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="NYT">{{Cite news |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/17/us/17prophet.html |title=Elizabeth Prophet, 70, Church Founder, Is Dead  |newspaper=The New York Times |date=October 17, 2009 |access-date=March 7, 2018|last1=Grimes |first1=William }}</ref> 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" /><ref name="leader" />

===Teachings===
The dogma of The Summit Lighthouse included a doctrine called the Path of Personal Christhood, or the way of the 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 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 Ascension) of union with God was possible.{{sfn|Prophet|1991|p=9}}

====Preparation for nuclear holocaust====
In 1987, Prophet predicted a first strike by the Soviet Union if America did not implement a missile defense program. She began to admonish her followers to move to Montana and build nuclear fallout shelters for the impending nuclear holocaust.<ref>SU Press dictations</ref><ref name="legacy"/>  Adherents started construction of what was called the largest bomb shelter in the U.S.<ref name=Harnett-Failed-June-2024/> at the church compound in [[Corwin Springs, Montana]]<ref name="egan">{{cite news|last1=Egan|first1=Timothy|title=Guru's Bomb Shelter Hits Legal Snag|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1990/04/24/us/guru-s-bomb-shelter-hits-legal-snag.html|access-date=May 31, 2017|work=The New York Times|date=April 24, 1990}}</ref> on land purchased from magazine publisher [[Malcolm Forbes]].<ref name="LA"/> Church members not on the staff built private shelters nearby. 

Starting on 15 March 1990, over three days, "hundreds" of followers waited for a nuclear attack in various bomb shelters,<ref name=Harnett-Failed-June-2024>{{cite magazine | title=The Prophet Who Failed |first=Emily |last=Harnett |magazine=Harper's|date=June 2024 |page=50 |url=https://harpers.org/archive/2024/06/the-prophet-who-wasnt-after-the-apocalypse-that-failed-emily-harnett/ |access-date=30 July 2024 }}</ref> 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/> 

====Post-disappointment====
Many left the church following this disappointment, but many stayed.<ref name=Harnett-Failed-June-2024-52-58>{{cite magazine | title=The Prophet Who Failed |first=Emily |last=Harnett |magazine=Harper's|date=June 2024 |page=52, 58 |url=https://harpers.org/archive/2024/06/the-prophet-who-wasnt-after-the-apocalypse-that-failed-emily-harnett/ |access-date=30 July 2024 }}</ref> 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"/>

As of 2024 the church is headquartered in Montana and has "teaching centers" around the world.<ref name=Harnett-Failed-June-2024-51>{{cite magazine |title=The Prophet Who Failed |first=Emily |last=Harnett |magazine=Harper's|date=June 2024 |page=51 |url=https://harpers.org/archive/2024/06/the-prophet-who-wasnt-after-the-apocalypse-that-failed-emily-harnett/ |access-date=30 July 2024 }}</ref>