Crystal Cathedral board endorses offer from Diocese of Orange

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Why do all those modern Cathedrals shown in the pictures look like protestant mega-churches? What is honestly wrong with the wonderful gothic style Cathedrals? The 70’s is over.
 
Monte_RCMS said:
There is a Catholic news article nearby stating that the French are going to demolish some of their Gothic churches.

Perhaps the Diocese of Orange could purchase those French Gothic church buildings and move them to California, stone by stone.

[There are some precedents … for example, seems to me that a historic stone bridge in London was relocated to Las Vegas … at Lake Havasu … If I spelled it correctly.]
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That’s actually a great idea. Unfortunately, even though Orange County is one of the more “conservative” areas of California, a Gothic church might be a bit of a stretch. There is also the issue of making it compliant with earthquake code. Centuries-old masonry would require extensive modifications. It would be easier (and probably cost less) to build a concrete replica.

(Yes, you did spell Havasu correctly)
 
MartyrForJesus said:
Why do all those modern Cathedrals shown in the pictures look like protestant mega-churches? What is honestly wrong with the wonderful gothic style Cathedrals? The 70’s is over.
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Here’s a Catholic church of my acquaintance that looks (IMHO) worse than a Protestant mega-church. The Protestant mega-churches may look like stadiums or auditoriums, but at least they don’t look like this thing:

sfnortonshores.com/guided_tour/index.htm

Look at Page 5 for one of the ugliest statues you’ve ever seen. Pages 7 and 9 show you the lovely unpainted concrete interior of the nave. I will give this building this much: it’s chilly on the inside even on the hottest days of the year, much like a cave. In winter, it’s downright frigid. Page 6 shows probably the only actual pretty part of the interior of this church, but it’s kind of overwhelmed by the rest of it.

All in all, I’d favor the Crystal Cathedral over this one—and I don’t like modern archetechture!
 
Wolseley said:
Here’s a Catholic church of my acquaintance that looks (IMHO) worse than a Protestant mega-church. The Protestant mega-churches may look like stadiums or auditoriums, but at least they don’t look like this thing:
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It appears to have been done in the style of Brutalism, which was an architectural style popular in the the 50s, 60s and 70s. Thankfully, that fad has passed. Although, I will say that it makes you appreciate beauty when it does occur, such as the stained glass windows on page 6.
 
Dale_M said:
It appears to have been done in the style of Brutalism, which was an architectural style popular in the the 50s, 60s and 70s. Thankfully, that fad has passed. Although, I will say that it makes you appreciate beauty when it does occur, such as the stained glass windows on page 6.
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I hadn’t heard of Brutalism before, but you’re right—that’s it exactly. I always sort of classified it as “postwar East German concrete industrial grey”. 🙂
 
Wolseley said:
Here’s a Catholic church of my acquaintance that looks (IMHO) worse than a Protestant mega-church. The Protestant mega-churches may look like stadiums or auditoriums, but at least they don’t look like this thing:

sfnortonshores.com/guided_tour/index.htm

Look at Page 5 for one of the ugliest statues you’ve ever seen. Pages 7 and 9 show you the lovely unpainted concrete interior of the nave. I will give this building this much: it’s chilly on the inside even on the hottest days of the year, much like a cave. In winter, it’s downright frigid. Page 6 shows probably the only actual pretty part of the interior of this church, but it’s kind of overwhelmed by the rest of it.

All in all, I’d favor the Crystal Cathedral over this one—and I don’t like modern archetechture!
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It looks like the Death Star.
 
MartyrForJesus said:
It looks like the Death Star.
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And how about this poem describing the building on Page 16?
The architect, Marcel Breuer once wrote:
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Colors which you can hear with ears;
Sounds to see with your eyes;
The void you can touch with your elbows;
The taste of space on your tongue;
The fragrance of dimensions;
the juice of stone.
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These are some of the many “languages” that express this church building.
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Yeah…or an LSD trip…
 
YoungTradCath said:
Is there something wrong with being uniquely Catholic against all the city nastiness?
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Gothic wouldn’t look uniquely Catholic. It would look ostentatious. If they were going to build a new cathedral that would fit in more with the history of the area, it would be mission style. They won’t do that, though. The diocese likes the modern buildings in general.
 
Wolseley said:
Here’s a Catholic church of my acquaintance that looks (IMHO) worse than a Protestant mega-church. The Protestant mega-churches may look like stadiums or auditoriums, but at least they don’t look like this thing:

sfnortonshores.com/guided_tour/index.htm

Look at Page 5 for one of the ugliest statues you’ve ever seen. Pages 7 and 9 show you the lovely unpainted concrete interior of the nave. I will give this building this much: it’s chilly on the inside even on the hottest days of the year, much like a cave. In winter, it’s downright frigid. Page 6 shows probably the only actual pretty part of the interior of this church, but it’s kind of overwhelmed by the rest of it.

