they felt betrayed by the conference, evidenced by what were at times emotional accounts at the town hall.
“We have never wanted this war,” said the Rev. Chip Robertson, a pastor at Highland Park UMC.
Members of the Highland Park UMC church council presented the congregation with information about the United Methodist Church that largely reflected reasons to leave the denomination, from national context to the way Highland Park UMC alleges it has been treated by the conference.
Robertson said the denomination has long been in membership decline while the church is going strong.
“No business that has that graph will be there very much longer,” he said, referring to a presentation shown to the congregation.
Related: Highland Park UMC denies breaking with denomination in court filing
The Rev. Matt Tuggle, senior minister, said if the church leaves the United Methodist Church, it would remain in the Methodist tradition and keep its theology. The church has already paused its regular apportionment payments to the denomination, and Tuggle said the church would have more money to give away.
Tuggle said the church would also seek to form a network with other churches — particularly with other “moderate churches.”
“It’s just a reality that stares us in the face,” Tuggle said. “It now becomes easier to continue to be the church that we are outside of the denomination than inside of it.”
Leaving the United Methodist Church would not be a smooth or clear process. According to Lawrence, the former Perkins dean, the credentials of the church’s clergy and their ability to administer sacraments are at stake.
“They may have to start over,” Lawrence said.
Additionally, a decision to leave the United Methodist Church would almost certainly result in further civil litigation. Many such cases in the past have centered on a church’s property and assets.
According to online court records, a trial date for the current lawsuit is set for Oct. 12, 2027.