Following in the footsteps of Armstrong's Worldwide Church of God in Pasadena, Schuller's Crystal Cathedral is going down amid scandal, financial "misuse", family and management infighting, and the bankruptcy court.

The property is to be sold to an Orange County (read "God Fearing Conservative Republican") developer for $46 million. The developer intends to build apartments on the property.

Core elements of the property will be leased back to the church for U.S. $212,000 per month and those core elements (by then surrounded by apartments) can be bought back by the church within 4 years for $30 million. Failing that - the wrecker's ball.

And without a fire-breathing ultra-charismatic radio/TV preacher to draw in the bucks from the rubes, what are the chances of that happening? Me thinks somewhere between Zero and Nil.

Fortunately the acoustically outstanding Ambassador Auditorium in Pasadena was saved from the developers by some other church, now using it as their worship center and trying hard to maintain it as a performance venue.

The CC, however, is not scaled for human scaled events, so I rather expect the developer's bulldozers will have their way with it, if an earthquake doesn't get it first.