Southern Methodist University and the regional conference of the United Methodist Church have reached an agreement to end a legal dispute over control of the school.
The dispute revolved around concerns of governance after SMU updated its founding documents to assert the board of trustees – not the UMC – had authority over the university.
The legal battle began in 2019 when members of UMC voted to ban LGBTQ+ clergy and prohibit pastors from performing same-sex marriages…