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♦ Sunday, March 25,1990Gazette TelegraphChurch/Members face constraintson construction of bomb sheltersFrom A1state help this week to inspect, the remainder.Meanwhile, church members have no plans to inhabit the underground shelters, according to church spokesman Murray Steinman, even though at the height of the supply stockpiling frenzy a little more than a week ago the church conducted a midnight drill.The church itself is putting final touches on a high-tech, largely computer-operated bomb shelter that houses 756 staff members and their families and includes an underground barn. At the same time, the church appears to be liquidating many of its assets.A Livingston building that housed Summit Lighthouse, the church’s publishing operation, was sold two weeks ago; one of the printing presses was sold to a Chicago broker; about 1,200 acres of timberland owned by the church in a nearby county was sold earlier this year; a church restaurant was closed about a month ago; and the church has ceased most of its massive ranching operations.But church leaders are tight-lipped about the significance of these events.‘ You'll just have to draw whatever conclusions you want,” Steinman said.To the north of the church’s shelter and linked by radio contact, church members worked around the clock this week finishing bomb shelters ranging in size from single-family units to ones that hold 200-plus.Bunk space, complete with a seven-month to seven-year food supply, is advertised for $3,000 to $10,000 in a local monthly newspaper published by church members.“You’ve got everything from the Super 8 style to some as fancy as the Ritz,” said A1 Lamke, a state electrical inspectorMark Prophet moved Church Universal and Triumphant, then known as Summit Lighthouse, to a mansion at 60 Broadmoor Ave. in 1966. The church was located a block from The Broadmoor hotel.members sought oneness with God through the daily practice of “decreeing,” a form of chant ing, using phrases such as “I am the violet flame, to light alone 1 bow.”But some of the chants were of a darker tone, she said. Members uttered decrees to “smash,blast, annihilate, dissolve and consume” the “negative energies” of church critics, she saidAfter Mark Prophet’s death,Elizabeth’s teachings grew increasingly apocalypt ie.She taught that SummitLighthouse had a mission to save God’s chosen nation, America, from communism, banks and what she called the secret “Illuminati,” which she believed was conspiring to control world politics“After Mark died, they got into all sorts of things food manufacturing, silver speeula-church member Fred MorsellLeaders believed they heardV * •-. ; .* v . tc.. “t i. . -il I; *1 » . . V.'1 *•' v1 ■' .1 v , -1' ' ‘ si. rSvfR * I .. ■ i . s ■’ ' H;— V ' ’ . P ' r. *.. - .*■ * ■. . J* . ■ 1 .. '' ■ ‘^, , r V .ly . ■ J e**. fj • ■ •' ..»v, . V V J * t*— - 1 . *' V' /.r ' * C1 \ ' I \ y .. - I ' ’ ■ .. ■ tMtion and purchasing guns,” Bryan said.Trowbridge said he helped move the church’s ammunition, survival gear and firearms, including M-16 rifles, into LaTourelle in 1974. In 1979, he said he drove a shipment of weapons between church properties in California and Idaho.But Murray Steinman, spokesman for the Church Universal and Triumphant in Montana, said any weapons were purchased privatelyIn 1976 Summit Lighthouseleaders formed the Church Universal and Triumphant and moved to Pasadena, Calif.The move to Montana began in 1981Until the early 1980s, La Tourelle remained home for some church members. The church sold La Tourelle in 1984.Only a few church members remain in Colorado Springs, Steinman said, because mostShave moved to Montana.The church looks back fondly on its years in Colorado Springs, according to Steinman, who lived at La Tourelle from 1972 to 1975, because foundations for many of its most important teachings were laid during its years here.“It was a wonderfully creative time,” he said.Doug loneman/Bozeman Daily Chronicle , _ ^ . ... .. ■ -■ ■- ^ HMflnmir - «■£: ■«■■ nil —■X*1”-’have not gone bananas.When you are on the path of spiritual awareness, the only way to pursue it is by being alive.”she joined in 1969 She said she became Elizabeth’s personal aidtband helped care for the Prophets’ children, Sean, Erin, Moira and Tatiana.Bryan, who left the church in 1976, said one of her duties was to take dictation from Elizabeth about the messages she Claimed to have received from, among others, Jesus, Mohammed. Buddha, Pope John XXIII, El Morya, St. Germain, and her late husband.While the church was headquartered in Colorado Springs, the lives of its members revolved around Mark and Elizabeth Prophet.Mark Prophet “was gregarious, fun, had tons of energy and a booming voice, said Don Trowbridge, who now lives with his wife Anne in Novato, Calif.But, say former members, the Prophets had volatile tempers and could be imperious. They established their authority, in part, on claims of royal lineage, according to Don Trowbridge. Mark Prophet claimed Louis XIV as an ancestor, and Eliza-ri VS1 '?beth claimed to be Marie Antoinette, and later “The Vicar of Christ” and “Cosmic Virgin.”Anne Trowbridge said churchNone of this is pleasant for Morsell.