UPDATE: The Crystal Cathedral Ministries board decided late Monday not to sell the landmark Orange County church after all, as the ministry works to emerge from bankruptcy proceedings. Instead, the church will spend the next 4 months trying to raise money through donations, in hopes of salvaging their presence in the building prior to any bankruptcy sale.
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange, CA has been in search of a new home. So instead of spending $100. million on building a new cathedral, they’ve made a $50 million dollar offer to buy the bankrupt Crystal Cathedral.
The enormous and elaborate all-glass Crystal Cathedral, was founded by the Rev. Robert H. Schuller and has been the home of the weekly “Hour of Power” broadcast. Schuller built this monument to religious excess to rake in parishioners and build up his ministry, which it did in the short term. But as the poor economy set in and membership trailed off, the church was forced to file for bankruptcy last October, while being administered by the Schuller children and after sinking more than $50 million dollars in debt.
The cash proposal by the Catholic Church would allow Schuller’s creditors to be paid back in full before the end of the year and would preserve the cathedral’s cemetery. It would also allow Schuller Ministries to lease the entire property for the next 36 months, at which time they would have to find a new location.
“We wanted to be as flexible as possible given their situation,” said Alan Martin, a bankruptcy attorney for the diocese.
Catholic Bishop Tod Brown said that the diocese needs a worship space for the more than 1.2 million parishioners in the area and he believes the 3,000-seat cathedral is a less expensive alternative to building a brand new structure. Given the enormity of the building and what it means to the area, along with the enormity of the hole the Crystal Cathedral has found itself in, this looks like a win-win situation for all involved.
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