Highland Park leaders recommend separation amid a governance dispute; the congregation will vote October 25–26.
Leaders of Highland Park United Methodist Church in the Dallas area are urging members to vote to end the congregation’s affiliation with the United Methodist Church.
The Church Council adopted a resolution October 13 recommending separation. Eligible professing members will vote October 25 and 26 at the church’s Mockingbird campus.
The proposed departure comes amid a dispute with the denomination’s Horizon Texas Conference over the church’s governing documents and authority to manage its affairs.
Church leaders maintain that changes to its corporate documents were properly adopted. The conference has challenged those changes in a civil lawsuit.
In an October 15 letter, the council emphasized that the upcoming vote concerns denominational affiliation and is separate from the corporate-law questions before the court, The Christian Post reported.
The council says the congregation will remain rooted in the Wesleyan Methodist theological tradition regardless of the result.
Horizon Texas Conference Bishop Ruben Saenz Jr. has urged members to rely on established facts and make room for people with different views, according to The Christian Post. He has also reiterated his commitment to the congregation.
The vote has not yet taken place. A decision by members would not itself resolve the pending civil dispute.
Featured image: Highland Park United Methodist Church Family Activity Center, July 2016. Photo: Michael Barera / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0. Resized.
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