Historic Sanctuary Closing in Dispute

A bitter religious battle over a plan to remodel the historic Angelus Temple has led the pastors of the church to close the sanctuary and move their main Sunday services to another location.

The announcement that the sanctuary would close comes after the pastors, Ed and Ivy Stanton, lost a regulatory battle over their controversial plans for the building, which serves as headquarters for the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel.

The Stantons’ project, aimed at solving acoustic problems in the majestic Echo Park temple, would have covered the interior of the church’s distinctive dome with a flat ceiling and built a structure blocking a 40-foot mural of Jesus Christ.

Outraged over the plan, hundreds of longtime church members opposed to the renovation banded together and formed the Coalition to Save Angelus Temple. Advocates of historic preservation warned that the project could jeopardize the church’s status as a national historic landmark. In May, the coalition filed a lawsuit asking the court to halt all construction. Last week, the city revoked the church’s building permit.

Angelus Temple was founded in 1923 by the legendary Pentecostal evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson. Inside the 5,500-seat Angelus Temple, she created a flamboyant religious theater of revival and healing. In addition to achieving fame for her ministry, she provided hot meals for more than 1.5 million people during the Great Depression. She summarized her message in four major points known as “the Foursquare Gospel” and founded the denomination bearing that name.

Church members said the dispute over the future of the historic building revealed deep conflicts within the denomination between the pastors’ vision of a contemporary ministry and concerns of many in the congregation over preserving the historic and sacred.

Coalition members charged that the Stantons excluded church members from meetings on the renovation and alienated people opposed to their plans.

On Sunday, Ed Stanton announced the decision to move the church’s contemporary Sunday service to another location, starting Sept. 10. A traditional Sunday morning service will remain at Angelus Temple, but in the auditorium rather than in the famous sanctuary.

In their statement, the Stantons stood by their renovation plan and said they would not “waste time and money renovating the sanctuary and not solve the sight and sound problems.”

“The decisions we have made, along with our church council . . . will seem grave in their implications. They are. We want to make clear that we would not be here today . . . were it not for the action taken by the Save Angelus Temple.

“Because we have not yet determined the long-term future of the Angelus Temple Sanctuary, we are making available these two Sunday morning options for worship,” the statement said.

The decision to close the sanctuary has shocked members of the congregation who opposed the Stantons’ plans.

“They were not caring about the people when we told them our feelings about the renovation. What the people wanted didn’t matter to them. If anyone shows disagreement, they are told that they would be happier at another church,” said Anna Crist, a member of the Coalition to Save Angelus Temple.

Neil Mc Claflin, another longtime member, said the Stantons created the divisions within the church when they started preliminary renovations in the sanctuary in May.

“They are blaming us, but they started all this. They tore out the seats and the walls. The coalition did not do that. They are the ones that rendered it useless,” he said. “They say it’s just a building. But, so is the Sistine Chapel.”

Ed Stanton said he realized the decision would be inconvenient for members of the church but said it was necessary to move forward.

“We saw this as an unending process,” Stanton said. “So, rather than dragging the congregation through another year of the unknown, we decided to concentrate on what we really care about: pastoring people.

“It hasn’t been a pleasant atmosphere and it’s become difficult to pastor there. Now, I really want to devote my time to pursuing our call as a church,” he said.

The Stantons were brought from Oregon in 1999 to lead Angelus Temple and boost membership at the church. They say they quickly found that the church had a serious sight and sound problem. Researchers hired by the church said the curved walls are the source of the problems. But preservationists argue that the Stantons ignored two other proposed options for solving the problems.

“We still believe there is a way to solve the acoustic problems and satisfy their needs” without changing the historic character of the building, said Linda Dishman, executive director of the Los Angeles Conservancy.