Crystal Cathedral Cuts 37 Staff Jobs

The Crystal Cathedral has eliminated 37 jobs to make up for a “significant” shortfall in donations in recent months that church leaders blame on the economy’s downturn.

Six percent of the 600-member work force at the Garden Grove church and “Hour of Power” television show is being cut by layoffs and attrition, church officials said.

“It’s very painful, especially because we’re releasing good people who we normally wouldn’t consider releasing,” Executive Pastor Glenn DeMaster said Monday. “Every department was impacted.”

Cuts include the closure of an infant care nursery and the elimination of 12 positions on DeMaster’s staff. An assistant to the church’s founder, Rev. Robert H. Schuller, also was laid off.

DeMaster said a restructuring of departments and a volunteer work force of 2,000 would help ease the burden of the cutbacks.

Church officials didn’t give specifics on the revenue shortfall, saying only that giving was “significantly below projections.”

Layoffs have been ordered several times during the Crystal Cathedral’s 50-year history because its annual budget--now at $50 million--has expanded and contracted along with the Southern California economy, DeMaster said.

Over the last five years, “Hour of Power’s” television ratings have been relatively flat at 1.3 million viewers, and so has attendance at the Crystal Cathedral, which averages about 8,000 each Sunday.

The budget tightening won’t affect the $20-million International Center for Possibility Thinking, designed by Getty Center architect Richard Meier. The building, now under construction, was paid for by separate fund-raising.