Church Universal and Triumphant
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The Church Universal and Triumphant is a new religious movement and organization founded by Mark L. Prophet and Elizabeth Clare Prophet. It is one of the branches of The Summit Lighthouse and its church groups can be found in many cities throughout the world.
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[edit] Theology
Gordon Melton lists the C.U.T. as a religion of the "Ancient Wisdom" tradition akin to Theosophy and The "I Am" Activity.
C.U.T. theology is a syncretistic belief system, including elements of Buddhism, Christianity, esoteric mysticism, the paranormal, alchemy and belief in elves, fairies, and other beings it calls elementals (spirits of nature). It revolves chiefly around communications received from Ascended Masters through the Holy Spirit. Many of the Ascended Masters such as El Morya, Kuthumi, Sanat Kumara, and Saint Germain have their roots in Theosophy and the writings of Madame Blavatsky. Others such as Buddha, Confucious and Jesus are historical religious figures.
Mark, and later Elizabeth, claimed to be a messenger of the Ascended Masters. As messengers they were able to communicate with these masters and became the on earth voice of these masters. They claimed to receive dictations from the masters which were published weekly as "Pearls of Wisdom".
Group members practice prayers, affirmations, mantras, and a dynamic form of prayer known as decrees. These serve many purposes: devotion, calling to angels for protection from forces of darkness, calling forth the light of God on earth, praying for healing, for wisdom, asking to know God's will, and for the transmutation of karma. One of the most important decrees is the Violet Flame Decree -- a method which is said to be the most effective means of balancing karma that has built up in the past. The doctrine of the Seven Rays is also taught.
In the summer of 1993, a team of academic specialists conducted an interdisciplinary study of the church and its membership. The results were published in "Church Universal and Triumphant in Scholarly Perspective," edited by James R. Lewis and J. Gordon Melton.
During the late 80's and early 90's anti-church articles and letters were published in the local newspapers of the Livingston Enterprise and the Bozeman Chronicle. The newspaper articles frequently labeled Church Universal and Triumphant as being a cult. The church has usually been labeled a cult by fundamentalist Christian groups.[citation needed] Several of the letters were written by former Church members who lost in lawsuits against the church.[citation needed]
[edit] History
Mark Prophet came in contact with Ancient Wisdom groups through The Bridge to Freedom, an offshoot of the I AM Movement led by Geraldine Innocente (d.1961). Innocente had been a member of the I AM Movement, but left I AM in 1952 to begin her own group. Prophet studied with The Bridge to Freedom until 1958, when he split to form his own organization, then known as The Summit Lighthouse. The headquarters at that time was in Washington, D.C.
In 1961, Mark met Elizabeth Clare Wulf; they married in 1964 and had four children. Wulf, subsequently Elizabeth Clare Prophet, had grown up under influences including New Thought and Christian Science.
In January 1966, the Prophets moved their church to Colorado Springs, CO. In 1970, a second major center of the organization was established in Santa Barbara, California. The first session of Ascended Master University - a religious study center for teaching of the ancient wisdom - was held there in July 1970. (Ascended Master University was later renamed Summit University.)
On November 2, 1971, the church established Montessori International, a private school based on the principles of Italian educator Maria Montessori. In later years, the school was expanded to provide a full program from preschool to Grade 12. On May 1, 1972, the church opened the Four Winds Organic Center in Colorado Springs, a health food store and organic restaurant. In February, 1973 Mark Prophet passed on, leaving his wife as leader.
Church Universal and Triumphant was incorporated as a part of the organization on May 1, 1975. The organization moved its headquarters to Pasadena, California, in 1976. In 1978, it moved to "Camelot," a 218-acre property in the Santa Monica Mountains, outside of Los Angeles.
In 1981, the organization purchased a 12,000 acre property in Montana, on the northern border of Yellowstone National Park, which it named the Royal Teton Ranch. Camelot was sold and the organization moved its headquarters to Montana in 1986.
