Robert Schuller

The schism between the Rev. Robert H. Schuller and his son at Orange County's Crystal Cathedral arose over a disagreement about broadening the church's long-running television show, "Hour of Power," beyond a single personality -- a move opposed by the younger Schuller, pastors involved in the matter said Sunday. The elder Schuller announced Saturday that he was removing his son, the Rev. Robert A. Schuller, as the show's only preacher three years after turning the program over to him.

Re "Church family loses court ruling," Nov. 27 Crystal Cathedral founder Robert Schuller and his family will receive "only" about $700,000 from their bankrupt ministry, an amount Schuller's daughter calls a "travesty. " Matthew 6:20 states, "But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. " Mark Stephen Mrotek Carson ALSO: Letters: Wastewater isn't 'waste' Letters: Exporting hate to Uganda Letters: On the other hand on Deasy

The Rev. Robert H. Schuller removed his son Saturday as preacher on the syndicated "Hour of Power" television show less than three years after handing over to him the ministry he began more than 50 years ago. Schuller announced the removal of his son, Robert A. Schuller, in a statement read to some 450 Crystal Cathedral congregants by Jim Coleman, the church's president.

Once the signature of Robert H. Schuller's worldwide television ministry, the "Hour of Power" will be chopped to 30-minute episodes in some markets when it returns to the air Sunday. The 42-year-old television ministry, filmed at the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove, announced the format change Thursday as it detailed plans to return to the airwaves. The show has been in reruns since Schuller abruptly cut ties to the ministry last month. "We've been considering this move for years," John Charles, president and chief executive of Crystal Cathedral Ministries, said in a statement.

For a brief moment, Schuller was a courageous man of God. Now he's just another politician. DOUGLAS INGOLDSBY Santa Barbara

Since arriving in Southern California from the Midwest in an old car more than 30 years ago, the Rev. Robert H. Schuller, the silver-haired Garden Grove minister with the mellifluous voice and the megawatt smile, has risen steadily. From an itinerant preacher--holding forth on the roof of a drive-in movie refreshment stand--Schuller grew to become the pastor of the spectacular, glass-walled Crystal Cathedral and a nationwide television pulpit, together worth an estimated $75 million.

Crystal Cathedral founder Robert H. Schuller initially courted the secular world in 1955 by starting his church in a drive-in movie theater. Now, the reverend's spreading the word through a less beloved American tradition: telemarketing. Over the past few months, the recorded voice of Schuller has been heard in hundreds of thousands of Southern California homes.

A fast-growing Korean Christian congregation in Los Angeles plans to unveil a $15-million church complex Sunday with a distinctly Southern California touch--a drive-in area where some worshipers can remain in their cars and listen to services on the radio. The drive-in feature was pioneered decades ago in Garden Grove by the Rev. Robert Schuller, pastor of the Crystal Cathedral, and imitated by at least two other Southland churches to accommodate hesitant visitors who prefer anonymity.

In a massive outpouring of support for the Rev. Robert H. Schuller, President Bush and hundreds of well-wishers nationwide bombarded the Crystal Cathedral with telephone calls Monday expressing their concern for the ailing televangelist and offering prayers for his speedy recovery. Dozens of church volunteers filtered into the Crystal Cathedral administrative offices throughout the day to handle the flood of inquiries about Schuller's condition that jammed church phone lines.

The world of televangelism is stained by audacity, bad taste and greed. Then there are the harder-to-pin figures like Robert Schuller. The bubbly, respected preacher--a socially conscious optimist who has held court with presidents and foreign leaders--is about as controversial as a beagle puppy. Yet even Schuller has taken his lumps, particularly for building the impressive and expensive Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove.

The Crystal Cathedral's senior pastor announced Sunday that she was leaving to start a new church, a move that appears likely to split the congregation. "This is the last Sunday we will be worshiping in this building," Pastor Sheila Schuller Coleman told congregants during an emotional 11 a.m. service in the 10,000-pane glass cathedral, designed by architect Phillip Johnson. Schuller Coleman's announcement came one day after her parents, church founder Robert H. Schuller and his wife, Arvella Schuller, resigned from the Crystal Cathedral's board of directors, which oversees the ministry's trademark "Hour of Power" broadcast.

