Christ Cathedral

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Crystal Cathedral
Interior view 2005

The Crystal Cathedral was the church building of the Crystal Cathedral Ministries , a megachurch in Garden Grove , California . The congregation was founded in 1955 by Robert H. Schuller on behalf of the Reformed Church in America and had up to 10,000 members. In February 2012, the Crystal Cathedral was bought by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange in California , with the community being granted a right of use for a further three years. After the congregation's move in July 2013 to the smaller former St. Callistus' Catholic Church nearby and several years of renovation, the building was consecrated as Christ Cathedral on June 17, 2019 as the cathedral of the Catholic diocese and the Cathedral of the Holy Family in this function replaced. For the time being, masses will only take place in the cathedral on weekends. The complete reopening is planned for February 2020.

architecture

The "Crystal Cathedral", built from 1977 to 1980 based on a design by Philip Johnson , added to an already existing complex with various buildings by Richard Neutra . a. the "Tower of Hope" belongs, a twelve-storey tower with administration rooms, a chapel, a 24-hour pastoral care and a 30 meter high cross on the roof. Johnson was inspired by a design drawing by Mies van der Rohe from 1921 for a glass “tower house on Friedrichstrasse”.

The church with the plan of a star consists of a 142-meter-long and 40-meter-high steel structure that supports 10,000 glass windows. They are not permanently mounted, but held elastic by silicone connections in order to withstand earthquakes up to magnitude 8.0. The glass is transparent on the inside and mirrored on the outside. A 30 meter high wall can be opened, which always happens at the beginning of the service. Inside there are 3000 seats and space for 1000 singers and musicians.

Next to the glass building is a 73 meter high bell tower made of highly polished steel prisms with 52 bells. Below, at the base of the tower, there is a small devotional chapel, formed by a circle of twelve different marble columns (symbolizing the tribes of Israel).

organ

The Hazel Wright organ is named after Hazel Wright from Chicago, who donated two million dollars to the "Crystal Cathedral" for it. It was built by the Italian organ builder Fratelli Ruffatti .

financing

The construction costs of the "Crystal Cathedral" of over 20 million dollars were paid for by private donations, including a. by selling name engravings for all windows (at $ 500 each). Robert H. Schuller describes the building history and financing in detail in his biography "My Journey" (2002), which was published in 2004 as a German edition under the title "Meine Lebenreise". Annual maintenance costs for the entire facility are around $ 5 million.

TV service

The “Crystal Cathedral” broadcast the weekly television service Hour of Power from 1971 to 2013 , which is watched by an estimated 10 to 30 million people in 200 countries worldwide. More than a third of the community's annual income (donations, sales, bequests) of $ 39 million (2007) was used to purchase airtime.

Bankruptcy proceedings

On October 18, 2010, the new leadership of Crystal Cathedral Ministries filed for US Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection . This was in response to a sustained decline in donations of around 30 percent in the US. It was therefore no longer possible to repay the liabilities of around USD 44 million.

As a result of the bankruptcy proceedings, the Crystal Cathedral was sold on February 5, 2012 to the Roman Catholic diocese of Orange, which plans to use the building as a bishop's church after several years of renovation . Bishop Tod David Brown announced on June 9, 2012 that the cathedral would be called Christ Cathedral .

Redesign

Since June 17, 2019, the church has been the cathedral of the Diocese of Orange and the spiritual center for 1.6 million Catholics in 57 parishes of the diocese. The masses are held in English, Spanish, Vietnamese and Chinese. In 2012, the diocese bought the church for 50.8 million euros from the insolvent Reformed community and then renovated it for the equivalent of 68.7 million euros. In the place of the large choir stand there is now an altar made of Italian marble, illuminated by a canopy of lamps. Furthermore, a baptistery in the form of a cross and an adoration chapel were built.

Web links

Commons : Christ Cathedral  - Collection of Images

literature

  • Mark T. Mulder, Gerardo Marti: The Glass Church: Robert H. Schuller, the Crystal Cathedral, and the Strain of Megachurch Ministry. Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick 2020, ISBN 978-0-8135-8905-3 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ St. Callistus
  2. ↑ What's next for the Hour of Power TV service ? ( Memento from July 31, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ↑ a b "Crystal Cathedral": mega-church is now a Catholic bishop's cathedral , idea.de, article from July 18, 2019.
  4. ↑ World famous "Crystal Cathedral" becomes a Catholic bishop's church , jesus.de, article from July 17, 2019.
  5. ↑ Shining diamond . The mirror. April 28, 1980. Retrieved September 1, 2012.
  6. ↑ Letting in the Light by Steve Thomas ( Memento from November 2, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  7. ^ A New Chapter for Crystal Cathedral ( Memento June 16, 2013 in the Internet Archive )
  8. ↑ LA Times Report on the Status of the Bankruptcy Proceedings
  9. ↑ List of creditors of the Crystal Cathedral Ministries (Eng.)
  10. ^ Announcement in Los Angeles Times
  11. ↑ Registration in Orange County Register

Coordinates: 33 ° 47 ′ 14.6 "  N , 117 ° 53 ′ 56.2"  W.