SECT'S CRITICS SAY FAITH IS IN DECLINE.

Byline: The New York Times

Seven years ago, Elizabeth Clare Prophet, leader of the Church Universal and Triumphant sect, issued a warning of an imminent Soviet missile strike that could destroy the United States.

Several thousand followers sold belongings, left their families and crammed into bomb shelters in mountains here at the northern boundary of Yellowstone National Park.

Now, the end-of-the-world scenario may be exacting a toll on the New Age church founded in 1957 by a husband of Prophet, Mark. Critics, including former members, say people who responded to the false alarm have become disillusioned.

``Many people said, `I totally lost it,' and since then they've been leaving the church,'' said Peter Arnone, an opponent of the sect who publishes a newsletter critical of the sect in his apartment in Livingston. He was a member of the church for 22 years before leaving in 1990, after the warning of doom.

His former wife and other family members, from whom he is estranged, remain members. ``You can only keep the nonsense and deception under wraps for so long,'' Arnone said. ``There's too much hypocrisy.''

A spokesman for the church, Murray Steinman, said such criticism was wrong. ``He's been reporting the end of the church for sometime,'' Steinman said. ``But reports of our demise are premature.''

Cracks appearing

Arnone and other critics watch the church leadership for clues that might indicate problems. Now, the critics say, those cracks are appearing. Prophet, whom many followers call Mother, has announced that she and her fourth husband, Edward Francis, the church's executive vice president, are divorcing.

Prophet, 57, recently resigned as president and was succeeded by Gilbert Cleirbaut, a Canadian management consultant who has worked for British Petroleum, Union Carbide and the Province of Alberta. Prophet said she would continue as spiritual leader of the sect.

Plans to build a small town on the group's sprawling sagebrush-studded ranch along the Yellowstone River, approved by state officials in 1993, have not been carried out. The church also recently announced that it was eliminating 150 of the 450 jobs at its headquarters here. Critics call the move layoffs, but the church says it is part of a ``right-sizing'' initiative.

``We're trying to be more efficient and effective in giving our members the teachings they need,'' Steinman said. He would not give membership figures, but said the sect had 230 study groups in 35 countries.

The Church Universal and Triumphant, which also calls itself the Summit Lighthouse, has its roots in theosophy, which proposes to establish direct mystical contact with divine principle through contemplation, revelation and other techniques. Prophet says she receives dictations from a host of spirits called Ascended Masters.

The church's presence here has been controversial since it bought its 12,000-acre Royal Teton Ranch in 1981 from the publisher Malcolm S. Forbes. An array of charges, including widespread accusations of mind control, followed the group from its former home in Calabasas when it moved in 1986.

Former members also contended that the sect stockpiled weapons, which officials denied. In 1989, Francis was found guilty on federal charges that he had illegally purchased $100,000 worth of semiautomatic weapons.

While Francis was in prison, Prophet announced the impending missile attack. As members streamed into the Paradise Valley and stockpiled dried food, ammunition, batteries and medical supplies in the concrete bomb shelters, neighbors feared a replay of the mass suicide of more than 900 followers of the Rev. Jim Jones in Jonestown, Guyana, in 1978. But the alert ended without incident.

Fundamental changes are now appearing, critics contend. ``It appears that enthusiasm has waned,'' the publisher of The Livingston Enterprise, John Sullivan, said. ``It looks like she needed a Soviet threat to keep things whipped up.''

Arnone said he believed that the church had lost membership because of heightened awareness about sects, especially in the aftermath of the standoff at the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas, that ended in a fire that killed more than 80 people.