Embroiled in a legal dispute with the church he founded, Robert H. Schuller and his wife have resigned from the international board of the Crystal Cathedral in Garden Grove. The resignations are a result of a breakdown in negotiations over financial claims against the church that the Schullers filed in Bankruptcy Court. FOR THE RECORD: Crystal Cathedral: An article in the March 11 California section about Robert H. Schuller's departure from the board of the Crystal Cathedral said that he founded the church 42 years ago. The television ministry began 42 years ago, but Schuller founded the church 57 years ago, in 1955.

Vendors who have been waiting for years to be paid after Crystal Cathedral Ministries fell into bankruptcy could see further delays because of a financial dispute involving church founder the Rev. Robert H. Schuller and some family members. Schuller; his wife Arvella; daughter Carol Schuller Milner; and her husband, Timothy Milner, have filed a number of claims in Bankruptcy Court alleging that the church owes them money for copyright infringement, intellectual property violations and unpaid contracts.

Whenever clergy from Asia, South America or Europe visit Roman Catholic Bishop Tod Brown in Orange County, they all want to see one church, but not one of Brown's. They want to see the Crystal Cathedral. For decades, the architectural landmark — famous for its 10,000 panes of glass and 236-foot bell tower — has been synonymous with the Rev. Robert H. Schuller and his "Hour of Power" broadcasts. That is about to change. Last month, the Crystal Cathedral property became the future home of the diocese after a bankruptcy judge approved the sale for $57.5 million.

The Rev. Robert H. Schuller has been ousted from the board of directors at the Crystal Cathedral, the Orange County megachurch he built into a televised empire after getting his start preaching at a drive-in theater, his son said Sunday night. Schuller, 84, stepped down from the pulpit five years ago and had long ago ceded day-to-day control of the Garden Grove ministry, largely to his children and other relatives. There were conflicting reports about precisely what had taken place between Schuller and the board members.

Crystal Cathedral's senior pastor Sheila Coleman expressed outrage in an interview Sunday after rumors spread across the media and Internet that her father, famed televangelist Robert H. Schuller, was stepping down. "Dad is not retiring," she said. "I told [the congregation] that Dad's role would not be changing and mine would not be changing." The media storm started when the Orange County Register reported that the 83-year-old Schuller announced his departure during the morning service at the Garden Grove cathedral.

The Rev. Robert H. Schuller, whose television ministry has long been symbolized by Garden Grove's towering Crystal Cathedral, will unveil his latest monument this weekend: the $40-million International Center for Possibility Thinking, designed by Getty Center architect Richard Meier. It took 13 years and the sweat of 183,000 workers to build King Solomon's temple in Jerusalem.

She remembers being about 4 and, as her father worked in his study that doubled as a bedroom, hearing a knock on the front door. She answered and a tearful woman said, "Is the pastor here?" It was one of Sheila Schuller's first realizations that their small house in Garden Grove was also a sanctuary.

Iwas 7 or 8 years old, reading my way through my kiddie encyclopedias, when I infuriated my Sunday school teacher by suggesting that the miraculous parting of the Red Sea was simply low tide. At that age, Sheila Schuller was working for her father's fledgling church. On Sunday mornings, she thumbtacked the Sunday school lessons to the wooden picnic tables at the Garden Grove drive-in theater where the Rev. Robert H. Schuller preached sermons from atop the snack stand. Today, half a century later, Sheila Schuller Coleman and her dad share the pulpit at the Crystal Cathedral, heart of a vast faith empire that he founded.

She remembers being about 4 and, as her father worked in his study that doubled as a bedroom, hearing a knock on the front door. She answered and a tearful woman said, "Is the pastor here?" It was one of Sheila Schuller's first realizations that their small house in Garden Grove was also a sanctuary.