Look at the Crystal Cathedral's Massive Catholic Makeover

 

 The final resting place of the earthly body of Lonnie Frisbee the evangelist is changing to Catholic.

All of us here at Shekinah Fellowship have enjoyed the incredible hospitality of Crystal Cathedral's staff.

We often have met together on their grounds as welcomed guest who would stay for hours talking together.

We have found the new Catholic tenants of the facilities to be equally as hospitable and friendly.

We found the same peaceful atmosphere there as we always have.

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Orange bought Garden Grove's famous Crystal Cathedral back in 2011 and made it clear that after three years, they'd be giving the Modernist house of worship (designed by Philip Johnson) a makeover to transform it from an Evangelical space into something more Catholic-appropriate.

They've already changed the name to Christ Cathedral and now their official news source has released renderings of the changes to come (to the interior; the exterior, known well to viewers of The Hour of Power, will not be altered).

The diocese promised that a "renowned architect" would oversee the project, and a release from the diocese says that'll be Johnson Fain, focusing on the designs for the Cathedral building, and Rios Clementi Hale, mostly concentrating on the "exterior spaces."
 
"We're beginning almost with a complete clean palette inside the cathedral," a rep for the diocese tells the LA Times; a volunteer on the church's architecture board adds they're created designs for "an intrinsically Catholic space in a late modern building."

Those call for quatrefoil-shaped shade structures lining the interior (to block out sun and draw focus inward) and a central platform with altar, lectern, and bishop's seat.

 The giant Hazel Wright pipe organ, "one of the largest such instruments in the world," can't be moved, but will receive some restoration and a repainting "in a more muted color," so it blends into the background.

Meanwhile, the rest of the grounds (which include a building by Richard Neutra) will be set apart from the cathedral by "a large plaza ringed by hundreds of crape myrtles."

The Christ Cathedral is hoping to reopen in 2017.