Key points:
- A United Methodist jurisdictional conference and Southern Methodist University have come to an agreement that ends their litigation.
- The South Central Jurisdictional Conference had sued the university in 2019 when SMU revised its articles of incorporation to remove its connection to the jurisdictional conference and, by extension, The United Methodist Church.
- Under the settlement, SMU is filing amended articles of incorporation that preserve its relationship with the jurisdictional conference.
United Methodist leaders and Southern Methodist University announced an agreement March 18 that ends their long-simmering legal dispute over the university’s ties to the denomination.
Under the agreement, SMU has filed amended and restated articles of incorporation that provide clarity around its governance — and most critically, preserve its historic and ongoing relationship with the denomination’s South Central Jurisdictional Conference.
Both institutions also affirm their shared commitment to the university’s mission and jointly agree to dismiss pending litigation.
“The board of trustees, the university, and I are pleased we have reconciled with the SCJC, and we very much look forward to a collaborative and enhanced relationship into the future,” Jay C. Hartzell, SMU’s president, said in a joint statement with the jurisdictional conference. He began his tenure at SMU last year when the lawsuit was already pending.
The Rev. Derrek Belase, chair of the South Central Jurisdictional Conference’s Mission Council, offered a similar sentiment. The Mission Council — consisting of bishops, other clergy and lay people — makes decisions about the operations of the jurisdiction between conference meetings.
“I am grateful for the spirit of collaboration shown throughout this process, and especially for the thoughtful engagement of President (Jay) Hartzell and Provost Rachel Davis Mersey as we worked toward this agreement,” Belase said. “These conversations have not only helped us address important matters but have allowed us to begin imagining what the future of this relationship can look like.”
The resolution comes nearly nine months after the Texas Supreme Court ruled in a mostly unanimous opinion, released June 27, that the denomination’s South Central Jurisdictional Conference could advance its lawsuit to retain some governance of the Dallas university with “Methodist” in its name.
The South Central Jurisdictional Conference filed the lawsuit in 2019 after the university’s board of trustees voted — without the jurisdictional conference’s approval — to alter the university’s 1996 articles of incorporation to remove its explicit connection to the jurisdictional conference and, by extension, The United Methodist Church.
The 2019 articles, submitted to the Texas Secretary of State, deleted the phrase that describes SMU as an educational institution “to be forever owned, maintained and controlled by the South Central Jurisdictional Conference of The United Methodist Church.”
SMU made the move to distance itself from The United Methodist Church after the denomination’s 2019 special General Conference strengthened enforcement of bans on gay clergy and same-sex marriage. SMU has long maintained a non-discrimination policy in the admission and hiring of LGBTQ people.
The 2024 General Conference eliminated the denomination-wide bans. However, that did not end the legal dispute.
In the U.S., The United Methodist Church is organized into geographical jurisdictions, consisting of annual conferences overseen by bishops. Delegates to jurisdictional conferences, which typically meet every four years, elect bishops and deal with other church matters including ties to various ministries such as seminaries. The South Central Jurisdiction encompasses annual conferences in eight states.
In its lawsuit, the South Central Jurisdictional Conference alleged, among other things, that the board had exceeded its authority by unilaterally changing the articles and breached its contract with the jurisdictional conference.
However, SMU argued that the state law governing nonprofits gave the jurisdictional conference no standing to sue.
A lower-court judge dismissed the South Central Jurisdictional Conference’s suit in 2021. However, an appeals court in 2023 largely sided with the jurisdictional conference. The Texas Supreme Court agreed with SMU’s request to take up the case and then heard oral arguments on Jan. 15, 2025.
In its June ruling last year, the state’s highest court ruled that the jurisdictional conference “has statutory authority to sue SMU to enforce its rights” under both SMU’s 1996 articles of incorporation and Texas state law.
Earlier, the lawsuit involved now-former United Methodist Bishop Scott Jones, a member of SMU’s board who cast the sole negative vote to amend the 1996 articles. He intervened in the suit and when the board terminated his membership, he brought additional claims against SMU’s general counsel.
The trial court dismissed Jones’ claims and the appeals court upheld that dismissal. Because Jones did not ask for the Texas Supreme Court to review his case, the June 27 opinion did not address the matter. Jones has since left The United Methodist Church for the theologically conservative breakaway Global Methodist Church.
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In a concurrence to the Texas Supreme Court ruling, Justice Evan A. Young wrote that he expected lower courts to support the jurisdictional conference’s rights if the case proceeded. Nevertheless, he encouraged both the jurisdictional conference and SMU to resolve their differences.
“I cannot help but express hope, however, that divisions of this sort can be repaired by those who once walked arm in arm in unity of purpose without recourse to the civil courts,” he wrote.
Letting courts resolve the dispute, he added, “cannot help but tarnish with earthly grime what should be holy.”
What has not been in dispute is SMU’s deep Methodist heritage. A predecessor of what is now The United Methodist Church founded SMU in 1911 with a gift of 133 acres, where the main campus still sits.
SMU is home to Perkins School of Theology, one of 13 U.S. United Methodist seminaries that receives support from the denomination’s Ministerial Education Fund supported through church giving. Since SMU’s founding, Perkins has trained Methodist clergy and even bishops — many of whom serve in the South Central Jurisdiction. Even now, more than half of the seminary’s students are United Methodist.
SMU is also home to the Bridwell Library, which now houses the entire collection of the World Methodist Museum previously located at Lake Junaluska, North Carolina.
Today, SMU enrolls more than 12,000 students and has an endowment of $2.3 billion.
“At SMU,” Hartzell said, “we have an unwavering commitment to excellence and the cultivation of principled leadership — a commitment strengthened by our renewed relationship with the SCJC.”
Belase added: “Both Southern Methodist University and The United Methodist Church have been shaped and strengthened by this long relationship. Our shared commitments to faith, service, and community engagement continue to guide us in the work we do together.”
Hahn is assistant news editor for UM News. Contact her at (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org. To read more United Methodist news, subscribe to the free UM News Digest.
