Editing Elizabeth Clare Prophet (section)

== Career ==

In the summer of 1958, Wulf took a co-op job as a camp counselor in a French immersion school in Vermont. She was in charge of a number of high school girls between 15 and 16 years old and her role was to discipline them. She described the experience as frustrating and said she ended up praying to God she might never be put in a position of authority over others.{{sfn|Prophet|2009|p=131}}

[[Image:Ecp-croagh-patrick-1980.jpg|left|thumb|150px|Elizabeth Clare Prophet in front of the chapel at the summit of [[Croagh Patrick]], Ireland, 1980]]

In late 1958 she served an internship at the [[United Nations]] as secretary for [[Leo Rosenthal]], a UN photographer. She claimed that her experience at the UN showed her that many of the ambassadors were not there to solve the world's problems and rather were engaged in power politics and manipulation of the world's economies. When she left after three months, she was depressed, and held the opinion that, to solve the world's problems people would need to change their concept of themselves and God.{{sfn|Prophet|2009|p=131}}

After moving to Boston in 1959, she worked as a secretary for the Christian Science church and ''[[The Christian Science Monitor]]''. According to Prophet that is where she learned much about the publishing operations, organization, and administration of a church on a worldwide scale. This would help her later in running her own church.{{sfn|Prophet|2009|p=18}}

Wulf claimed she had realized she was intended to be a messenger while meditating with Mark L. Prophet at a public meeting in Boston on April 22, 1961. He had come to teach what he called "the Ascended Masters". She later claimed to have received a vision, while meditating with him, that her role in life was to pass on a higher teaching to further humanity's spiritual evolution.{{sfn|Prophet|2009|p=188}} She confided to Mark the next day she was also to be a messenger like him. He accepted her as a student at his mystical school, The Summit Lighthouse. She said she received another vision in June of that year by way of a visitation by the Ascended Master, El Morya, who told her to go to Washington, D.C. to be trained as messenger.{{sfn|Prophet|2009|p=188}}

After she attended her first conference in Washington in July, Mark Prophet returned to Boston in August to help her move to Washington to begin her training under him.{{sfn|Prophet|2009|p=211}} After her first marriage ended in divorce,<ref name="Grimes" /> they married in 1963 and, upon his death on February 26, 1973, Prophet assumed leadership of the organization.{{sfn|Lewis|2009|p=171}} In 1981 the Church Universal and Triumphant purchased the {{convert|12000|acre|km2|adj=on}} Forbes Ranch just outside [[Yellowstone Park]], near [[Gardiner, Montana]].<ref name="ecp2">{{cite web|title=125 Montana Newsmakers: Elizabeth Clare Prophet|url=http://www.greatfallstribune.com/multimedia/125newsmakers3/prophet.html|work=Great Falls Tribune|author=Tribune Staff|access-date=August 26, 2011}}</ref> In 1986, Prophet relocated her headquarters to that property.<ref name="legacy">{{cite news |last1=Flandro |first1=Carly |date=August 28, 2011 |title=The legacy of Elizabeth Clare Prophet |url=http://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/100/newsmakers/the-legacy-of-elizabeth-clare-prophet/article_03a800bc-d139-11e0-ab6a-001cc4c03286.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150826013408/http://www.bozemandailychronicle.com/100/newsmakers/the-legacy-of-elizabeth-clare-prophet/article_03a800bc-d139-11e0-ab6a-001cc4c03286.html |archive-date=August 26, 2015 |access-date=May 31, 2017 |work=[[Bozeman Daily Chronicle]]}}</ref><ref name="leader" />

The beliefs of The Summit Lighthouse included a doctrine called the "Path of Personal Christhood" described as soul's one-on-one relationship with God through Christ consciousness. Prophet believed she shared the gift of the word, both written and spoken. She claimed to be in constant communion with God.

The book ''The Science of the Spoken Word'', as Elizabeth and Mark taught it, was thought to be a gift of sound combined with meditation, prayer and visualization.{{sfn|Prophet|1972|p=1}} They believed that a divine gift (the assertion) of union with God was possible.{{sfn|Prophet|1991|p=9}}

=== Operation Christ Command ===
In 1987, Prophet predicted a first strike by the [[Soviet Union]] if America did not implement a [[missile defense]] program. She established "Operation Christ Command", instructing her followers to move to Montana and build nuclear fallout shelters for the impending nuclear holocaust.<ref name="legacy" /> Adherents started construction of what was called the largest bomb shelter in the United States<ref name="Harnett-Failed-June-2024-52-58" /> at the compound near [[Yellowstone National Park]], on land purchased from magazine publisher [[Malcolm Forbes]].<ref name="LA" /> Non-staff church members built private shelters nearby.<ref name=":0" />

Beginning on March 15, 1990, over three days, hundreds of followers waited for a nuclear attack in various bomb shelters,<ref name="Harnett-Failed-June-2024-52-58" /> communicating with each other by radio. Insiders, however, spread the word that the event might be the real thing. No one knew for sure, and many children believed this could be the end of life as they knew it.<ref name="egan" /> When no nuclear bombs exploded the event was compared to another unsuccessful prediction of the end of the world, the [[Great Disappointment]] of 1844.<ref name="Harnett-Failed-June-2024-52-58" />

=== Post-disappointment ===
Many left the church following this disappointment, but many stayed.<ref name="Harnett-Failed-June-2024-52-58" /> The Prophet's focus took a gradual turn away from nuclear prepping and toward community outreach. Around this same time, the nearly-completed construction was halted by court order when large amounts of stored diesel fuel leaked and contaminated the area.<ref name="egan" />

Along with concerns from neighbors, this drew the attention of [[United States House of Representatives|United States Representative]] [[Pat Williams (Montana politician)|Pat Williams]], who called for federal [[law enforcement]] to investigate. As a result of the ensuing investigation, in November 1989 the [[Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives|Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms]] seized $100,000 worth of firearms and around 120,000 rounds of ammunition among other weapons from the church's compound. ATF agents also arrested two church leaders in connection with the cache of weapons taken.<ref name=":1" />

{{As of|2024}}, the church is headquartered in Montana and has "teaching centers" around the world.<ref name="Harnett-Failed-June-2024-52-58" />