Wayne Cordeiro, senior pastor at New Hope Christian Fellowship, alerted his congregants that he underwent heart surgery at Stanford University hospital but has been released and is resting.

"Many of you heard that for the last year, I have been having some chest pains and other symptoms that made me curious," he wrote on the church's Web site. "This last week, the pains increased. When I went for a checkup, preliminary tests showed some significant blockage in my heart. My wise cardiac specialist in Honolulu felt it would be best to go immediately to Stanford Medical Center that has a reputation for being the best on the West Coast for cardiac surgery. There was also a hint that I had an enlarged heart, so I was on the next plane out."

He said the three-and-a-half-hour surgery showed severely blocked arteries, "nevertheless my surgeon was able to stretch the blockages and got in three stents, so I missed a bypass by a miracle."

Cordeiro also noted that he will be in Oregon, resting, and plans to take an aggressive program to lower his blood pressure.

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