On August 26, 2007 I posted photos of the Crystal Cathedral
here, and wrote about my history with and multiple (somewhat remote)
connections with the place, from my Dad’s involvement with selling the founder
a painting, to living next door in my 6th grade year, to later
having a Supervisor in the late 1970’s, Pat Powell, who lived across the street and attended
it (her daughter was involved in the annual “Glory of Christmas” events), to
having an administrator of another job, Jan Halverson, leave to join the fund
raising efforts there in the early 2000’s, ending with my visit there with my
work colleague, Tanya Cao. Subsequent
to that posting, another former work colleague, Roger Hiles, having seen my
post, noted that the architect responsible for the “Tower of Hope”, Richard
Neutra http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Neutra
, was the father of the architect for the building in which we’d worked
together at the Huntington Beach Public Library, Dion Neutra http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dion_Neutra
.
So this is the update. My newest, equally remote, but still
interesting connection with the Crystal Cathedral Ministries at 12141 Lewis
Street in Garden Grove, CA (92840) http://www.crystalcathedral.org/ is that
the University I work for, Chapman University in Orange, CA http://www.chapman.edu/ , nearly purchased it when it went bankrupt last
year. They were out-bid, however, by the
Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange http://www.rcbo.org/ who has
this to say about their new purchase:“Our goal is to preserve an already cherished religious landmark and to enhance its worship use for Orange County Catholics and all people of faith who may be inspired by this wonderful, now Catholic, Cathedral,”
- Bishop Tod D. Brown
A couple of Sunday’s ago Don and I visited the cathedral. I took these photos with my 85 mm lens and
hope to return for some wide angle shots and a listen to this monstrous pipe
organ that Wikipedia says is one of the largest in the world. The gentleman we bumped into there, a church
elder by the looks of him, said the Crystal Cathedral Ministries will be
staying there for three years before they move up the street to the church that
the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange included in their payment for the
grounds. He said they are doing better
financially which lead Don to think there might be some chance of their keeping
the cathedral. Time will tell.
The Crystal Cathedral Ministries had it's origin in 1955
when Reverend Robert Schuller (Protestant), began the "Garden Grove
Community Church” on a piece of property that used to be a drive in. Robert
Schuller became well known after building the first church that he called
"The Tower of Hope", with his televised "Hour of Power"
that began in 1970. His dream of the "Crystal Cathedral" materialized
in 1981 and seats 2,736 people. When Reverend Schuller retired his children managed
the Ministry, until they fell into bankruptcy in October 2010 (their total debt
was said to be 55 million). They sold the Cathedral and grounds to the Orange
County Catholic Diocese for $57.5 million. There is more information at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_Cathedral
, where the dates and numbers in this
paragraph came from.
