Highland Park's Methodist Split Heads Into Sunday: A Bishop's New Pastor, a Congregation Worshipping as Usual
Bishop Ruben Saenz Jr. has appointed the Rev. Andy Lewis to lead Highland Park United Methodist Church and moved its senior minister to other duties. The congregation that voted 90 percent to leave says nothing changes Sunday - setting up two Highland Park Methodist Sundays in Dallas.
One of Dallas's largest congregations heads into Sunday with two competing claims on its future. Horizon Texas Bishop Ruben Saenz Jr. announced Thursday that he had appointed the Rev. Andy Lewis to serve as pastor of Highland Park United Methodist Church and reappointed its senior minister, the Rev. Matt Tuggle, to other duties, the Christian Post reported. The bishop also reappointed the Rev. Paul Rasmussen, the church's former senior minister, according to the Horizon Texas Conference.
The appointments follow the congregation's vote last Sunday and Monday to leave the United Methodist Church - a vote church leaders said went 90.35 percent in favor, out of 4,775 ballots cast. Saenz rejected that vote as illegitimate and determined that Highland Park remains a United Methodist congregation. Members who remain with the denomination will gather with Lewis beginning Sunday, November 1, at nearby University Park United Methodist Church, while questions over Highland Park's governance and property are resolved, the conference said.
The congregation's Church Council called the bishop's decision a retaliatory move and said its plans have not changed: it will worship as usual on Sunday at its campus at Mockingbird and Hillcrest, next to Southern Methodist University, with Tuggle in the pulpit, the council said in a statement reported by KERA. Underneath the Sunday standoff is a court case: the conference's lawsuit, amended October 15 in Dallas County District Court, challenges changes the church made to its governing documents in 2022, and a non-jury trial is scheduled for October 12, 2027.
