Church Universal and Triumphant
The Church Universal and Triumphant is a New Age 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.
Theology
Gordon Melton lists the C.U.T. as a religion of the Ancient Wisdom tradition akin to Theosophy and the I AM Movement.
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 entities it calls elementals. It revolves chiefly around communications channeled from Ascended Masters. Many such as El Morya, Kuthumi, and St. Germain have their roots in the theosophy of Madame Blavatsky. Others such as Buddha 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 build up in the past.
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 hate letters and anti-church articles 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. Several of the hate letters were written by former Church members who lost in lawsuits against the church.
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 CUT 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.
Recent news
Prophet developed Alzheimer's disease in the late 1990's and is today in hospice care in Bozeman, Montana. The church is under the direction of a two-person presidency with a board of directors and a council of elders.
With the withdrawal of Elizabeth Clare Prophet, many new messengers, unsanctioned by the church, have come forward claiming to give dictations from the Ascended Masters. Two of these, the former CUT minister Monroe Shearer and his wife Carolyn, lead a new activity, The Temple of the Presence, based in Tucson, Arizona. Another former church official, David C. Lewis, began publishing channeled messages in 2005 and approached the council of elders asking to be recognized as a messenger according to the criteria that Mrs. Prophet established during her leadership. The council did not recognize Lewis's messenger ship. Lewis continued to transcribe messages he received and give dictations. Lewis's new organization is called The Hearts Center and operates out of Livingston, Montana not far from the CUT headquarters in Corwin Springs. His claims were rejected on the grounds that he did not follow proper procedure in applying to be a "messenger" and the fact that he spread the news of his new "messages" to others without first consulting the elders.
The Shearers have dismissed Lewis's claim to messenger ship, 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.
Cult Practices
I use to be a member of CUT, and I have testify that there are a great many dark and secret cult practices behind this church. They tend to believe that anyone outside of their belief system is potentially demonatic. They are raw survivalist, with fall out shelters located near Glastenbarry Montana. There are several, theological, 'rules' that member's much follow, such as never wearing the colors red or black, never eating sugar, and never listening to any music other than classical. Trust me, my parents raised me in CUT, and I can say first hand that it is a cult. And note, that I am now atheist, and judge only on the basis of what I witnessed and experienced first hand.
External links
- The Summit Lighthouse website
- University of Virginia Religious Movements Project [1]
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):