Allows Outdoor Worship : Screen Adds Sparkle at Crystal Cathedral

Garden Grove’s shimmering Crystal Cathedral sparkled a bit more than usual Sunday morning after the unveiling of an 11- by 15-foot outdoor television screen that broadcast services in color to hundreds of drive-in worshipers.

The portable Astrovision screen--similar to one at the Los Angeles Coliseum--contains almost 37,000 individual cathode-ray tubes. It is the first of its kind to be used for worship, and brings the indoor services outside to the cathedral’s north parking lot, or drive-in sanctuary.

A church spokesman said the drive-in service will facilitate attendance for the disabled, infirm and elderly and called it “an integral part of the church structure.”

The screen is next to the cathedral’s 90-foot-tall sliding door, which remained open for Sunday’s services. About 7,000 people attended services inside, and another 1,000 remained in their cars.

Honked Response

At one point the Rev. Robert Schuller, the church’s pastor, asked the outdoor worshipers if the television screen was working. They responded by honking their horns. Many also honked in unison with the applause from inside the cathedral following a hymn.

The open-door, drive-in effect is a continuation of a theme begun 30 years ago by Schuller, long before he opened the Crystal Cathedral, the centerpiece of the Garden Grove Community Church.

Schuller first began conducting drive-in services from the snack-bar roof at the Orange Drive-in Theater in 1955. Two years later, the congregation built a small chapel on Chapman Avenue, but Schuller found that many worshipers preferred the outdoor, drive-in services. Then, in 1961, he opened the world’s first walk-in or drive-in church--designed by the noted architect Richard Neutra--on the same site that almost 20 years later would become home to the Crystal Cathedral.

The $20-million, star-shaped cathedral, already world famous, was designed by Philip Johnson and opened in September, 1980.