{"id":5740,"date":"2011-08-10T14:41:36","date_gmt":"2011-08-10T18:41:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/news\/?p=5740"},"modified":"2011-08-10T19:22:30","modified_gmt":"2011-08-10T23:22:30","slug":"la-times-creditors-say-theyll-sue-if-crystal-cathedral-balks-at-selling-their-building","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/08\/la-times-creditors-say-theyll-sue-if-crystal-cathedral-balks-at-selling-their-building","title":{"rendered":"LA Times: Creditors say they’ll sue if Crystal Cathedral balks at selling their building"},"content":{"rendered":"

If the financially-troubled Crystal Cathedral’s board refuses to sell their\u00a035-acre complex and landmark church building\u00a0as part of on-going bankruptcy proceedings, creditors\u00a0have told\u00a0a local\u00a0court\u00a0they will sue.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The Crystal Cathedral<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Prospective buyers include\u00a0the Orange County Diocese of the Roman Catholic Church and the Disciples of Christ-affiliated Chapman University. Both have made — and now increased — multi-million-dollar offers\u00a0to buy\u00a0the\u00a0iconic\u00a0symbol of\u00a0Dr. Robert Schuller’s TV ministry.<\/p>\n

The university, which is three miles from the church,\u00a0says it would allow the ministy to continue using the building — paying rent.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/div>\n

“Chapman University moved from Los Angeles to Orange County in 1954 and [Rev. Robert Schuller] started his ministry on top of a snack shack at a drive-in theater in 1955 — so a year apart,” said President James Doti. “We’ve been in it together and I’d like to think we could be long-term neighbors.”<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The drive-in theater where the church started<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

He\u00a0said the other buildings on the church’s property could be used for a medical, dental or pharmacy school.<\/p>\n

The Catholic Diocese has offered $53 million, but the ministry would have to vacate within three years. Bishop Tod D. Brown has said that the diocese needs a worship space for its more than 1.2 million parishioners in Orange County. The 3,000-seat Crystal Cathedral is a less expensive alternative to a proposed $100-million Catholic cathedral project in Santa Ana.<\/p>\n

However, Crystal Cathedral officials announced 10 days ago that they no longer wanted to\u00a0sell, but\u00a0instead have begun a faith-based effort to pay the church’s debt, relying on donations. Whether the creditors will wait, however, could jeopardize that plan. The creditors committee\u00a0says\u00a0the church’s unpaid lenders and vendors\u00a0already have been patient, paticularly after the ministry sold a\u00a0170-acre Rancho Capistrano property and put the money into a trust fund.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
The church and tower<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

“If church insiders vote to block the sale of the property,” reports Nicole Santa Cruz for the\u00a0Los Angeles Times,<\/em>\u00a0the creditors\u00a0will sue, according to court documents filed Tuesday.\u00a0The filing said they\u00a0would\u00a0seek to recover what they see as “preferential” payments made to favored creditors\u00a0during the two years\u00a0that led\u00a0up to the church’s Chapter 11 filing.<\/p>\n

“A spokesman for the Crystal Cathedral did not respond to a request for comment,” reported the Times.<\/em>\u00a0“More than a dozen family members have been employed by the church, and a U.S. trustee for the Bankruptcy Court has questioned the job duties of several insiders.”<\/p>\n

As part of the\u00a0proposal filed Tuesday\u00a0by the creditors, a compromise was offered: The church’s board could pick a buyer \u2014 with the committee’s approval \u2014 or the creditors group would pick one.<\/p>\n

Several other potential buyers for the Garden Grove church were named, “but the filing mainly focused on the diocese and the university,” reported the Times,<\/em>\u00a0“revealing that both had raised their initial bids by several million dollars.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If the financially-troubled Crystal Cathedral’s board refuses to sell their\u00a035-acre complex and landmark church building\u00a0as part of on-going bankruptcy proceedings, creditors\u00a0have told\u00a0a local\u00a0court\u00a0they will sue. Prospective buyers include\u00a0the Orange County Diocese of the Roman Catholic Church and the Disciples of Christ-affiliated Chapman University. Both have made — and now increased — multi-million-dollar offers\u00a0to buy\u00a0the\u00a0iconic\u00a0symbol of\u00a0Dr.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":270,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[48,32],"tags":[1367,824],"class_list":["post-5740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-catholic","category-christian","tag-bankruptcy","tag-crystal-cathedral"],"yoast_head":"\nLA Times: Creditors say they'll sue if Crystal Cathedral balks at selling their building<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/news\/2011\/08\/la-times-creditors-say-theyll-sue-if-crystal-cathedral-balks-at-selling-their-building\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"LA Times: Creditors say they'll sue if Crystal Cathedral balks at selling their building\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If the financially-troubled Crystal Cathedral’s board refuses to sell their\u00a035-acre complex and landmark church building\u00a0as part of on-going bankruptcy proceedings, creditors\u00a0have told\u00a0a local\u00a0court\u00a0they will sue. Prospective buyers include\u00a0the Orange County Diocese of the Roman Catholic Church and the Disciples of Christ-affiliated Chapman University. 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