TWIN TEMBLORS: THE LANDERS AND BIG BEAR QUAKES : Churchgoers Sway, Pray in O.C. Sunday

After surviving one early morning quake, many of Orange County’s faithful ventured out to worship Sunday only to encounter a second quake in church. Some called the experience almost mystical.

Donna Dorn, 57, was praying inside Our Lady Queen of Angels Church in Newport Beach when the building’s wooden beams began to tremble. The crucifix on the altar swayed and burning candles fell down.

But Dorn and three others inside the church kept praying. “It seemed like a pretty neat thing,” she said. “Prayer gets you through everything.”

Meanwhile in Capistrano Beach, 200 members of Calvary Church were finding their seats to the sounds of a rock ‘n’ roll band. As the array of speakers and spotlights on the ceiling swayed visibly, people in the crowd rose to rush outside. The lights went out.

“You’re talking about a rocking church,” yelled out one usher, a slice of comic relief that drew a cheer and seemed to calm everyone’s nerves. Candles were lit on stage and the band played on as the congregation stayed and clapped in unison.

In the wake of the two quakes, churchgoers in the fragile-looking Crystal Cathedral had a third scare shortly before 9 a.m. when they heard another loud rumble.

Assistant pastor Bruce Larson paused, then said, “Listen to it. It’s a plane . . . I think.”

The first quake had clanged the 52 bells in the Crystal Cathedral’s bell tower, but the church sustained no broken glass or other damage.

Joan Sailor of Anaheim, who was at the Crystal Cathedral, suggested the quake was ready proof that a bigger force than even Mother Nature was involved. “I think Earth has got to get into the hands of God,” Sailor concluded. “It’s interesting to me that on a Sunday morning, God had an earthquake in Joshua Tree.”

Most churches reported only minor damage.

“We didn’t have very much damage and we’re very thankful,” said a spokesman for the Korean Church of Orange County in Stanton.

Members of the South Coast Community Church in Irvine were relieved to learn that 150 men from the congregation who were on a reteat in La Quinta near the quake’s epicenter were in fine shape. Saturday, the men had played golf, said Shirley Piantanida, program director. Sunday, she speculated, they would spend the day “praying.”

Over at the Sunday School, teacher Sonia O’Bryan said the children took the quake in better stride than the adults. When she asked the 3-year-olds if they had felt it, she said they replied that it had been angels clapping that made the Earth move.

“They probably need to calm us down,” she said. “I want to move.”

Times staff writers Len Hall, Gebe Martinez, Jeffrey A. Perlman, and Danny Sullivan contributed to this report.