'THAT IS WHAT GOD DESERVES' $60 MILLION, 5,000-SEAT CATHEDRAL OPENS TODAY.

Byline: Martin Kuz Staff Writer

The iridescent, 103-foot stained glass tower that juts upward and outward from the West Angeles Cathedral represents a church and community's renewal - and a marriage of faith to finances that church officials don't deny but embrace.

That is the word according to Bishop Charles E. Blake Sr., pastor of the West Angeles Church of God in Christ, who doesn't dwell on the sheer size, cost or beauty of the $60 million Pentecostal cathedral that opens today.

Nor does he apologize for the 5,000-seat structure, looming over Crenshaw and Exposition boulevards in South Los Angeles. Instead, he extols the cathedral as a symbol of people putting their money where their spirit is.

``The most significant thing about the building is the fact that it's the expression of the persistence of the aspirations of people in the inner city. ... Inner city people deserve the best, just as anyone else would,'' he said.

Private donations covered about $30 million of the new cathedral's cost, with the rest coming from bank loans. While actor Denzel Washington and athlete Magic Johnson chipped in $5 million apiece, Blake pointed out that congregation and community members provided the majority of the private funding, donating $10 here, $20 there.

``The support from the members of the church and the community have been here since the idea of building a cathedral began 11 years ago,'' Blake said earlier this week. He spoke above the din of whirring electric drills and whining power saws as workers raced to finish construction in time for this weekend's first services.

``People in the inner city wanted a beautiful temple to worship in because they believe that is what God deserves,'' he said.

The West Angeles Cathedral is the first in what might be called a building boomlet of religious structures in Southern California.

The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles will open the $163 million, 3,000-seat Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in downtown Los Angeles in September 2002.

Earlier this month, officials with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced plans to construct three new Mormon temples, including sites in Orange County and Redlands. The other will be in Sacramento.

The hulking stature of a religious structure such as West Angeles Cathedral might appear to run counter to Christian principles of shedding excess and living simply.

But church officials and theologians say the relationship between breathtaking places of worship and selfless faith is symbiotic, not contradictory. The physical homage speaks to a congregation's deep conviction, they say, as well as a desire to share the prosperity in good economic times.

William Dyrness, professor of theology and culture at Fuller Theological Seminary, referred to a cathedral as ``an attempt to reassert the public and very visible presence of the church triumphant in a secular society. ...

``Bishop Blake hasn't beat people over the head for this. There's a lot of support from the congregation for this. It's a place people can take their family and friends to say, this is something that God has done.''

The history of cathedrals in Catholicism stretches back centuries, to a time when the church was the hub from which cities extended like spokes. In that spirit, the new cathedral of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, built to replace the quake-damaged 1877 St. Vibiana's Cathedral, will help cultivate a sense of revival downtown, church spokesman Tod Tamberg said.

``The idea is building something beautiful for people to worship in and serve the spiritual needs of the people in the archdiocese and the community,'' he said. ``And it's something that everyone believes in and inspires them to be in service to one another.''

No doubt the West Angeles Cathedral will provoke inspiration among the faithful - not to mention rubber-necking among passers-by. Atop the 13-story stained-glass tower, billed as the world's tallest, stands a 132- foot-tall steel cross that is visible from several blocks away.

Resembling an enormous sundial, the building boasts a six-story-high granite facade and stands eight stories tall in the back. It is the third- largest religious edifice in Los Angeles, behind the Great Western Forum, where the Faithful Central Missionary Baptist Church will soon hold services, and the Crenshaw Christian Center's Faith Dome.

The new cathedral's dimensions reflect the growing size of the congregation at West Angeles Church of God in Christ. The primarily African-American congregation consists of 18,000 members, making it one of the largest in the Church of God in Christ, which counts almost 6 million members nationwide.

The church has grown exponentially since 1969, the year Blake joined as pastor, when the congregation numbered 50. Around that time, about the only thing flourishing along the Crenshaw corridor was blight, as the car dealerships and furniture stores that lined the boulevard abandoned the area.

Property in the early 1970s along Crenshaw sold for a mere $4 a square foot. Blake had the foresight to prod the church to start buying land. He credits the church - first in its 1,200-seat home a block from the cathedral, and now in its new setting - with serving as an economic lightning rod that attracted commerce back to the area.

The evidence is everywhere. Businesses - from pizza shops to hair salons and gas stations - blanket the boulevard, where land now sells for $50 a square foot. Several business owners have told Blake that the church's presence persuaded them to set up shop.

Blake maintains that the millions spent on building the cathedral will attract people and donations to its causes, chief among them AIDS prevention.

``The work that the church does is so great and so significant - we just needed to do everything we could to draw people with the cathedral,'' he said.

Dyrness said aiding the impoverished and praying in an awe-inspiring setting are intertwined ideals. ``When a church is vibrant the way West Angeles is, it has the resources to build a beautiful cathedral and help the poor,'' he said. ``It can do both.''

Father Tom Rausch, chairman of theological studies at Loyola Marymount University, applauds West Angeles Church of God in Christ, saying that it's vital for churches to remain in low-income areas to help nurture and resuscitate them.

``It's a very positive sign to see that a church like West Angeles has built not in an affluent area, but in a place that's been a little rundown and in need of revitalization,'' he said. ``It's a real testament to the faith and worship of God going on there.''

Blake said ultimately what matters most is the church's mission. He believes that the cathedral is a physical means to that more vital spiritual end.

``I'm not that excited about a building,'' he said. ``What I'm excited about is helping the poor, doing good works in the community, spreading the word of Jesus Christ to the world. The building is merely a tool to carry out the work that we do.''

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2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Bishop Charles E. Blake Sr. shows off the massive stained- glass tower in the new West Angeles Cathedral, which will open for its first services today. Bank loans paid about half the cost of the $60 million edifice and the rest was made up by donations, from the $5 million each contributed by Magic Johnson and Denzel Washington to a few dollars each from parishioners.

(2) Workers labored until the last minute to make sure the cathedral as ready for services today.

Hans Gutknecht/Staff Photographer