The Crystal Cathedral. the end of an era.

This was about all the congregation amounted to on Sunday when the last sermon by Sheila Schuller-Coleman had been preached.

The "Hour of Power" ministry has run out of gas and the palace of ostentation has fallen to the Romans.. the Roman Catholics that is.

The Reverend Robert Schuller cobbled together his own gospel of faith, wealth and positive thinking and preached it from his crystal pulpit for over thirty years. This week, bankrupt financially and bereft of new ideas, the keys were handed over to the Catholics of Orange County for a cool $57 million dollars, almost enough to pay off the church debt.

In his own philosophy, that was intended to substitute the "ancient gospel", he stated that "anything on the sinfulness of man and his fallen condition must be eliminated from our preaching.Possibility thinking is the answer. Positive thinking is almost as important as the resurrection."

" My creed of life can be summed up thus:

               ' I AM, I CAN, IT'S POSSIBLE'."

Robert Schuller may well be repeating that mantra as he goes to bed tonight but history and his creditors are telling a different story.

Jubilate.

Ian