28 11-19-88 09:43 pps Ex-Ecclesia members lament founder's fall. PORTLAND, Ore. (UPI)

   28  11-19-88  09:43  pps  Ex-Ecclesia members lament founder's
fall.

   PORTLAND, Ore. (UPI) _ A former Ecclesia Athletic  Association
member  who  worked closely with leader Eldridge Broussard Jr. in
Los Angeles and helped bring the group to Oregon says he  watched
Broussard  evolve  from  a  charismatic  Christian  minister to a
power-hungry church leader.

   Another former insider who still has close  ties  to  Ecclesia
says  that  because  of  Broussard's domination of the group, his
followers no longer are capable of making their own decisions.

   The Oregonian newspaper interviewed the  two  former  members,
Bruce Manning  and  his ex-wife, Sherri Nicholson.  The newspaper
published interviews Sunday with the pair, saying  they  "may  be
the  only  insiders with details of Ecclesia's activities who are
willing to speak candidly."

   Current Ecclesia members, including Broussard, have refused to
answer specific questions about the nature of the group,  how  it
operated, its daily regimen or its financial situtation.

   The  group  entered  the  national  spotlight  last month when
Broussard's 8-year-old daughter, Dayna, was beaten to  death  and
four Ecclesia  members  were  accused of manslaughter.  The state
took 53 children housed at Ecclesia's farmhouse near Sandy,  east
of  Portland,  into  protective custody and alleged they had been
victims of systematic beatings.

   Manning and Nicholson said a shift in the character of the man
they once idolized began  about  11  years  ago,  when  Broussard
failed to raise an infant from the dead after praying and weeping
all day long on her grave.

   Those  who  knew  him  best  said  the experience clearly left
Broussard's faith shaken.  But out of that  disillusionment  rose
an even stronger faith _ in himself.  By 1987, his single-tracked
conviction  in  his  own  leadership  had  created  the  man  his
followers call "Big El" _ the name "El" in Old  Testament  Hebrew
means "the mighty one," or God.

   "He  was  pursuing  power,  prestige  and the limelight," said
Manning, a Portlander and former Ecclesia member  who  last  year
helped  bring  the  group  to Oregon, where it set up communes in
Sandy and Clackamas to grow  produce  and  train  children  in  a
rigorous athletic regimen.

   Manning  said  he firmly believes Broussard is responsible for
all that has happened in the lives of  his  followers,  including
his daughter's death.

   "If  he wants to hold the reins as tight as he does, then he'd
better take responsibility," Manning said.

   Nicholson, of Gresham, once called Ecclesia "the most exciting
thing in my life," but she also has grown disillusioned.

   "Something has happened, and something has changed," she said.
"I feel sorry.  I feel sad.  I feel some confusion."

   The couple had been heavily involved in  Ecclesia  before  the
breakup.   Manning  remodeled  a  bakery  that became Broussard's
Watts Christian Center.  Nicholson  instructed  children  at  the
center in biblical teachings and athletic regimen.

   And  they set up an Ecclesia school in their Gresham home last
year, introducing the group to a Hood  River  farmer  who  helped
supply them with apples, chickens, beef and potatoes.

   "The  man  I  knew  and the man you see these days are not the
same person," Manning said.

   Last fall, Manning left the group.  Then, after  14  years  of
marriage, the  Mannings  were divorced.  Nicholson left the group
at the end of the year, wanting more control over  her  life  and
children than Broussard would allow.

	Manning  said he concluded  the  group  had  become  a church,
operated by a small core  of  members  under  Broussard's  almost
total control.

   Nicholson is  not  so  quick to use the word "cult."  She says
Ecclesia members  have  come  to  believe  it  is  safer  to  let
Broussard  make  all  their  decisions,  but they never have been
pressured to stay in the group, and those who have left have  not
been intimidated.

   Broussard  bristles  at  comparisons  with  cult  leaders, but
Manning said Broussard "has done more to  perpetrate  that  title
than the newspapers have done ...  What else would you call him?"

   Manning said no property ever was listed in Broussard's name.

   "El owns no cars, no land, nothing," he said. "He just owns 70
people and their kids."