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RELIGION♦ Sunday, March 25, nmoGazette TelegraphA3Leaders believed they heard messagesBy 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 — claimed 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 in southern 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 He claimed 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, Prophet met college student Elizabeth Clare Wulf, a Christian Scientist from New Jersey, at a lecture he gave at Boston University. They abandoned their spouses and 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 “La 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, an eclectic blend of Eastern and Western religions, appealed to 1960s flower children, said Anne Trowbridge, a former neighbor and member from1973 to 1983.Another former member, Susan Bryan, was a religion major at Colorado College whenshe joined in 1969. She said she became Elizabeth’s personalhelped 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 ProphetMark 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-. lt;■ abeth claimed to be Marie Antoinette, and later “The Vicar of Christ” and “Cosmic Virgin.”Anne Trowbridge said churchChurch/Members face constraintsGazette TelegraphMark 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 I bow.”But some of the chants wereof a darker tone, she said. Members uttered decrees to “smash, blast, annihilate, dissolve and consume” the “negative energies” of church critics, she said.After Mark Prophet’s death,Elizabeth’s teachings grew in ereasingly apocalyptie.She taught that Summit Lighthouse 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 wairld politics“After Mark died, they got into all sorts of things foodmanufacturing, silver speculation and purchasing guns,” Bryan said.Trowbridge said he helped move the church’s ammunition, survival gear and firearms, including M-16 rifles, into La Tourelle 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 werepurchased 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 mostahave 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 said4ADoug Loneman/Bozeman Daily Chroniclea J||. | - | | n f nl- -in ■'| m------»i«— iin** -
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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