All in all, I’d favor the Crystal Cathedral over this one—and I don’t like modern archetechture!
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lol, the same architect, built the abby church for Saint John’s in MN. It looks like he learned to be a little less brutal a few years later, but not much :p. prictures here and yes it is the square looking thing (that is actually the “bell tower” in a loose sense of the words.
 
jilly4ski said:
lol, the same architect, built the abby church for Saint John’s in MN. It looks like he learned to be a little less brutal a few years later, but not much :p. prictures here and yes it is the square looking thing (that is actually the “bell tower” in a loose sense of the words.
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Good Lord. Looks like a drive-in movie screen placed in front of a gigantic cheese grater…

http://www.mcgough.com/images/projects/StJohnAbbeyExt_L.jpg

Sure inspires a sense of reverence in me, I’ll tell you… :rolleyes:

Not.
 
CatholicFireman said:
They should have stayed along the lines of St. Vincent Abbey, Latrobe, PA. That’s where they came from in 1856.

flickr.com/photos/25991393@N08/2590535483/in/photostream

This photographer has some really good photos of other churches also.
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Or they should have stayed with their original abbey design.



This is after they chopped the towers off, so it didn’t detract from the new church.

http://www1.csbsju.edu/greathall/images/christpic.jpg

I must say, that liturgy inside the new church tends to be very nice, very quiet and austere.
 
I agree. Beautiful church. 😦
This is after they chopped the towers off, so it didn’t detract from the new church.
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Unbelievable…:eek::mad::crying:
 
puzzleannie said:
that should prove the Catholic bishops advocate transparency in all their dealings.
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ROFL! I see what you did there…

I’m familiar with the Crystal Cathedral only from seeing it on… “Life After People”. I’m neither here nor there on the architecture (though I suppose it’s a good way to acknowledge the beauty of God’s creation and give one a sense of the connected-ness of everything He made, while giving one proper shelter in which the Mass can be said), but somehow I’m happy that the Catholic Church may be buying it.
 
News Update
Chapman University increased its purchase price for the bankrupt Crystal Cathedral campus by $1.5 million to a total price of $51.5 million, and creditors officially designated the school as the preferred buyer of the Garden Grove property in court documents filed Monday.
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The filings made clear why the church and its creditors support Chapman’s plan over a $53.6-million offer by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange. In some documents, cathedral attorneys argued that the diocese offer, which would require the Crystal Cathedral to seek a new place for worship within three years, was financially risky to the ministry and the weekly “Hour of Power” broadcast.
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“The broadcast has originated from, and remains inextricably associated with the Crystal Cathedral and the Crystal Cathedral Campus,” documents said, adding that the relocation would hamper donations and cause the Garden Grove campus to “lose the singularly unique religious identity it has had for the last 55 years.”
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latimes.com/news/local/la-me-crystal-cathedral-20111101,0,2859527.story

With the creditors now backing Chapman University, I think the chances of the Diocese of Orange have diminished.
 
SonCatcher said:
I curious why CCM referred to the diocesan brief as “improper layperson testimony.” I’m sure it was filed by their legal counsel.
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I don’t know, but it does seem that CCM prefers the Chapman plan because it allows them to stay in the Crystal Cathedral. It seems reasonable that they are hoping to turn their finances around and buy the property back from Chapman.

The plan offered by the Diocese of Orange doesn’t hold out that hope. So CCM may now see the diocese’s offer as a hostile takeover attempt. 🤷

Interestingly, there is a third organization which has entered the picture. They are a group of businessmen who are trying to preserve the Crystal Cathedral as a Protestant church, but want to break from CCM. They would install Robert A. Schuller as pastor. He is apparently on the outs with the rest of the Schuller family.
With barely two weeks left before the hearing, a group of business leaders from all over the country are in the process of forming an organization called Protestantchurch.biz that will try to raise the money necessary to take over the Crystal Cathedral, said spokesman Christopher Savas, a former resident of Fullerton who now lives in Boston.
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Savas says he grew up watching the “Hour of Power,” and along with other like-minded Protestants, would like to see the cathedral continue as a Protestant church.
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“We understand that there’s very little time left,” Savas said. “But we believe we have the resources it takes to accomplish our goal.”
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ocregister.com/news/cathedral-324862-church-crystal.html
 
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