Overview
- Members of Highland Park United Methodist Church voted roughly 90% in favor of severing ties with the United Methodist Church in a congregation-wide ballot held Oct. 25–26, with 4,775 ballots cast from about 15,000 members.
- The Horizon Texas Conference and Bishop Rubén Saenz Jr. say the vote cannot unilaterally sever the congregation’s covenant with the denomination and have declared Highland Park remains a UMC charge.
- Saenz removed the senior pastor and his predecessor, appointed Rev. Andy Lewis to lead a UMC-aligned congregation that will meet at University Park UMC, and the two groups are planning dueling worship services on the same weekend.
- The conference amended its lawsuit in Dallas County to ask a judge to void Highland Park’s 2022 bylaw changes that removed UMC oversight and to enforce the denomination’s long-standing ‘trust clause’ that claims church property for the UMC.
- A non-jury trial is set for October 2027 and the outcome could determine who controls the Park Cities campus, affect how other churches seek to leave the UMC, and shape clergy hiring and property rules for congregations across the denomination.