Church Universal and Triumphant
Official logo
|
|
| Formation | 1975 |
|---|---|
| Type | New Religious Movement (Ascended Master Teachings religion) |
|
Founder
|
Elizabeth Clare Prophet |
Church Universal and Triumphant (CUT) is an international New Age religious organization founded in 1975 by Elizabeth Clare Prophet. It is an outgrowth (and is now the corporate parent) of The Summit Lighthouse, founded in 1958 by Prophet's husband, Mark L. Prophet. Its beliefs reflect features of the traditions of Theosophy and New Thought. The church's headquarters is located near Gardiner, Montana, and the church has local congregations in more than 20 countries.
The Catholic Church originated the phrase "Church Triumphant" to refer to Christians in Heaven. The name "Church Universal and Triumphant" was announced by Elizabeth Clare Prophet on July 2, 1973, in a message from the ascended master Portia. In 1895, Mary Baker Eddy used the terms "universal" and "triumphant" in her first Church Manual as referring to the church she founded. In the 1903 edition of this work, she capitalized these terms, referring to her church as the "Church Universal and Triumphant". In 1919 Alice A. Bailey, in what some students of esotericism view as a reference to the future organization, prophesied that the religion of the New Age would appear by the end of the 20th century and that it would be called the Church Universal. However Bailey's phrase was "Church Universal," rather than "Church Universal and Triumphant," and on page 152 of Bailey's "A Treatise on White Magic," she indicated that her "Church Universal" was not a church or conventional organization at all but a subjectivity or mystical entity: "It is that inner group of lovers of God, the intellectual mystics, the knowers of reality who belong to no one religion or organization, but who regard themselves as members of the Church universal and as 'members one of another.'"
The church has never released membership numbers, and its total affiliation is difficult to estimate due to the decentralized, international structure. One author has estimated that the membership peaked at about 10,000 active participants, but sharply declined following a series of crises and controversies in the early to mid-1990s. However, this author seems to have overlooked growth in international membership. An article in People magazine in 1985 claimed that Elizabeth Clare Prophet estimated that church members numbered between 75,000 and 150,000.J. Gordon Melton, a leading authority on new religions in the United States, estimated membership at between 30,000 and 50,000, including international members, in 1993.
...
Wikipedia