Posted on 09/13/2013 8:33:37 AM PDT by marshmallow
Once the symbol of a congregation founded by Robert Schuller, the cathedral is now part of a church with rites and traditions that span centuries.
Towering like the Emerald City, the cathedral formerly known as Crystal sits at what might be Orange County's nucleus, a trinity of confluencing freeways, the Angels and Ducks stadium and a glimpse of a sacred place of a different kind Disneyland
From that gleaming sanctuary, evangelist Robert Schuller delivered sermons that were beamed to television sets around the world. His ministry became synonymous with the megachurch, designed so the light and the breeze could stream through, a grand replica of his humble beginnings preaching on the roof of an Orange drive-in's snack shop.
The Crystal Cathedral was to Schuller what Graceland was to Elvis. Now it has been bought by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange, which has long coveted having a cathedral that sat at the center of its vast footprint of 1.2 million Catholics.
The name has already been changed to the Christ Cathedral. But the work of liturgical consultants, priests and architects to transform a temple so closely identified as a symbol of Schuller's sunny, uniquely Southern Californian theology into one that conforms to the traditions of the Roman Catholic Church has just begun.
"The exterior will always be the Crystal Cathedral, at least for a while," said Duncan Stroik, a professor of architecture at Notre Dame and editor of the publication Sacred Architecture Journal. "Catholic on the inside, but kind of Protestant on the outside."
Those who have taken on the project recognize that their assignment is a intimidating one, but they also have faith:
They can turn the Crystal Cathedral into the Christ Cathedral.
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
The ugliest is the Our Lady of the Angels cathedral in Los Angeles.
However, last year, the Our Savior Church, a beautiful Catholic house of worship built in the Italian Romanesque style, opened a block north of USC.
Thank you!
My parents’ church is currently undergoing renovations. The Masses have been moved to a very plain cinder block auditorium in the interim. Many have commented that this seems to have brought the Mass closer to the people. Whether it’s fewer distractions or a more intimate setting, hard to say.
He retired and turned his church over to his children--"the Kids" as his unhappy parishioners called them--and they ran it into the ground. Schuller, now in his nineties, has recently been diagnosed with cancer.
A) What are you doing with a casket in your pew?
2) Isn't it a little late for the occupant to receive Communion?
Yes, that is a nice church. I think the new San Francisco cathedral offers some competition to the one in LA.
I do not know what “selling indulgences” means.
The Vatican is breath taking, in its beauty and history.
I had the opportunity to see it two years ago, unfortunately I went on a tour.....next time I will go by myself and take my time (if I get the chance that is).
No dictionaries either, I see.
What?? Bishop Vann is preaching humility now? Tell me about it.
I don't have a clear idea of what the layout of a "church in the round" is like, but maybe there's no real main aisle, just a bunch of spokes, and thus an awkwardness of how you move from "back to front" when half of the seating is way over on the other side of the altar.
I'd imagine there's a problem with the Veneration of the Cross on Good Friday, too. Come to think of it, it would make any kind of procession a little unfocused.
I'm all for ad orientem.
There were some great articles about this a couple years ago. The Catholic Church saved a bundle by buying this property and the land rather than building a new facility.
What is interesting about this building is how Schuler insisted on an all glass building despite the earthquake building codes. I don’t think there could be another approved there. I remember when he built it growing up.
But the line between glory and gaudy may be a perpetual dispute. I really LIKE the Sagrada Familia Basilica in Barcelona:
I'm touched by the fact that even though the Catalan revolutionaries attacked and damaged it in 1936, they couldn't bring themselves to utterly trash and obliterate it. (They were bloody-handed anarchists, but, thank God, not a bunch of puritan wahhabis.)
almost verbatim from Douthats book : Bad Religion
No church buildings of any kind appear in the Bible. When are you getting rid of yours?
The YBPDLNPL is generally published infrequently, but based on the exploits of the megachurch pastors posts can spike for a period of time. If you would like on or off of this list please FReepmail me.
Never heard of it, but I'll have to check it out now. Thanks.
From what I see, you did not get a legitimate response to your very important observation. The cathedral problem is indicative of how far this organization wandered away from Apostolic teaching.
According to the archives of the YBPDLN, it seems that he is ill: Daughter: Televangelist Schuller has cancer
He is having financial issues: Crystal Cathedral's Robert A. Schuller 'Short Sells' Calif. Home to Avoid Foreclosure.
And apparently his wife is hungry: Crystal Cathedral's Rev. Robert Schuller Requests Meals for Wife, Congregation Outraged
It was designed to take some architectural award the year it was built. It lost to the small THORNCROWN CHAPEL in Eureka Springs, AR.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.