Last month, the parent body of the United Methodist church in Texas filed suit in a Texas state trial court against a Dallas Methodist congregation alleging that the congregation improperly amended its governing documents to eliminate its affiliation with the parent body. The amended petition (full text Petition) in Horizon Texas Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church v. Highland Park Methodist Church, Inc., (TX Dist. Ct., filed 8/18/2026) alleges in part:
24. On November 16, 2022, without seeking or obtaining consent from the District Superintendent as required by the [Book of] Discipline or providing any notice to the Charge Conference or the Conference, HP Corporation filed its Restated Certificate of Formation .... In pertinent part, the Restated Certificate changed the corporation's name to Highland Park Methodist Church and removed all references to The United Methodist Church, the Conference, and the Discipline.
25. HP Corporation also adopted amended bylaws in November 2022 which ... i) removed all references to the United Methodist Church, the Conference and the Discipline; ii) removed the rights of HP Church's Professing Members to participate in any matter "affecting or involving the church"; iii) reserved for the Church Council the right to determine the denomination of HP Church; and iv) provided that the Church Council is chosen only by itself and answerable only to itself....
27. Despite [this]... HP Church still holds itself out as a United Methodist Church....
30. ... The Conference maintains that a decision to withdraw from a religious faith or denomination is a personal one, guaranteed by both the United States Constitution, and -- in Texas-- by the Texas Constitution. However, the question here is whether a governing body of a local church may formally attempt to sever the church's connection to a denomination while continuing to accept the benefits and identity of that denomination.
Plaintiff asks for a declaratory judgment setting out the rights, status and other legal relations between the congregation and the parent Conference. After asking for that relief, the Petition goes on to say:
34. The matters above involve initial determination of neutral questions of law regarding he rights and status of the entities involved.... However, answers to certain of these questions implicate ecclesiastical matters; the internal affairs..., the governance..., and the administration of the United Methodist Church and its local churches.
D Magazine reports on the lawsuit.
