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A multi-year battle over whether or not Southern Methodist College can separate itself from the United Methodist Church is heading to Texas’ highest courtroom this month.
The Texas Supreme Courtroom is scheduled to listen to oral arguments in a lawsuit between the 12,000-student personal college in Dallas and the South Central Jurisdiction of the United Methodist Church on Jan. 15.
In 2019, SMU management modified its articles of incorporation and declared that its board of trustees was the “ultimate authority” over the college, not the United Methodist Church. The college’s articles of incorporation element how the college is ruled and by whom.
The college’s resolution to replace the paperwork and assert the board’s sole management over the varsity got here throughout a tumultuous time within the Methodist church’s historical past. In 2019, members endorsed a ban on LGBTQ+ clergy and prohibited pastors from performing same-sex unions. It sparked a large conflict inside the church, prompting hundreds of conservative church buildings who had been bored with the battle to disaffiliate and begin their very own extra conservative church, now referred to as the Globalist Methodist Church.
SMU President R. Gerald Turner instructed The Dallas Morning Information on the time the college was making an attempt to interrupt away earlier than the church made any selections about the right way to divide so it might “continue to educate everybody from all Methodist denominations and from other denominations, and people who don’t believe at all.” He added that he didn’t need the college’s Perkins College of Theology to be solely related to one sect of Methodism.
Shortly after the board’s resolution, the Southern Convention of the United Methodist Church sued the SMU, arguing that the college didn’t have the authority to replace the language within the articles of incorporation and that the convention needed to approve the varsity’s departure.
The Methodist Church says it based SMU in 1911 when it designated 133 acres of land for the college. Of their authentic lawsuit, church officers argued that the articles of incorporation completely grant the church numerous rights, together with the flexibility to dam amendments to the paperwork.
“Put simply, the trustees of SMU had and have no authority to amend the Articles of Incorporation without the prior approval and authorization of SCJC,” the lawsuit acknowledged.
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The church’s South Central Jurisdiction covers eight states, together with Texas. In keeping with its web site, it owns SMU, Lydia Patterson Institute, a Okay-12 faculty largely serving Hispanic college students in El Paso and Saint Paul College of Theology.
In 2021, a district decide dominated in favor of SMU, dismissing the church’s claims. In 2023, Texas’ Fifth Courtroom of Appeals reversed the choice, agreeing with the convention that it was in control of SMU and had standing to sue.
A spokesperson for SMU stated the college doesn’t touch upon pending litigation. Jeffrey Parsons, a lawyer representing the convention, didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Earlier this yr, the congregations that remained within the United Methodist Church after the break up handed measures to take away a few of its anti-LGBTQ+ insurance policies, together with the ban on LGBTQ+ clergy and a ban on pastors who carry out same-sex unions.
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