The Crystal Cathedral has finally become a cathedral, a Roman Catholic one..

The mis-management of a family, has caused a congregation to loose their own place of worship:


A federal judge on Thursday approved the sale of the glimmering Crystal Cathedral to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange to help the financially troubled megachurch emerge from bankruptcy. 


The decision by U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge Robert N. Kwan came after a bidding war between the diocese and Orange County's Chapman University for the sprawling 40-acre property - and was opposed by many Crystal Cathedral congregants who fear it will be the end of their church. 

The diocese will pay $57.5 million to use the iconic building in Garden Grove made of 10,000 panes of glass as a long-sought countywide cathedral.

I wonder why they rejected a good offer from a University and went along selling to the Catholics. Don't  get me wrong, a place of worship is a place for worship, but this church was built for Protestant worship, or what was considered Protestant worship:

Rather, churchgoers threw their support behind a proposal by Chapman University for the site to expand its health sciences offerings and possibly start a medical school - a plan that would have paid up to $59 million for the site allowed the church to continue to use the famous building designed by renowned architect Philip Johnson. 

For the last two weeks, the board of directors of Crystal Cathedral Ministries had supported Chapman as the preferred buyer. But the board did an about-face Wednesday and voted to back the diocese instead to preserve the church as a religious institution, citing church bylaws and a wish to respect the spirit of donors who footed the bill for the building.

 Maybe the Schullers want to get rid of the building that showed how rotten they are. There's still talks about the congregation moving somewhere else, but if experience counts something, they won't get far:

Some congregants at the Crystal Cathedral said losing their church would be a sign of failure of the ministry's leadership and they wouldn't follow its leaders to a new site.
Churchgoers also questioned whether the ministry that shares the name of the building it inhabits would be financially viable elsewhere, noting that viewers of the "Hour of Power" are equally attached to the glass-spired church and are the source of 70 percent of the church's revenue.
"This is more than a money issue. This is about the continuation of our church," said Michael Nason, a member of the church for 39 years and former producer of the Hour of Power.

The Church was built around the Crystal Cathedral structure, and if they want their congregation to keep on going, they will have to recreate their image.

But what they must do, is not to let any of the former leadership take over their new endeavour. And I think the members of the church are aware of that from what the news item has mentioned.

But apart from the corruption in the Crystal Cathedral, they were also victims of the times:

In 2008, the church's revenues plummeted amid a decline in donations and ticket sales for holiday pageants due to the recession, church officials said. But some experts say the church failed to attract younger members while alienating older churchgoers with an ill-fated attempt to turn the church over to Schuller's son, ending in a bitter and public family feud.

 I remember that many conservatives have criticised the Crystal Cathedral for being a "hipster" church. Well, if such a church does not bring new blood into their lines, it is doom to fall. Conservatives, although better than liberals in retaining their young, are due to fail as well if they don't change their ways, and start attracting new blood into their lines.

My mom loves the Crystal Cathedral. The only positive is that it will still dazzle the eyes for years, or decades to come. But this is a reminder that Ecclesia Semper Reformanda.

Episcopalians want to reinstate Pelagius

Well, my Reformed friends will not stand up to this, but neither can't I. What in the world is happening in the Episcopalian Church? First, they went against Scripture ordaining a gay bishop, now, they are even contemplating reinstating Pelagius?

Here it is a bit of Pelagian "Christianity" for those who may not be familiar with it, from a section of the article I am citing regarding this atrocious attempt.

Pelagius taught that the human will, as created with its abilities by God, was sufficient to live a sinless life, although he believed that God's grace assisted every good work. Pelagius did not believe that all humanity was guilty in Adam's sin, but said that Adam had condemned humankind through bad example, and that Christ's good example offered humanity a path to salvation, through sacrifice and through instruction of the will. Jerome emerged as one of the chief critics of Pelagianism, because, according to him, sin was a part of human nature and we couldn't help but sin. 

Allison in his book notes that Pelagianism teaches that the human will has the power to break the bondage of sin. It is best understood as a theological synonym for "nagging," or confidence that the law requires no more than humans can do. Therefore Pelagian Christianity is characterized by exhortation and scolding. Confidence in the power of human will leads to confidence that the defeat of sin can be effected by means of fear. The underlying confidence in the power of the human will to make one sinless is Pelagian."

Just see the logic then, from the Episcopalian side. Sin is not following the example set but by Jesus now, it's not something inherit in us. That's why, if somebody is a homosexual, as one of their bishops, it doesn't matter, because the important thing is that he follows the example of Christ by loving others.

But don't take my reasoning for it. Look how the article puts it so plainly:

A tongue in cheek activist layman in the Atlanta diocese said, "It's delightfully revealing that Bishop Alexander's last diocesan council will consider a resolution to memorialize, which is the first step toward official institutionalization, an infamous heretic. Revealing, because now that civil rights, women's ordination, and same-sex marriage are TEC sacraments, giving blessings to recognized heresy just makes sense and shows how much vitality and forward momentum that transformative change still has in TEC."

So I will be waiting what Episcopalians come up next in their eventual degeneration into a pagan religion.

Luis A. Jovel