Looking for the crucifix at the top of it!
Posted on 07/11/2019 6:23:15 PM PDT by marshmallow
Project of converting cathedral from a Protestant space to Catholic one will be Bishop Vann's legacy
Bishop Kevin Vann of Orange, California, likes to tell the story of once visiting Orange County while he was still serving in Fort Worth, Texas, with no idea of what the future might hold.
Bishop Todd Brown of Orange, who at the time was about to hit the usual retirement age of 75, gave him a tour of the Crystal Cathedral, the once-glimmering home of the Rev. Robert Schuller of the Reformed Church in America and his famed “Hour of Power,” which had been put up for sale after Schuller’s ministry went bankrupt and was destined to be taken over by the Catholic Church.
By 2012, when the Orange diocese negotiated the sale of the cathedral compound for $57.5 million – a steal by Orange County standards, with some of the most expensive real estate in the world – years of delayed maintenance and the complications of converting a quintessentially Protestant space for Catholic liturgical use made the project one of the most logistically daunting ever undertaken in American Catholicism.
“I really pity whoever gets this place next,” Vann said he was thinking, laughing out loud at the memory.
The joke turned out to be on him, because Vann was named to Orange County in September 2012 and installed in December, meaning the Crystal Cathedral, now Christ Cathedral, was suddenly his baby.
(Excerpt) Read more at cal-catholic.com ...
I was still flying for United in ‘97 when Schuller got into a snotfest with a pair of flight attendants. Talked to one of them at length - Old Reverend Bobby kicked up quite a stink. From what I gathered he should have been frog walked off the airplane.
I have the windex contract.
Looking for the crucifix at the top of it!
I remember seeing Schuller’s services on Sunday morning TV.
It’s hideous. There is nothing edifying about this structure, not does it make one’s mind turn towards God. It’s new agey, creepy, and just plain ugly
Nothing that a good couple of hundred buckets of holy water couldn’t solve,
Well, it started as a drive-in church (just like a drive-in theater). This was southern California, after all.
Then they built the “crystal palace” type church — all glass walls.
The Chrystal Cathedral was originally designed to win some architectural prize.
That prize was instead won by the simple Thorncrown Chapel in Eureka Springs Arkansas.
Yep.
Given the current direction of the RCC I’m surprised they have not built a minaret in the interest of ecumenical comity.
Well if LA can survive a cathedral that looks like a shopping mall,OC will have no problem with this cathedral conversion.
With all of the other problems that the Catholic Church has on its plate, why do they want this white elephant of a building that is going to prove nearly impossible to maintain?
Catholics in less affluent neighborhoods who are being told that the Church can no longer afford to keep their parish open are NOT going to be impressed.
Our CEO was a huge fan of the CC. He was a major liberal.
Meh...it will still be “Protestant”.
I think It is beautiful although upon entering the cathedral itself, all the glass can be disorienting.
Always disliked it ...Like the robes on vatican denizens, a spectacular WASTE OF MONEY that was meant to feed the poor !!
Did Orange County have a cathedral? If yes, what are they doing with it?
Wiki had the answer.
In 2001, Bishop Brown first announced plans to build a new cathedral to succeed the Cathedral of the Holy Family. However, soon after, the Roman Catholic sexual abuse scandal burst into the diocese, and Brown deemed it “inappropriate” to raise funds for a new cathedral in light of the scandal. In 2005, the diocese purchased land in south Santa Ana and established Christ Our Savior Cathedral Parish, with the intention of someday building a cathedral on the property. The cost of building a cathedral on the Santa Ana site was estimated to be as high as $200 million, which prompted comparisons to the cost of building the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in Los Angeles.
In October 2010, Crystal Cathedral Ministries, the Protestant congregation that owned and worshiped in the eponymous Crystal Cathedral building in Garden Grove, filed for bankruptcy protection. Several months later, the diocese announced that it was “potentially interested” in buying the building and converting it into a diocesan cathedral as a potential cost and time-saving alternative over building a new cathedral on the Santa Ana site.
On November 17, 2011, a U.S. bankruptcy court judge in Santa Ana approved the sale of the Crystal Cathedral building and adjacent campus to the diocese for $57.5 million. the sale was finalized on February 3, 2012. At that time, the diocese ended all efforts at building a cathedral on the Santa Ana site and removed “Cathedral” from Christ Our Savior Parish’s name, repurposing it as a diocesan parish church. On June 9, 2012, the diocese announced that the Crystal Cathedral would be known as “Christ Cathedral” when it becomes the new seat of the diocese. The building’s new name was designated by the Holy See, while suggestions were also taken from the diocese and its members.
In 2014, following its purchase of the site, the diocese announced plans to renovate the Crystal Cathedral in order to suit the liturgy of the Roman Catholic church, whilst maintaining the building’s architectural qualities. Construction for the $72 million project began in June 2017, and is expected to be completed in early-2019.
In June 2013, the diocese officially transferred St. Callistus Parish to the Crystal Cathedral campus, and the parish began to hold Mass on the campus. At the same time Crystal Cathedral Ministries moved to St. Callistus’ former facility, located one mile from the Crystal Cathedral, which the diocese offered to lease to Crystal Cathedral Ministries as a term of the sale of the Crystal Cathedral campus. St. Callistus’ parish school was transferred to the former Crystal Cathedral Academy facility and renamed Christ Cathedral Academy in September 2013. St. Callistus currently holds Masses in the Crystal Cathedral arboretum, pending the completion of the renovation project.
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