The civil lawsuit filed by the Horizon Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church over changes to Highland Park United Methodist Church’s governing documents has a non-jury trial date, court records show.
The non-jury trial is set for Oct. 12, 2027 in the court of Judge Bridgett Whitmore of the 193rd Civil District Court in Dallas, online court records show.
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.
Among the changes specifically at issue is HPUMC’s changing its corporate name filed with the Office of the Secretary of State from “Highland Park United Methodist Church” to “Highland Park Methodist Church” in 2022.
The lawsuit further alleges that HPUMC also 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.”
“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,” Bishop Ruben Saenz Jr. of the Horizon Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church said in a letter to church leadership.
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.
“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 its official response in court filings.
A town hall is set at Highland Park United Methodist Church from 5 to 6:30 p.m. Oct. 11.
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