In a Christian Post column, Angie Schuller Wyatt, granddaughter of Crystal Cathedral founder Robert H. Schuller, mourned the final loss of the iconic church in southern California. “Yesterday, Crystal Cathedral Ministries died,” she said. “The music stopped playing. … The namesake of the ministry will be no more. Just like Esau, their birthright was sold.”
Wyatt said she was the only family member to speak out about the truth of what happened behind those glass doors in the board rooms and the ministry that defined her life. “The Crystal Cathedral isn’t a person, it is an institution. As such, its problems were not terminal. They could have been solved. My father attempted to fix these problems during his short tenure as senior pastor. He saw the Crystal Cathedral was headed toward bankruptcy. He attempted to restructure the board, cut his sibling’s salaries and establish fiscal responsibility. For these actions, he was fired by the board, which consisted of . . . you guessed it, his siblings.”
Wyatt’s descriptions of the newest leadership were searing—”self-absorbed,” “public mockery,” and “disaster.” She said her father was willing to pursue the right course “even if it cost him what he loved the most.” And she apologized on behalf of those who had control over the situation, even if she did not. “This week, as Christians, we are once again reminded that a building is not the Church. We, God’s people, are the church.”
To read the entire column, click here.
