The schism in the UMC ended two years ago; but not in this Dallas church

DALLAS (RNS) — Hundreds of members of Highland Park United Methodist Church crowded into an auditorium Wednesday (Aug. 26) for a congregational meeting to better understand why the denomination to which it has belonged for 110 years has now sued them in court.

It was the first opportunity for the church’s senior minister, Matt Tuggle, and members of the church council to explain why the church in Dallas’ tony University Park neighborhood changed its governing documents four years ago to essentially cut off legal ties to the United Methodist Church.

During the mostly polite and occasionally tense one-hour meeting in the cavernous contemporary worship auditorium, Tuggle repeatedly claimed the 110-year-old church — the denomination’s largest U.S. congregation by membership — wants to remain a United Methodist church but changed its bylaws during a period of uncertainty with the denomination. Church leaders declined RNS reporters’ questions. Members leaving the building also did not want to talk.

Two years after a schism led 7,600 churches to leave the United Methodist fold, its reverberations are now being felt in a battle between one of its most elite churches — the home…