Crystal Prayer Tower to Soar Over Cathedral

The Garden Grove City Council has approved a plan by the Rev. Robert Schuller to build, adjacent to the Crystal Cathedral, a 234-foot crystal prayer tower and a five-story Family Life Center.

Before the vote this week, Schuller told the City Council that the plan would fulfill a dream of 31 years. “This would complete development of our campus, and I hope that I will never appear before you again,” Schuller said.

The construction project was originally to cost $18 million, but a Schuller spokesman said that delays have driven the cost up and that final figures have not been calculated.

To Raze Apartments

An earlier proposal to build the addition was scrapped last year when neighbors complained. The multimillion-dollar construction project did not generate opposition at the council meeting.

The approved plan calls for demolishing an 84-unit low-income apartment complex to make way for the construction. Schuller said all but three tenants have been relocated.

“It’s nice for me to hear that they are living at better apartments and at less rent. It gives me great pride,” he said.

The project will be built on a 26.5-acre tract next to the cathedral, on Chapman Avenue between Haster and Lewis streets. Schuller ministry officials said they hope to break ground in September.

The base of the crystal tower is to cover 1,175 square feet. The five-story Family Life Center, which will cover slightly more than 130,00 square feet and stand 65 feet tall, will house religion classrooms, a gymnasium and a school for young pastors “of all denominations” to study broadcasting.

Schuller’s “Hour of Power” syndicated weekly show is to be produced at the new facilities, Schuller said.

Donations Rebounding

According to figures released this week, contributions to Schuller’s ministry declined in the first five months of this year but have rebounded in June.

Schuller said in a prepared statement that adverse publicity surrounding the PTL scandal “has deeply hurt all television ministries.” But he did not directly attribute the declines in contributions to his ministry to the PTL affair, which surfaced in March.

According to the statement, donations in the first three months of this year to the “Hour of Power” program totaled $9,451,875, down 1.3% from the comparable period in 1986.

At the end of April, the statement showed, donations totaling $12,010,010, down 3% from the amount taken in during the same period last year. By the end of May, they stood at $13,530,688, down nearly $400,000 from the $13,910,961 of a year earlier.

But in June the decline stopped and “the revenues are expected to remain positive in the months ahead,” the statement said.

The big turnaround came in the first two weeks of June, when contributions were up 36% over the same period in 1986, Schuller said. This brought total donations from Jan. 1 through June 18 of this year to $16,446,013, up slightly from $16,386,655 taken in during the same period last year.