Church Universal and Triumphant

Church Universal and Triumphant

Official logo
Formation	1975
Type	New Religious Movement (Ascended Master Teachings religion)
Founder	Elizabeth Clare Prophet

The Church Universal and Triumphant (CUT) is a New Age religious organization founded in the United States in 1975 by Elizabeth Clare Prophet.^[1] The church is headquartered near Gardiner, Montana, and the church has local congregations in more than 20 countries.

Influenced by Theosophy and I AM, the Church originated as The Summit Lighthouse, established by Mark L. Prophet in 1958. He claimed to be a Messenger who was channeling messages to humanity from the Ascended Masters. In 1961, he married Elizabeth Clare Prophet, whom he announced was also a Messenger. In 1965, they moved to Colorado Springs. In 1975, Mark died and Elizabeth reformulated the organization as the Church Universal and Triumphant. Prophet's predictions became increasingly apocalyptic, claiming nuclear war was imminent. The Church established a community at Royal Teton Ranch in Montana, where they built a series of underground fallout shelters. In March 1990, Church members hid within these shelters in response to Prophet's announcement that a nuclear attack on the U.S. was about to occur. As Prophet began suffering from Alzheimer's disease in the 1990s, there was reorganization in the Church, which saw a significant decline in membership and various groups splintering off.

The goal of the human life, the CUT claimed, was for each individual to spiritually evolve to the point where they would ascend themselves. The CUT taught that the Ascended Masters' plans to perfect human society were being thwarted by "Dark Forces", among whom they included communists and other left-wing activists, the federal government, mainstream religions, and extraterrestrials. A millenarian group, it held that the global build-up of negative karma would result in an apocalyptic catastrophe – something it ultimately predicted would occur in 1990.

Estimates for the number of CUT followers during its heyday range from 10,000 to 50,000. The Church attracted controversy, with critics in the anti-cult movement labelling it a "cult".