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People make their way to the entrance\u00a0at Highland Park United Methodist Church in Dallas, on Tuesday, July 16, 2019. (Vernon Bryant\/The Dallas Morning News)<\/p>\n
Vernon Bryant\/Dallas Morning News<\/p>\n
Highland Park United Methodist Church<\/a> 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\u00a0home to thousands of members.\u00a0<\/p>\n The ask made at a town hall Sunday is the clearest sign yet that Highland Park UMC\u2019s leadership<\/a> is rethinking its place in the United Methodist Church<\/a>, the second-largest protestant denomination in the U.S., following a bitter legal dispute with the regional body.<\/p>\n Church council leadership said if advanced, the question would be decided by a congregational vote.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019re here to invite all of you into questions we have asked ourselves personally since Aug. 10,\u201d church council chair Caroline Nowlin said, referring to the date the United Methodist Church conference filed a lawsuit against the local church. \u201cThat question is, knowing what we know now, should our church remain part of the United Methodist Church?\u201d<\/p>\n 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\u00a0average attendance of over 4,000 people.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIf that vote occurs, your vote will determine our church\u2019s future,\u201d Nowlin said.\u00a0<\/p>\n The conference said in a statement that as United Methodists, \u201cwe share a covenant that connects us to one another and calls each of us to honor the commitments we have made together.\u201d<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n The Horizon Texas Conference, the regional governing body of the United Methodist Church, sued the church in August<\/a>, 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 \u201cUnited.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The church\u2019s \u201cdoing business as\u201d name remains Highland Park United Methodist Church.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe 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,\u201d the conference said in a statement shared with The Dallas Morning News Monday. \u201cThat has been our request from the beginning.\u201d<\/p>\n In a Tuesday letter<\/a> to congregants, Horizon Texas Bishop Ruben Saenz Jr. said he does not want Highland Park UMC to become a different church.\u00a0<\/p>\n “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.”\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n 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\u2019s ordained ministers, what would happen to the church\u2019s property and assets, and how a departure would affect the personal relationships between the members of Highland Park UMC and other United Methodists.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe have to keep in mind that there are many, many questions that haven\u2019t even been asked, let alone answered,\u201d 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. \u00a0<\/p>\n Related: Highland Park United Methodist Church legal dispute prompts questions of authority and power<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n Dispute centers over documents and path to lawsuit<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Even as it asks its members to weigh a departure, Highland Park UMC maintains it never left the United Methodist Church\u00a0and never intended to, saying it has given over $12 million to the United Methodist Church\u00a0in the past four years.\u00a0<\/p>\n 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<\/a>. From 2019-2024, nearly one-quarter of UMC churches<\/a> 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<\/a> over changes it made to legal documents that distanced itself from the United Methodist Church.\u00a0<\/p>\n Highland Park UMC neighbors SMU.\u00a0<\/p>\n Court documents from Highland Park UMC have said the church needed to ensure it was positioned to \u201cthrive 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.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n Related: Read the documents in the legal dispute between Highland Park UMC and United Methodist Church<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n Highland Park UMC\u2019s 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,\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI also really don\u2019t have any confidence in the entire episcopal leadership of the current Methodist church, and I find it hard to trust them as well,\u201d Greg Swalwell, a member of the church council, said during the town hall.\u00a0<\/p>\n In a statement, the Horizon Texas Conference said it strongly rejects the accusations against Bishop Saenz\u2019 honesty and character.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe conference and its clergy and staff have acted in accordance with its responsibility to uphold the covenant we share as United Methodists,\u201d the conference said. \u201cThe conference has consistently communicated its concerns about Highland Park\u2019s governing documents and its request that those documents be restored and the relationship between Highland Park and the Conference be reconciled.”<\/p>\n In his letter,\u00a0Saenz said he recognizes the frustration of the church’s leaders.\u00a0<\/p>\n Article continues below this ad<\/p>\n “The door to conversation remains open,” Saenz said. “My hope is not for one side to win. My hope is for restoration and reconciliation.”\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p>\n