Angelus Temple Congregation Split Over Renovation Plans

For 77 years, the Angelus Temple has towered across from Echo Park, with its dome built of crushed seashells casting a glow on Glendale Boulevard. Since the flamboyant evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson founded the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel at the temple in 1923, the site has emerged as an architectural icon and center of faith.

Now, a dispute has erupted over a $6-million remodeling project that has divided the congregation and pitted church leaders against historic preservationists, Los Angeles city planning officials and the U.S. Department of the Interior. The fight threatens the church’s status as a national historic landmark, which it has held since 1992.

The controversy centers on a proposal to solve acoustic problems in the church by covering up the interior of the dome with a flat ceiling and building a structure that would block a 40-foot mural of Jesus Christ. A reproduction of the mural would be displayed on the structure by an artistic rendition or video projection.

Ed and Ivy Stanton, the pastors of the Angelus Temple who were brought to Los Angeles in 1999 to revive the church’s declining membership, say the changes are painful but necessary to provide a contemporary citywide ministry and attract younger worshipers. The dispute has revealed deep conflicts between the pastors’ new vision and the more traditional form of Foursquare worship favored by some church members.

“After Aimee’s death, Angelus Temple went through a period of gradual decline, physically and spiritually,” said Ed Stanton. “We want to bring it back.”

The Stantons hope to enliven services with music, dance, full-blown theatrical presentations and multimedia presentations.

“We were faced with a choice,” Ivy Stanton said. “Do we keep the historical structures or do we want a functional church?”

But opponents in the congregation say the changes would destroy something sacred.

“When I think about it, my heart just cries,” said 66-year-old Ana Crist, a longtime member of the church. “I wake up at night and think, ‘We can’t let them do this.’ That mural is an integral part of worship. That’s what makes it so hard. It’s the open arms of Jesus. When you come to church, you need to see that.”

Even Dr. Rolf McPherson, Aimee’s son, wrote a letter pleading with the Stantons to drop the project.

Federal officials agree that the issues are serious. “If the church decided to proceed with the original plans,” the Department of the Interior might recommend revoking the church’s landmark designation, said Michael Crowe, national historic landmark coordinator for the department.

Proposals to change historic church buildings have caused recurrent battles in many parts of the country. In Los Angeles, the most prominent recent dispute involved the decision by the Roman Catholic archdiocese to replace St. Vibiana’s Cathedral with a cathedral now under construction downtown.

At the Angelus Temple, the proposed changes have prompted a lawsuit by church members who have formed an opposition group called the Coalition to Save Angelus Temple. Opponents have requested a court order to halt all construction work at the temple, arguing that the city illegally issued a work permit. A hearing is scheduled for June 28.

On Sunday morning as hundreds of churchgoers streamed down Lemoyne Street to the temple with Bibles under their arms, some members like Sal Cartagena, 23, expressed mixed feelings about the renovation.

“In a way, I’m happy about it because they’re going to make it more modern,” said Cartagena, a musician for the church’s Latino congregation. “But I’m also concerned they might be taking a part of the history by doing it. The pastors came here and are changing everything.”

Angelus Temple opened in 1923, and Aimee Semple McPherson became an overnight celebrity. Using elaborate Hollywood sets and costumes along with her thunderous voice, she transformed sermons into theater. Such huge crowds turned up for the spectacle under the big dome that the city added Sunday night service on the Red Line trolley cars. At its peak, the temple attracted about 20,000 members.

Today, the Los Angeles-based Church of the Foursquare Gospel is one of the fastest growing Pentecostal denominations in the world with about 2 million members in 107 countries. Nationwide, there are about 200,000 members in 1,800 Foursquare churches. Much of that growth is attributed to Latino and Asian immigrants who have opened hundreds of Foursquare churches across Southern California.

But the Angelus Temple has been unable to sustain its fire. The church interior has deteriorated and attendance at Sunday services now numbers only about 500. In contrast, the Latino congregation at Angelus Temple has doubled to more than 1,200 members led by the popular Pastor Raymundo Diaz.

The Stantons, who had been leading a vibrant Foursquare church in Portland, Ore., say they quickly found that the church had a serious sight and sound problem. Researchers hired by the church said the curved walls are the source of the problem and the new plans would fix it, the Stantons say.

“After our Easter play, somebody told me it sounded like all the actors had marbles in their mouth,” Stanton said.

In December, he announced plans for an ambitious renovation project to construct a modern sound and video system in the church, as well as a skate park in the church parking lot. Opponents of the project within the congregation appealed to the Echo Park Historical Society and the Los Angeles Conservancy for help.

Despite the controversy over the church’s distinctive features, city officials did not order a full environmental impact report before issuing a building permit in April, and they failed to alert state and federal agencies to the plans.

“The city made a number of serious procedural errors,” said Lawrence Teeter, attorney for the opponents. The project involves “major preservation issues, and the city just ignored it.”

Bob Steinbach, spokesman for the Building and Safety Department, denied those assertions and said he is confident that his staff followed proper procedure.

Nonetheless, the department is reviewing the case to see “whether our system needs to be updated,” he said. “There’s always room for improvement.”

Preservationists and church leaders reached an agreement last week that construction could begin on aspects of the renovation that are not in dispute, such as refurbishing seats and painting. While work is done on the main sanctuary, services will be held in the Angelus auditorium where the Spanish-speaking congregation meets.

That decision has fueled more tensions at the Angelus Temple, said Cartagena, who plays keyboard at Spanish-language services.

“It’s an inconvenience for us to share the auditorium,” he said. “Now they’re saying we might have to move to an entirely different location. I hope that doesn’t happen.”

But, Ivy Stanton said, most members approve of the proposed changes.

“There’s a small group that’s militant about keeping the historical elements at the expense of creating contemporary ministry,” she said. “It’s true that some people do care about the mural, but a whole lot of people do not.”

“It’s spiritual warfare,” said one church member supportive of the renovation. “There’s always someone who’s going to be opposed to what God wants us to do.”

But, like many others opposing renovation, Crist believes the renovation is being led not by God, but by man. Her hope is that Angelus Temple will remain as timeless as its founder.

“We do not worship the past or the building. I think renovations can be done without sacrificing the beauty of the temple. It would be like scraping paint off the Sistine Chapel,” she said.