California Gold: The Crystal Cathedral of Garden Grove, Orange County

Visitors at the gate.

The building is spectacular by any definition. It has changed hands recently as well as its name, but the common descriptor is still used: The Crystal Cathedral. It's a symbol of 1980s mega-church televangelism due to Robert H. Schuller's weekly TV program (Hour of Power) that used to be so popular during the Reagan Era.

On a visit to Southern California to see me, my parents wanted to make a quick visit to the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove. Any excuse to travel south to Orange County is fine by me so we went together to find visions we had only seen on TV when living back east. We walked around the grounds, admiring the shining structures and posing for photos next to the statues and outdoor figures. This was Religious Tourism. Or maybe Tourism as Religion. Either way, the place felt lonely since it was a weekday afternoon and no service was in session.

You might think that's a
film burn from the end
of the roll, but it's actually
spirits descending upon the
building in judgment.

The ghosts of those big television productions, loud choirs, and holiday spectaculars were long gone. It felt more like a gilded monastery at this point. Quiet and regal. The cathedral-like spikes rise up like organ pipes to the sky, or crystals from a wing of Superman's Fortress of Solitude.

The reflective glass building was designed by postmodern American architect Philip Johnson. It was completed in 1980 and seats around 2800 people. It is also the largest glass building in the world and houses one of the largest musical instruments in the world, the Hazel Wright Memorial organ.

Until 2013, the building had been the principal place of worship for Crystal Cathedral Ministries founded by Robert H. Schuller. In 2010, Crystal Cathedral Ministries filed for bankruptcy (the Lord's punishment for some misguided deeds perhaps?) and in 2012 they sold the building and its adjacent campus to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange for use as the diocese's new cathedral. The building's interior is now being renovated to make way for the Roman Catholic liturgy and is due to re-open later this year. It will then be consecrated and formally renamed Christ Cathedral and become the seat of the Diocese of Orange.

Me and Mary and a robotic-looking
Christ-child.

My parents enjoyed the visit, but still preferred their more modest evangelical church in Kentucky. They left Orange County learning that California isn't all Godless and wicked. There are some truly honest and devout followers on the West Coast...and the Crystal Cathedral is here as well.

My mother posing with the Good Shepherd.

Beautiful walkways go around and beneath the structures.

Me and dad posing at the entryway towards the main building.

"Dad, the camera's this way!"