Bryn Athyn

The state auditor general has announced that the Lower Moreland School District should calculate tuition for Bryn Athyn students according to state Department of Education guidelines, not a longstanding oral agreement between the two districts. Auditor General Don Bailey recommended that the district abandon an oral agreement, in place since 1976, with Bryn Athyn on how the tuition was calculated. The difference in the two methods of calculation resulted in an overpayment by Bryn Athyn to Lower Moreland of $10,362 over the 1984-85 and 1985-86 school years, Bailey said a statement issued Aug. 15. Bailey's audit report also said Bryn Athyn would have to pay the tuition monthly rather than semi-annually.

Roy Hodson Rose, 73, school director in Bryn Athyn for more than 30 years and a member of numerous community groups, died yesterday at his home in Bryn Athyn. Mr. Rose helped to oversee his tiny borough's "paper school district," which sent its students - usually about 10 a year - to other schools. He also served on the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit on schools. Among his many community activities, Mr. Rose was a founder of the Old York Road Community Council and a volunteer in the area's meals-on-wheels program.

As Bryn Athyn resident Leon Rhodes sees it, history has given Emanuel Swedenborg, the spiritual founder of the Church of the New Jerusalem, a few hard knocks. "In his own right, he deserved to be ranked among the great scientists of Europe," Rhodes said this week, "but when he turned to religion, there were many in the scientific community that said, 'This guy has flipped his lid,' when he started talking about angels and devils. " Indeed, Swedenborg wrote volumes about unseen worlds.

This pastoral Montgomery County town where almost everyone belongs to the same church is in transition. Debate over women in the priesthood is no longer an oddity. The demands of consumer-oriented baby boomers have prompted an evolution in church liturgy. Finally, the challenges of 20th-century church life have reached the pews of the General Church of the New Jerusalem, on the verge of the 21st century. "We feel like we are entering a new day," said the Rev. Grant Schnarr, director of outreach.

Philip Nathaniel Odhner, bishop of the Lord's New Church which is Nova Hierosolyma, died Sunday at his home in Bryn Athyn. Bishop Odhner, who would have been 90 on Christmas Day, had been bedridden for several weeks and died of general organ failure. Born in Bryn Athyn, he outlived his 12 brothers and sisters and all the members of the 1926 graduating class from the Academy of the New Church in Bryn Athyn. He studied for the priesthood at the academy's theological school and was ordained into the General Church of the New Jerusalem in 1932, the year he graduated.

Still scrambling for that perfect Valentine's Day date - flowers, dinner and a move? Well, six couples planed to outdo that. They got hitched. At noon, Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge Jeffrey P. Minehart married the love birds in consecutive ceremonies at the Reading Terminal Market in Center City. The weddings were celebrated with music performed by violinist Elizabeth Cary and will be followed by a free dessert reception. The ceremonies were held in the center court seating area at the historic market at 12th and Arch Streets.

Following are some top prices recorded with the city and counties Jan. 24 to March 11 (the map shows homes' locations). Pennsylvania Transactions not available. Brownsburg Road, Upper Makefield , $835,000. 2212 Devin Lane, Warwick , $763,060. 2207 Devin Lane, Warwick , $758,070. 30 Milbob Dr., Northampton , $674,545. 659 Leslie Lane, Lower Makefield , $650,000. 364 Ian Court, Hilltown , $629,150. 1380 Gabriel Lane, Warwick , $622,200.

Three-year-old Victor Campellone has only one requirement when people visit his Huntington Valley home. "No needles," said Victor, as he rolled a green toy car across the kitchen table with his bandaged hand. Huntington Valley had an outbreak of Lyme disease this summer, and many parents have been keeping their children indoors. Victor was diagnosed about two weeks ago as having the disease, an infectious ailment that can cause serious heart, nerve and athritic disorders if not properly treated.

It was the kind of game Academy of the New Church junior Savon Goodman expects to be involved in many times when he arrives at Villanova and competes in the Big East: physical and intense, with a down-to-the-wire ending. Wednesday's Friends Schools League playoff semifinal against Abington Friends had a bit of everything, including an 18-minute delay caused when the fire alarm sounded in the third quarter, the result of pizza being overcooked at the concession stand. In a pressure cooker, the second-place Lions, who forced overtime with a 10-2 run at the end of regulation, fought past undersized, third-place Abington Friends, 54-51, in Bryn Athyn.

Health officials in Pennsylvania and New Jersey are bracing for what they expect will be the worst summer season ever for Lyme disease, a strange tick- borne ailment that can cause serious heart, nerve and arthritic disorders, if not properly treated. They are urging the public to take special precautions between now and September against the tiny sesame-seed-sized deer tick, which has spread the disease throughout the Northeast and other parts of the United States. This tick, which lives in woodlands and fields, injects a corkscrew-shaped bacterium into people's blood when it feeds on them.

