No Current Plan to Sell, Aide Says : Schuller Seeking Buyer for His Retreat in Maui

The Rev. Robert H. Schuller, whose ministry is beset by financial troubles, may be contemplating the sale of a lucrative property on the island of Maui, an official in Hawaii said Friday.

Schuller spokesman Michael C. Nason did not deny that Schuller recently told a county planner on Maui that he was seeking a buyer for the ministry’s 43-acre retreat there.

But Nason said in a prepared statement that the Garden Grove television evangelist has no current plans to sell the center.

In recent months, both the ministry’s Crystal Cathedral congregation and the weekly “Hour of Power” television program have undergone sharp cutbacks and high-level staff changes. The reason, Schuller officials say, is a continuing drop in contributions in the wake of a national crisis in television evangelism.

More than 50 of the ministry’s staff have lost their jobs since May, when fund-raising projections indicated that the ministry would raise only $26 million in 1988, in contrast with $34 million in 1987.

The Hawaiian property, called Baldwin Manor, was donated to the ministry in 1985 by Athalie Clark, who was married to the late James Irvine Jr.

The center, according to a brief statement released by Nason, “has never been listed for sale, and we are currently working with the officials in Maui to continue to run the property as a retreat center, and that is our only concern at this time.”

But Clyde Murashige, a planner for Maui County, said Friday that it was his understanding that Schuller was “looking for a buyer” for Baldwin Manor.

According to information provided to The Times by the Schuller organization in June, 1987, Baldwin Manor is maintained and operated as a division of the Robert Schuller Ministries, which assumed a $300,000 mortgage at the time of its donation by Clark. Schuller told the Maui County Planning Department in 1985 that he planned to spend an additional $500,000 to convert the estate into a renewal center.

The property is in an area zoned for farmland, Murashige said. But in 1985, the ministry received a three-year exemption from the county to use the property for religious retreats. In the current application for a renewal, the planner said, the ministry has asked to be allowed to conduct large weddings, seminars and meetings on the property. The county is expected to rule on the request by mid-July, Murashige said.

Those sponsoring church conferences at the center are charged $1,200 a night, according to the ministry. But church officials said in 1987 that “no fees are charged when the facilities are being used by the ministries’ staff on ministries’ business. On two occasions, the fees for the use of the property have been paid by Schuller as a contribution to the Ministries in hosting international theological conferences.”

In May, 1987, for example, all Protestant ministers and Catholic priests in Hawaii were invited to attend an all-day conference at the center at no charge, and the clergy were invited to make future use of the property.

Private use of the facility for reasons other than ministry business “has generally not been permitted,” the ministry said, but on several occasions board members of the ministry have paid to stay there.

Use of the property is scheduled through the ministry’s executive committee. Schuller and other high-level ministry officials have made frequent use of the facilities, but only for official ministry business, according to the ministry.