Church Universal and Triumphant

The Church Universal and Triumphant is a New Age new religious movement and organization established chiefly by the American woman Elizabeth Clare Prophet.

Theology

Gordon Melton list the CUT as a religion of the Ancient Wisdom tradition akin to Theosophy and the I AM Movement.

CUT 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. The elicited proclamations from the masters in decrees, which were not only inspirational messages for the church membership. The decrees also were recorded in the "Pearls of Wisdom," a collection of decrees which served as a primary body of religious belief for the church.

Group members practice prayers of affirmation at high speed known as decrees. These affirmations not only are expressions of religious devotion. They also ward off malevolent influences and energies, which may be reflected in phenomena others regard as harmless such as chocolate, dark or reddish colors, and the full moon.

History

Mark Prophet came in conatact with Ancient Wisdom groups through The Bridge to Freedom, a splinter of the I AM Movement lead by Geraldine Innocent (d.1961) . Innocent had been a member of the I AM Movement, but left I AM in 1952 begin her own group. Prophet studied with the Bridge to Freedom until 1958, when he split to form his own church, Summit Lighthouse. In 1961, Mark met Elizabeth Clare Wulf. They divorced their respective spouses and married in 1964.

Elizabeth Prophet, who grew up under influences including New Thought, Asian religion, Christian Science, Swedenborgianism, and Roman Catholicism, was a religious seeker who had worked for the Christian Science Church in Boston.

In the mid 1960's, the Prophets moved their church to Colorado Spring, CO. They gradually gained a small following, founded a restaurant, a printing company, and Summit University -- a religious study center for teaching of the ancient wisdon. In February, 1973 Mark Prophet died leaving his wife as leader.

Known informally as Guru Ma or Mother, Elizabeth Prophet reportedly dictated the minutest elements of members' lives, demanded extremes of their time and contributions, and did not herself adhere to the vegetarianism, macrobiotic diet, rejection of abortion, and chastity she enforced at various times on the lives of her followers, having supposedly "balanced the karma of the world". Her absolute control over members, which some believe lives on in indirect effect today through the church itself, extended to direction of marriage choices, taking personal jewelry, clothing, and possessions (on the grounds the Masters required them), and similar actions, leading many to classify the CUT as a cult.

The church became best known when during the 1980s it predicted nuclear apocalypse and retreated en masse from California to land it acquired just north of Yellowstone National Park. Members were urged to liquidate their wealth for the final days, purchasing and borrowing to prepare for the end in underground bunkers with caches of weapons at the ready. When the civilized world did not end on the date Prophet foretold, she explained that the community had averted the war through their prayers. Adherents however were left both humiliated and frequently bankrupt; bad debts by members forced the closure of one hardware store in nearby Livingston, Montana. Following this episode church membership fell off significantly, though the CUT remains a significant presence in the area with some international following but nothing like in its heyday, during which its arrival nearly doubled the population of Park County, Montana. With its decline in 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.

Prophet developed Alzheimer's disease in the mid 1990's and is today in hospice care in Bozeman, Montana. The church under the direction of a three-person presidency.

In the wake of Prohet's sickness, former members of CUT became involved in a new ancient wisdom activity, The Temple of the Presence lead by former CUT minister