The church became best known publicly when during the late 1980s it predicted the possibility of nuclear war. Members were urged to prepare for such an eventuality by building fallout shelters with supplies of food and other necessities. When nuclear war did not occur, Prophet explained that the community had averted the war through their prayers. Some adherents were left in debt or bankruptcy in the unexpected result, however, and bad debts by members forced the closure of one hardware store in nearby Livingston, Montana. In the years following this episode, church membership has fallen in the United States. However, the C.U.T. remains a significant presence in the area of its headquarters, and international membership has grown significantly. With its decline in U.S. membership, the church was forced to downsize its land holdings in the first years of the 2000s with sales back to the U.S. government.
[edit] Recent news
Elizabeth Prophet developed Alzheimer's disease in the late 1990's and is today in Livingston, Montana under house care. The church is under the direction of a two-person presidency with a board of directors and a council of elders.
A number of individuals have come forward claiming to give dictations from the Ascended Masters. Two of these, the former CUT minister Monroe Shearer and his wife Carolyn, founded a new activity in 1995, The Temple of the Presence, based in Tucson, Arizona. Another former church official, David C. Lewis, who served on the staff of C.U.T. for many years began channeling dictations by some of the same Ascended Masters named in Church Universal and also channeled messages by new Ascended Master unmentioned in other other organization. It operates primarily as a virtual community and publishes daily dictations, many of which occur at the in the Livingston, Montana area (active groups are also reside in Chicago, New York, and in Sweden)--not far from the C.U.T. headquarters in Corwin Springs. Lewis claims that the process for how one applies to be a messenger has never been made public and that the elder to whom he submitted his application told him "there won't be any more messengers."
Many Ascended Master students believe that Ascended Master organizations are brought into existence through dispensations by the Masters, and not by their sponsored organizations and the messengers for that organization. Most prior sponsored organizations have not recognized the next dispensation and in some cases not even the former ones.
Two organizations that recognize the Summit Lighthouse and former sponsored organizations are The Hearts Center and the Shangra-la Mission, which sprang up from longtime former students of the Summit Lighthouse. Kim and Lorraine Michaels founded the Shangra-la Mission in 2002 after claiming they were given the mantles of Messengership direct from the Ascended Masters. They never applied to be messengers for the church, believing their work is a continuation of the Teachings but not within the constrains of the Summit Lighthouse or the church. The church rejects any such claims that they are sponsored messengers.
The Shearers have dismissed Lewis's claim to messengership, much as Elizabeth Clare Prophet dismissed the Shearer's claim, and as the leader of The Bridge to Freedom, Geraldine Innocente, dismissed the claim of The Summit Lighthouse founder Mark Prophet. CUT continues to hold quarterly retreats at the Royal Teton Ranch and to hold Summit University sessions around the world. Retreats for teens and young adults are held internationally twice a year.
[edit] In music
Since a recording by the church entitled "Invocation for Judgement Against and Destruction of Rock Music" appeared on the record Sounds of American Doomsday Cults Volume 14, it has been sampled many times by various musical artists—mainly in electronic genres. Among the most prominent of these are Negativland (the track "Michael Jackson" from Escape from Noise), Mylo (the track "Destroy Rock & Roll" from Destroy Rock & Roll), O.S.I. (the track "Set It On Fire" from Free), and Fatboy Slim (a remix of the Negativland track which appeared on Better Living Through Chemistry).
[edit] Trivia
Kenneth and Talita Paolini, parents of Inheritance Trilogy author Christopher Paolini, were once members but later left the organisation. They have since written the book 400 Years of Imaginary Friends: A Journey Into the World of Adepts, Masters, Ascended Masters, and Their Messengers, which discussed their experiences of the sect as well as a history of it related to other groups.[1]
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- The Summit Lighthouse website
- University of Virginia Religious Movements Project[1]
- FBI file on CUT
Anti-CUT sites:
- Life in CUT [2]
- Rick A. Ross Institute info on CUT [3]
- Anti-CUT information [4]
- Apologetics Index [5]
Offshoot organizations (not supported by CUT):
