The resignation of Local editor James Sturdivant and associate editor Mike Mishak have exposed deep-seated divisions within the Chestnut Hill Community Association and the Local staff, and has sparked both public and private debate over the future of the newspaper and the role of its publishers.
In a long and contentious board meeting last Thursday, members of the Chestnut Hill Community Association voted twice against inviting Sturdivant back to work until a replacement could be found.
Sturdivant turned in a letter of resignation on Wed., Oct. 19, offering to remain in his position until Nov. 16. He cited internal restructuring without clear explanations and the undermining of editorial independence as two main reasons for leaving.
Tantalizing smells, strains of music and a host of smiling faces are hallmarks of “A Taste of Chestnut Hill,” Teenagers, Inc. annual fundraiser. Local restaurants will prepare a feast on Sunday, Nov. 13 from 5:30-8:00 p.m. at Springside School, located at Cherokee St. and Willow Grove Ave. The event will feature a blend of music from jazz guitarist Jimi O’dell and the chatter of diners.
The adult board of Teens, Inc. have been busy preparing for “A Taste of Chestnut Hill” for the past few months. Stu and Sherill Treitel and Ginny Wilson Williams have been ticking off the equipment needs for the kitchen.
Williams, manager of Cafette, says, ”It is an exciting evening, bringing together an eclectic group from the community.”
Beth Stroud, a lay minister at First United Methodist Church of Germantown (FUMCOG), who was defrocked for revealing to her congregation that she was a lesbian, lost her ordained status when an appeal to the church's highest court by church authorities was affirmed.
“It is a sad day for me, my family, and my congregation,” she told a Local reporter on Monday.
Seven of the nine members of the Judicial Council, the highest court with the United Methodist Church, the nation’s third-largest denomination, heard her case on Oct. 28 at the First United Methodist Church in Houston, and rejected her appeal.
In Dec., 2004, Beth Stroud, 35, faced a clergy trial and was found by a church panel to have violated the denomination’s ban on “self-avowed, practicing homosexual clergy.” She had claimed to be a lesbian in a sermon to the FUMCOG congregation. The church did not accuse her of being a lesbian, but of living in an “open covenant” with a lesbian, which is contrary to church law for clergy. The earlier decision was overturned, and it was appealed to the Judicial Council.
Editors’ resignations divide CHCA Board