New Age spiritual leader’s funeral planned

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By The Associated Press

Story Published: Nov 5, 2009 at 3:46 PM MST

Story Updated: Nov 5, 2009 at 3:46 PM MST

BOZEMAN - As many as 1,000 followers of a New Age spiritual leader and doomsday prophet are expected for her memorial service this weekend at the sprawling Montana ranch she used as a headquarters.

Elizabeth Clare Prophet, 70, died last month in Bozeman after a decade-long decline caused by Alzheimer's disease. The church she founded still maintains a network of bomb shelters in a mountainside north of Yellowstone National Park, "insurance," its leaders say, against possible dark days ahead.

Yet it's uncertain whether the spiritual movement Prophet embodied will prove as lasting as the 750-person shelters. Robert Balch, a University of Montana sociologist who specializes in unconventional religions, says that with no clear successor, Prophet's death could throw the church into a "tailspin" that would be difficult to overcome.

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