Recession Hits the Crystal Cathedral : Economy: The church is trimming costs to weather the slowdown. Among its 20 layoffs is a figure in the Iran-Contra hearings.

GARDEN GROVE —  The Crystal Cathedral has laid off about 20 employees, cut back work hours and discontinued some religious programs because of a slowdown in the economy, church officials said Friday.

Among those who lost their jobs in the cost-cutting efforts in recent months is Robert W. Owen, a figure in the Iran-Contra hearings who served as a fund-raiser for Crystal Cathedral, according to Beth Owen, his wife and Crystal Cathedral spokeswoman. Owen took over in August, 1989, as assistant director of development.

“I think what’s happening at Crystal Cathedral is no different than what’s happening across the country,” Beth Owen said. “It’s always difficult, especially when you’re in an environment like a church where you think you have a buffer around you. But the reality is things change and times change.”

Robert Owen was attending an international trade conference Friday and unavailable for comment.

Marjorie Kelley, an assistant to The Rev. Robert H. Schuller, described the cutbacks as minimal and downplayed the seriousness of the economic situation by saying the problem was seasonal.

“We usually do that this time of year,” Kelley said.

Officials said they could not provide details late Friday about which employees had been terminated or the programs that had been cut. However, they said, Crystal Cathedral’s international ministry, which features the “Hour of Power” television program, was among the hardest hit.

Meanwhile, Owen will act as a consultant to the church and is exploring career opportunities in international business, officials said.

“He is continuing to do some things with the church and will be doing some different things with the ministry as time and the situation permit,” his wife said. “But he will not be employed full-time by them anymore.”

Owen, a private citizen who testified in the Iran-Contra hearings that he served as a courier of money between Marine Lt. Col. Oliver L. North and the Nicaraguan rebels known as the Contras, has sought to distance himself from the controversy.

During North’s trial, Owen testified under a grant of immunity that he had made many trips in 1985 and 1986 between Washington and Central America--a period when Congress had banned U.S. military aid to the Contras. He said he had carried maps, money and tactical military advice from North, who was a White House aide.

His speeches during the scandal elicited praise from conservatives and some liberals. Owen, a member of a Washington Episcopal congregation, said he met Schuller in 1988 after sending him an admiring letter asking him to baptize his newborn daughter.

A year later, Schuller brought him in to help raise money for the ministry, which had suffered a drop in donations as a result of the highly publicized scandals involving other television ministries.

But because of the slowdown in the economy, Crystal Cathedral, like countless other organizations in the religious and secular worlds, has been forced to cut costs. After a series of budget meetings over the last several weeks, the employees were laid off, hours were trimmed and some non-essential programs were discontinued, church officials said. About 300 people were employed by the Crystal Cathedral before the layoffs.