Crystal Cathedral Founder to Pass Church to Oldest Daughter

KTLA News, California/June 10, 2009

Garden Grove - Robert H. Schuller, the founder of the Crystal Cathedral, will turn over his leadership role at the 10,000-member megachurch to his oldest daughter, a church spokesperson said Wednesday.

Schuller, 82, announced during last Sunday's service that Sheila Schuller Coleman, 58, will assume leadership of the entire ministry, effective immediately.

Coleman will also appear on the weekly televangelist show "The Hour of Power" every Sunday, but it hasn't been decided how much she will preach, said church spokesperson Mike Nason.

The weekly broadcast attracts millions of viewers worldwide.

In 2006, Schuller tapped his son, Robert A. Schuller Jr., to take over the church, but the younger Schuller left abruptly last year after a spat with his father.

Schuller Jr., 54, inked a deal last month to launch his own show on AmericanLife TV Network, where he is also chairman. The show will debut in September.

Robert H. Schuller founded his ministry in a drive-in theater after moving to Southern California in 1955. He studied marketing strategies to attract worshipers and preached a feel-good Christianity that ballooned into one of the nation's first megachurches and a broadcast watched by millions worldwide.

The church's main sanctuary, the Crystal Cathedral, is a landmark designed by renowned architect Philip Johnson, with a spire visible from afar amid Orange County's suburban sprawl.

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