“There is a sense of sadness among us that we have to be doing this at all. What a damn waste.. . . But the world situation is so unstable,” said the even-keeled Morsell, pointing to unrest in Lithuania and the 1989 massacre in China’s Tiananmen Square as examples. Glasnost is a smoke screen, he said.Morsell and other church members are preparing for the worst, which they believe could include a nuclear attack.Morsell, a former Army lieutenant , believesthe devastation of a nuclear attack has been “totally exaggerated and the truth is being suppressed.Citing a book by Cresson Kearney, “NuclearWar Survival Skill, about the effects of a nuclear blast, he added, “The radiation dissipates very fast. The third or fourth day you can be outside for 30 minutes. In a week, one hour “Like other church members, Morsell believes there would be an opportunity to rebuild and continue his spiritual questChurch members believe they will be reincar-By Tom MortonReligion WriterThe Church Universal and Triumphant spent its formative years in Colorado Springs.From their headquarters in an elegant Broadmoor mansion, Mark and Elizabeth Clare Prophet — founders of the new- age Summit Lighthouse, the church’s original name — c laimed they received messages from a pantheon of divinities. They operated schools and a publishing house, and gave lectures about achieving oneness with God.Though the church thrived inColorado Springs, Elizabeth Clare Prophet moved it, first to California in 1976, three years after her husband’s death, and then to the Paradise Valley insouthern Montana, where it now draws thousands of members seeking shelter from the possibility of nuclear war.The present apocalyptic fervor, however, had much quieterbeginnings.Mark Lyle Prophet was bornin Wisconsin in 1918 Heclaimed that at age 18 he began receiving revelations from a figure he called El Morya of the Great White Brotherhood of Ascended Masters.He served in the Army Air Forces in World War II, and was stationed for a time in Colorado Springs.Prophet said that, acting on instructions from El Morya, he founded the Summit Lighthouse in Washington, D.C., in 1958. Three years later, Prophetmet college student ElizabethClare Wulf, a Christian Scientist from New Jersey, at a lecture he gave at Boston University.They abandoned their spousesand married in 1962 as “twin flames” to lead the ministry.Summit Lighthouse bought a red brick mansion at 60 Broadmoor Ave. for $75,000 in January 1966, and nicknamed it Tourelle,” French for “turret.”“They were pretty good neighbors until they grew and the music got loud,” says Broadmoor resident Wendell Lowry.The Prophets’ doctrine, aneclectic blend of Eastern and Western religions, appealed to1960s flower children, saidAnne Trowbridge, a former neighbor and member from1973 to 1983.Another former member, Susan Bryan, was a religion major at Colorado College whenA Park County, Mont.,.Universal and Triumphant bomb shelter near Li-nated repeatedly until they balance their karmas and they achieve their dharmas, or their purpose and duty in life.“My dharma is that of performing,” Morsell said. “I can’t tell when it will be done” but standing by and lett ing an unnatural act interfere .is unacceptable, he believes.The* county and the media hounding church members about something so small as septic sys-Phillips is a former Gazette Telegraph reporter nowworking in Bozeman, Mont.County Commissioner Jim Hunt waits outside the shelter.terns violations at such a critical time violates- •rrcvthe principles of the right to privacy and freedom of religion, Morsell said.“I believe this,” he said of his faith. “I am not asking anyone else to believe it. . . . You embody these teachings or you don’t.”
Newspaper Details
Colorado Springs Gazette Telegraph
Colorado Springs, Colorado, US
Sun, Mar 25, 1990
Page 3
Full Page
Clipped by
Montana H.
MT, USA 18 Sep 2020
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