Southern Methodist University (SMU), located in Dallas, Texas (United States) reached an agreement with the South-Central Jurisdictional Conference of The United Methodist Church in the United States to bring a lawsuit filed in 2019 to a close. The South-Central Jurisdictional Conference of The United Methodist Church (UMC) and Southern Methodist University (SMU) reached a settlement as both parties agreed that the university, which has “Methodist” in its name, will maintain its Methodist identity and relationship with the UMC.
The dispute had been going on for several years. After the 2019 special General Conference of The United Methodist Church, the debates on human sexuality within church circles, and the approval of new disciplinary language enforcing a ban on gay clergy and same-sex marriage in the UMC, the university’s Board of Trustees decided to sever its relationship with the UMC. The argument presented by SMU, which was also affirmed by many other educational institutions in the United States, stated that the university followed a non-discrimination policy in the admission and hiring of LGBTQ people, according to non-discriminatory laws in the United States. Thus, the Board of Trustees decided to alter its Articles of Incorporation to remove its connection to The United Methodist Church and submitted a revised document to the Texas Secretary of State, which 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.” As a result, the South Central Jurisdictional Conference of the UMC Conference filed the lawsuit in 2019.
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In the meantime, circumstances had changed. In 2024, the General Conference of the UMC eliminated all the discriminatory language approved in 2019, making this argument null, but the legal dispute between SMU and the UMC continued. The matter went through various instances, including the Texas Supreme Court, which released a mostly unanimous opinion in 2025, stating that the UMC could advance its lawsuit to retain some governance of Southern Methodist University.
In March 2026, SMU and the UMC leaders announced that they had reached an agreement that concluded their legal dispute in amicable terms, dismissed the pending litigation, and reaffirmed the university’s ties to the denomination. SMU President Jay C. Hartzell, Provost Rachel Davis Mersey, and UMC leaders such as The Rev. Derrek Belase, Chair of the South Central Jurisdictional Conference’s Mission Council, issued a in a joint statement which was supported by Bishops, clergy and lay leaders. According to news published by the United Methodist News Service, Rev. Belase said that “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.”
For more details about SMU and the legal issues reported here, visit the United Methodist News Service (UMNS) website and read the article written by Heather Hahn.