CHESTNUT HILL LOCAL—DECEMBER 9, 2004 Issue

December 9, 2004 Issue

Beth Stroud is embraced by her partner, Chris Paige, after the verdict is handed down at the church trial last week in Pughtown, Pa. (Photo by Mike DuBose, United Methodist News Service)

In The News...

A difficult day,
a divided church

Methodist jury defrocks
lesbian minister

by MICHAEL J. MISHAK

The case of the Rev. Irene "Beth" Stroud came to an emotional end last Thursday as the associate pastor at the First United Methodist Church of Germantown (FUMCOG) was found guilty of violating church law and defrocked after a two-day church trial. The jury, comprised of 13 regional Methodist clerics, found Stroud -- a non-celibate lesbian -- guilty of "practices declared by the United Methodist Church to be incompatible with Christian teachings" by a 12-1 margin.

The vote on Stroud's penalty was far less decisive. After an hours-long deliberation, the jury emerged divided, delivering a 7-6 decision to revoke Stroud's ordination credentials. The close vote showcased the internal struggle on the issue of homosexuality and the pulpit.

For Stroud, the first verdict brought a strange peace to an ordeal that began in April 2003, when she publicly came out to her congregation.

"This is hard, but it's not as hard as being half-closeted," she...

More News...

In Sports...

Weekend win lifts CHC women to 5-1

by TOM UTESCHER

With a balanced offensive effort in which seven different players scored six or more points, the women's basketball squad at Chestnut Hill College downed D'Youville College last Saturday afternoon, 64-55.

The Griffins improved to 5-1 on the season, while guard Lisa Modaferri's 25-point performance for visiting D'Youville went for naught as the Lady Spartans slipped to 3-4.

"We have a good nucleus of kids and we play as a team," noted first-year CHC coach Jackie deMarteleire. "It's not just one star; each game it seems like someone else steps up."

Power forward Andrea Carter led the locals in scoring with 11 points and in assists with four, and the Griffins received nine points from guard Kelly McGrath and...

More Sports...

In LocalLife...

Hiller's grandmom survived
the Titanic sinking

Horticulturist opens shop
on Bethlehem Pike

by LEN LEAR

No matter what Chestnut Hill resident Mark Petteruti, 46, achieves in life -- and the long-time successful horticultural consultant numbers many owners of spectacular Chestnut Hill area mansions among his clients -- he will always be associated with an epic tragedy that took place on April 12, 1912, 46 years before he was even born.

On that date the storied RMS Titanic, the most elegant and luxurious passenger ship ever built up to that time, sank in the North Atlantic, about 350 miles southeast of Newfoundland, Canada, killing 1,522 passengers.

Among the 705 passengers who were rescued was Bertha Elizabeth Noon (nee Mulvihill), 20, one of 10 children from a family in Athlone, Ireland, who had been traveling on the maiden voyage of the Titanic to Providence, Rhode Island. There she had planned to marry Henry Noon, a factory worker she had met after immigrating to Providence in 1910. Bertha had been a waitress at a resort hotel in Newport, Rhode Island, and she had saved up her tips to pay for one last trip to visit her family in Ireland. After visiting her...

More LocalLife...

Mark Petteruti, a Chestnut Hill resident for 22 years, holds an old copy of the Providence Daily Record containing an article about the sinking of the Titanic and about his grandmom, Bertha Elizabeth Noon, one of the 705 survivors. (Photo by Len Lear)

Archives | Subscribe | Classifieds | Advertising