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Highland Park United Methodist Church
Highland Park United Methodist Church is a United Methodist church in Dallas, Texas. LocationIt is located on the campus of Southern Methodist University, at 3300 Mockingbird Lane, Dallas, TX 75205.[1][2] HistoryIn February 1916, a Methodist congregation met on the campus of Southern Methodist University for the first time to worship together.[3] It was organized as a congregation of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South (MECS). It was initially named University MECS, but by the fall of that year, the student congregation joined Methodists in the newly forming Town of Highland Park and the church was renamed Highland Park MECS. A year later, in 1917, a temporary church building called "The Little Brown Church" was erected.[3]  The current sanctuary was designed by architect Mark Lemmon (1889–1975) and Roscoe DeWitt (1894-1975) and built in 1927.[3][4] The first service in the sanctuary was held on February 6, 1927, when Dr Umphrey Lee served as the pastor.[3] The Great Depression came and it took 15 years to pay off the debt. When it was paid, the church building was dedicated in 1943. Additions to the Highland Park Methodist sanctuary were made in 1951, 1961, 1983, 2003 and 2018. Dr. Lee left Highland Park Methodist in 1936 and was followed by Dr. Marshall Steel, who served from 1936 to 1957. Following Dr. Steel, Dr. William Dickinson served from 1958 to 1972. He was followed by Dr. Leighton K. Farrell, the church's longest serving minister, who was appointed in 1972 and served as senior pastor through 1995. In 1995, Mark Craig became Senior Minister.[3] Since 2013, Rev Paul Rasmussen has served as the Senior Minister.[3] In 2010, after much restoration, the Munger Place Church located at 5200 Bryan St, Dallas, TX 75206 in the Munger Place Historic District, Old East Dallas became the East Dallas satellite of the Highland Park United Methodist Church. After almost 15 years, Munger Place Church was spun off and now operates as an independent United Methodist Church. [3][5] As of 2020, it has 15,078[6] members and organizes missions to sixteen countries worldwide, including Costa Rica, Haiti, Nigeria and Nepal.[3] It also sponsors over six hundred inner-city children to attend summer camp every year.[3] In 2017, HPUMC launched a new campus in North Dallas, The Grove Church located on the campus of the former Schreiber Memorial United Methodist Church at 4525 Rickover Dr, Dallas, TX 75244.[7] In 2019, The Beyond Campaign concluded and built a multipurpose 65,000 square foot youth and DisABILITY ministry building. The building is three stories. The bottom hosts a state of the art disability program with sensory rooms. During the week, Chances coffee shop, led by members with disabilities, serves coffee and pie. The second floor has a youth arcade, gaming center, cafe, art center, and nearly twenty multipurpose rooms. The third floor hosts a basketball gym and a worship center.[8][9] In January 2021, HPUMC launched a new campus, Uptown Church, that met in the House of Blues in Uptown Dallas.[10] It was one of the first churches in the United Methodist Church that was planted, planned, started, and led by two ordained clergywomen.[11] After almost three years of faithful ministry, the leaders of HPUMC made the decision to close Uptown Church, with Uptown Church's last service being held on November 12, 2023. ControversiesAfter the United Methodist Church voted at its General Conference in 2024 to remove the denomination's prohibitions on hosting same sex weddings, Senior Minister Rev. Paul Rasmussen announced that Highland Park UMC would continue to prohibit same-sex wedding ceremonies on its property, stating that "For 108 years, through 13 different senior ministers, Highland Park has always maintained the traditional definition and understanding of Christian marriage when it comes to weddings within our worship facilities," he said. "We are going to continue to uphold the traditional definition of marriage in our worship venues." Rasmussen went on to say that clergy could perform same-sex weddings at other venues in the community "based on their conscience." [12] Notable church-goers
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