CHURCH FOUNDER ELIZABETH CLARE PROPHET DIES

Elizabeth Clare Prophet, former head of the new age Church Universal and Triumphant, has died, aged 70.
The church, which combined elements of major world religions as well as mysticism, was founded by Prophet who claimed she was guided by “ascended masters” including Jesus, Buddha and St Germain.
It was dismissed by mainstream religions as a cult but at its peak in the 1980s it had about 50,000 members.
Prophet, brought up as a Christian Scientist in New Jersey, was introduced to the theology of ascended masters by her husband, Mark Prophet, who founded a spiritual organisation called Summit Lighthouse.
After his death in 1973 she founded the church, which was based in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and later Pasadena and Calabasas, California.
It gained notoriety in the 1980s when Prophet, known as “Guru Ma” to her followers, moved it to a remote Montana ranch with an underground bomb shelter and began stockpiling weapons and supplies in preparation for a nuclear attack by the Soviet Union.
About 2,000 of her followers joined her on the 12,000 acre property, which she bought from publishing magnate Malcolm Forbes.
Prophet developed Alzheimers Disease in the late 1990s and church leadership passed to two presidents and a board of directors.
She died at her flat in Bozeman, Montana.
She is survived by five children, Erin, Moira, Tatiana, Sean and Seth