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. At its peak, the temple attracted about 20,000 members. 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. Using elaborate Hollywood sets and costumes along with her thunderous voice, she transformed sermons into theater. The pastors came here and are changing everything.”Īngelus Temple opened in 1923, and Aimee Semple McPherson became an overnight celebrity. “But I’m also concerned they might be taking a part of the history by doing it. “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. 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.
Opponents have requested a court order to halt all construction work at the temple, arguing that the city illegally issued a work permit. Vibiana’s Cathedral with a cathedral now under construction downtown.Īt 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. In Los Angeles, the most prominent recent dispute involved the decision by the Roman Catholic archdiocese to replace St. Proposals to change historic church buildings have caused recurrent battles in many parts of the country. “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. Rolf McPherson, Aimee’s son, wrote a letter pleading with the Stantons to drop the project.įederal officials agree that the issues are serious. When you come to church, you need to see that.”Įven Dr. “I wake up at night and think, ‘We can’t let them do this.’ That mural is an integral part of worship. “When I think about it, my heart just cries,” said 66-year-old Ana Crist, a longtime member of the church.
The dispute has revealed deep conflicts between the pastors’ new vision and the more traditional form of Foursquare worship favored by some church members. A reproduction of the mural would be displayed on the structure by an artistic rendition or video projection.Įd 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 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. The fight threatens the church’s status as a national historic landmark, which it has held since 1992. 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. 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. 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.
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