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.”…