The Church Universal and Triumphant is a multimillion-dollar religious, publishing and ranching outfit, but it has been pulling in its financial horns lately.
The church has scaled back its ranching operations and temporarily closed its Corwin Springs restaurant.It has sold more than 1,200 acres in the Tobacco Root mountains; the building that houses its printing presses; the largest of three presses; and some of its regional study centers.
Church spokesman Murray Steinman said the cutbacks have been under way for some time, but he did not know why. The church is looking to buy a replacement press, he added.
Some individual church members also are liquidating.
"When the world becomes more unstable, you try to consolidate as much as you can . . .," said Fred Morsell, citing church leader Elizabeth Clare Prophet's message that March and April are volatile months for world peace.
A former church member, Constance Wagner of Belgrade, said probably only Prophet and other top church officials know why CUT is selling so much of its properties.
"They don't tell anyone what their plans are," she said.
Aside from the church's hierarchy, no one seems to know exactly what the church owns and operates, how many members it has, what its net income is or what its long-term plans are, but it appears that many of its business ventures are geared toward capitalizing on the apocalypse, which is part of the church's teachings.
The church was founded in 1958, and estimates on worldwide membership range from 30,000 to 150,000.
The National Charities Information Bureau in Washington, D.C., shows CUT has 140 regional groups, but members here say many have been closed.
Montana secretary of state records show that Prophet and her husband, Edward L. Francis, have registered six tightly held family corporations to operate mostly in Gallatin, Park and Yellowstone counties. She is listed as president for each, and most list Francis as vice president, secretary and treasurer. A couple include two of Prophet's children, Sean and Erin, as directors.
Lanello Reserve, a California corporation, was registered here three years ago as a for-profit distributing business. It reported gross receipts of $1 million in 1988 and property holdings worth $78,330, state records show. The company's board of directors are Francis, Elizabeth, Sean and Erin Prophet. It has authorized 500,000 shares of stock with 207,500 issued.
Lanello lists only one assumed business name, LR Distributors, which was licensed last April. The company was founded to sell gold coins and silver bullion, according to reports in a Los Angeles newspaper.
The Church Universal and Triumphant was registered as a Montana corporation in 1975 and shows nearly a dozen assumed business names, including the Community of Glastonbury. County records show the church bought the 4,000 acres for the subdivision near Emigrant in 1982, divided it into parcels and sold them to church members for $15,000 to $50,000 per lot.
Glastonbury covenants require homeowners to have access to bomb shelters. The warranty deeds require the property and improvements to be turned back over to the church if the buyer ever decides to sell.
Other assumed business names include Kali Productions; Keepers of the Flame Fraternity, an introductory church membership club; Royal Teton Engineering, which offers design and engineering services for bomb shelter construction; Summit University Press, a publishing company described by the church as one of its main money makers; Chamuel Records; Golden Age Village, a church mobile-home park; the Ranch Kitchen, a Corwin Springs restaurant; Cinnabar Campground and the Royal Teton Ranch, which used church labor at $75 to $150 a month to produce food for the church restaurant and other church businesses.
Most of these assumed business names were listed under Royal Teton Ltd. after the church bought publisher Malcolm Forbes' ranch in 1981 for a reported $7.7 million. Royal Teton Ltd. was dissolved in 1986 and most of its assumed businesses names were transferred to the Church Universal and Triumphant Inc., state records show.
Last fall church officials did not renew business licenses for Paradise Valley Farm Supply or Paradise Valley Supply, but in December added another business name, Inner Retreat, which refers to the massive bomb shelter the church is building up Mol Heron Creek.
Electrical wiring for that 756-bed shelter cost an estimated $275,000, the church's electrical permit shows. Electrical wiring typically amounts to about 10 percent of building costs, so the shelter may cost around $3 million. The Park County appraiser has visited the shelter and concurs with that estimate.
Summit Lighthouse Inc. was registered in Montana in 1981. It is the church's original name.