Hello there Rachael and John's friendship started in fall 2008, during their first year of nursing school at Thomas Jefferson University. They often studied in the same group, and sometimes drank coffee or beers on their own after class. Rachael felt as comfortable around John as she did her girlfriends. She could tell him anything. Both were unavailable then. Their second year, John and Rachael were assigned to some of the same clinical groups - about 10 students assigned to work with professionals and patients in pediatrics, psychiatric and other nursing disciplines.

Still scrambling for that perfect Valentine's Day date - flowers, dinner and a move? Well, six couples planed to outdo that. They got hitched. At noon, Philadelphia Common Pleas Court Judge Jeffrey P. Minehart married the love birds in consecutive ceremonies at the Reading Terminal Market in Center City. The weddings were celebrated with music performed by violinist Elizabeth Cary and will be followed by a free dessert reception. The ceremonies were held in the center court seating area at the historic market at 12th and Arch Streets.

Following are some top prices recorded with the city and counties Jan. 24 to March 11 (the map shows homes' locations). Pennsylvania Transactions not available. Brownsburg Road, Upper Makefield , $835,000. 2212 Devin Lane, Warwick , $763,060. 2207 Devin Lane, Warwick , $758,070. 30 Milbob Dr., Northampton , $674,545. 659 Leslie Lane, Lower Makefield , $650,000. 364 Ian Court, Hilltown , $629,150. 1380 Gabriel Lane, Warwick , $622,200.

IT STARTED with a shared vision. Jennifer Richmond and her business partner, Joel Odhner, wanted to change Philadelphia's palate and make healthy eating sexy. The duo, both in their mid-40s, met two years ago at a Landmark Forum education seminar. Richmond stood up in the audience and said, "I want to change Philadelphia's food options and open a raw vegetarian restaurant. " Odhner had the same idea. "We were like soul spirits on the same path," Richmond said recently.

It was the kind of game Academy of the New Church junior Savon Goodman expects to be involved in many times when he arrives at Villanova and competes in the Big East: physical and intense, with a down-to-the-wire ending. Wednesday's Friends Schools League playoff semifinal against Abington Friends had a bit of everything, including an 18-minute delay caused when the fire alarm sounded in the third quarter, the result of pizza being overcooked at the concession stand. In a pressure cooker, the second-place Lions, who forced overtime with a 10-2 run at the end of regulation, fought past undersized, third-place Abington Friends, 54-51, in Bryn Athyn.

The president of Bryn Athyn College, who joined the Montgomery County school less than a year ago and was the first to hold the position, has resigned. Christopher Clark submitted his resignation late last month and will leave his post effective May 31, said Bruce Henderson, a spokesman for the college. Clark resigned partly because of the pressures and frustrations involved in the 190-student school's recent efforts to expand its enrollment, Henderson said. Clark, 68, did not return calls seeking comment.

The president of Bryn Athyn College, who joined the Montgomery County school less than a year ago and was the first to hold the position, has resigned. Christopher Clark submitted his resignation late last month and will leave his post effective May 31, said Bruce Henderson, a spokesman for the college. Clark resigned partly because of the pressures and frustrations involved in the 190-student school's recent efforts to expand its enrollment, Henderson said. Clark, 68, did not return calls seeking comment.

For more than 120 years, Bryn Athyn College was content in its role as one of the smallest schools in the nation. Enrollment was typically between 120 and 160. Students lived a college life surrounded by other members of a religion based on the writings of a Christian mystic. But trustees have made a move that confirms a new era in the Montgomery County college's 132-year history. They have hired its first president to lead it beyond the boundaries of religion. "It's just basically too expensive to provide all the services a college needs for a handful of students," said Christopher Clark, who took over as president in the fall.

It was an unusual recipe: Take one antique Victorian purse and add one American Indian amulet. But it was just the convergence of inspirations that Arlene Wartenberg needed to transform herself into a working artist. A retired college professor, mother of three, and lifelong knitter, Wartenberg, now 73, never imagined she would get serious about crafts. She was already well into an active retirement when she saw a vintage beaded purse in an antiques store and thought she would try to make one, a miniature, and transform it into a necklace like those worn by American Indians.

The same commitment that drove Tristan Smith to become a Bryn Athyn volunteer firefighter at the age of 16 led him to join the Army at the age of 21. He was killed in Iraq on Sunday doing what he believed in, his family and friends said yesterday. Smith, 23, a weapons specialist with the Army's Fourth Infantry Division stationed northwest of Baghdad, was on patrol when an improvised explosive device detonated, said his father, Grant Smith. They last saw him in April, when he returned to Bryn Athyn on leave after five months in Iraq.