Get RNS’ thoughtful, essential religion reporting every morning. Sign up for free!

(RNS) — The bishop overseeing Dallas’ Highland Park United Methodist Church removed the current and former senior ministers of the congregation on Thursday (Oct. 29) and provided a new pastor to lead worship at a different location, in yet another escalation in the fight between the denomination and the church.

Bishop Ruben Saenz Jr., responding to the church vote earlier this week to break away from the United Methodist Church, wrote in two letters — one to church members and one to its leaders — that the congregational vote to withdraw was invalid.

“A congregational vote or action of the Church Council cannot, by itself, terminate the congregation’s connection to the denomination,” Saenz wrote.

Members of the church voted overwhelmingly on Sunday and Monday to withdraw from the United Methodist Church to which it has belonged for 110 years.

The church, one of the wealthiest and largest in the denomination, then issued a…