Highland Park United Methodist Church has shared its official response to a lawsuit filed by the Horizon Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church over changes to the church’s governing documents. The Park Cities church has asked a Dallas County District Court to reject the regional governing body’s claims.
The lawsuit by the conference, a regional governing body which covers North Texas, stems from changes the 100-plus-year-old church’s leadership made to its governing documents in 2022 and 2023. The conference alleges those modifications weren’t approved through the processes required by the United Methodist Church and were made without notifying the Conference.
Specifically, the lawsuit alleges that the church filed a restated certificate of formation in 2022 which “changed the corporation’s name to Highland Park Methodist Church and removed all references to The United Methodist Church, the Conference, and the Discipline from its governing documents.”
The lawsuit further alleges that HPUMC adopted amended bylaws that year, which “i) remove all references to The United Methodist Church, the Conference, and the Discipline; ii) remove the rights of HP Church members to participate in any matter ‘affecting or involving the Church’; and iii) remove the members’ right to participate in determining the denomination of HP Church, including selection of the Church Council.”
In December of 2022, the lawsuit alleges “HP Corporation filed an Assumed Name Certificate listing Highland Park United Methodist Church as its assumed name.”
HPUMC said in a statement on its website that the church changed its corporate documents in accordance with guidance in 2020 from Texas courts “on managing church affairs under neutral principles of Texas law,” and that HPUMC worked with the conference on the corporate name change. HPUMC further stated that the church’s Charge Conference voted unanimously to delegate governance to the Church Council in 1998.
In its official answer, the church stated that “Church Council of Highland Park Methodist Church (the “Church Council”) — the Church’s duly elected governing body and corporate board of directors — exercised its lawful authority under the Texas Business Organizations Code to amend the Church’s certificate of formation and adopt amended bylaws and articles of incorporation.”
“The amendment clauses, from inception and contained in corporate papers that Plaintiff concedes are valid, are wholly secular and enforceable under neutral principles of law,” the church’s answer stated.
In the filing shared by its leadership, the church is seeking a declaratory judgment that the “Church Council appropriately amended its Articles of Incorporation and Bylaws in November 2022 by more than the required two-thirds majority vote, and the 2022 Amended Articles and Bylaws are legally enacted and in force under neutral principles of Texas law, as amended most recently in 2024.” The church is also seeking its costs and attorneys fees.
The church’s sharing of its official response comes after Bishop Ruben Saenz Jr. of the Horizon Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church shared a new letter to HPUMC leadership and members Sept. 18 stating that the conference “will continue to work towards a resolution with Highland Park’s leadership outside the courtroom if they are willing, and we remain committed to finding a path forward together.”
“The Conference continues to ask that Highland Park United Methodist Church restore the governance that was in force before November 2022. The specific restoration includes the reinstatement of ‘United’ in the church’s full legal name, the reinstatement of references to the Book of Discipline of the United Methodist Church in the governing documents, and the restoration of members’ participation in the governance and leadership of their church,” the letter stated. “These are not simply issues of corporate structure, they protect the voices of Highland Park’s members in the decisions of its leadership and reflect the congregation’s place within the wider United Methodist connection.”
The message was similar to a video message shared Aug. 26 in which Saenz said “the conference and the congregation are not adversaries. The governance decisions that have been made are what now stand between us. And those decisions can still be corrected.”
Saenz said then that conference leaders met with HPUMC senior pastoral leadership and church council members in October and December of 2025, and again in March of this year about their concerns regarding HPUMC’s governing documents before the filing of the lawsuit. He further said the conference sought a resolution, but the council in March “made it clear that the governing documents would not be restored.”
In its official response, though, HPUMC leadership stated that church representatives attended an Aug. 6 meeting with the conference and invited the bishop to propose specific changes to address the conference’s concerns and that the conference requested a follow-up meeting on Aug. 10, without mentioning the potential litigation, and filed the suit shortly before the follow-up meeting.
Another town hall meeting on the topic of the lawsuit is set for 5 p.m. Oct. 11, at HPUMC, according to the church.
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