United Methodist Church, SMU to continue relationship, end lawsuit
The United Methodist Church and Southern Methodist University have agreed to end litigation in which the Texas-based school was attempting to leave the denomination.
SMU and the UMC South Central Jurisdiction (SCJC) issued a joint statement last week that they had “reached an agreement that provides a clear framework for their relationship moving forward and affirms their shared commitment to the University’s mission.”
The agreement ends litigation that began in 2019, with SMU agreeing to amend their Articles of Incorporation to preserve the relationship between the university and the UMC regional body.
“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,” said SMU President Jay Z. Hartzell, as quoted in the statement.
“At SMU, we have an unwavering commitment to excellence and the cultivation of principled leadership—a commitment strengthened by our renewed relationship with the SCJC.”
The Rev. Derrek Belase, chair of the SCJC Mission Council, was quoted in the statement as saying that he is “grateful for the spirit of collaboration shown throughout this process, and especially for the thoughtful engagement of” Hartzell as well as Provost Rachel Davis Mersey.
“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,” Belase continued.
SMU was founded in 1911 and houses the Perkins School of Theology, which is one of 13 UMC seminaries that receive aid from the mainline denomination’s Ministerial Education Fund.
According to its own figures, as 2025, the university has an endowment of $2.3 billion, over 1,700 staff and administrators, and approximately 12,000 students. It is also home to the President George W. Bush Library and Museum.
For decades, the UMC had a divisive debate over whether to change its Book of Discipline to allow for the blessing of same-sex unions and the ordination of people in same-sex relationships.
In February 2019, at a special session of UMC General Conference, the delegates passed “The Traditional Plan,” a measure that reaffirmed the rules on ordination and marriage.
Later that year, the SMU Board of Trustees voted to affirm that they, not the UMC, were “the ultimate authority for the university.” In response, SCJC filed a lawsuit accusing SMU of “unauthorized acts” and stating that the regional body was supposed to be the “electing, controlling, and parental body of SMU.”
Although a Texas district judge ruled in favor of SMU in 2021, a three-judge panel of Texas’ Fifth Court of Appeals reversed the ruling in July 2023, noting that the UMC has a detailed history with the university.
While the appeals court panel rejected the district judge’s dismissal of the SCJC’s breach-of-contract claim, they upheld the dismissal of the claim that SMU had breached its fiduciary duty when it moved to leave the UMC.
In 2024, as the litigation was ongoing, the UMC General Conference voted in 2024 to strike down the rules on marriage and ordination after thousands of mostly conservative congregations had left the denomination.
In June of last year, the Texas Supreme Court released a decision concluding that the SCJC could sue SMU over the effort to leave the UMC.
Justice Debra Lehrmann authored the majority opinion, concluding that the UMC regional body “has statutory authority to sue SMU to enforce its rights under the articles and the Texas Business Organizations Code and that the Conference may pursue, at least at this stage, its breach-of-contract claim as a third-party beneficiary of SMU’s articles of incorporation.”
For its part, the UMC issued a statement in response to the state supreme court ruling, saying that the “favorable opinion from the Court supports our original position that SMU must seek the approval of the SCJ when making changes to its amendments.”
