Other names Clear Creek Abbey Established 1999 Phone +1 918-772-2454 | Order Benedictine Diocese Tulsa | |
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Mother house Abbey of Our Lady of the Assumption Dedicated to Our Lady of the Annunciation Address 5804 W Monastery Rd, Hulbert, OK 74441, USA Similar Clear Creek Sisters, Holy Cross Catholic Church, Institute for Excellence in Writing, Sequoyah State Park, St Brigid Catholic Church | ||
Our Lady of the Annunciation of Clear Creek Abbey or Clear Creek Abbey is a Benedictine Abbey in the Ozark Mountains near Hulbert, Oklahoma within the Diocese of Tulsa.
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OriginsEdit
The monastery traces its roots to the Abbey of Fontgombault in France. 31 American Catholic men, seeking to live the full Benedictine life, went to Abbey of Our Lady of the Assumption at Fontgombault, France, which is a monastery of the Solesmes Congregation. In 1999, seven of these men, now monks from Fontgombault, along with six other monks from Canada and France, established a community near Hulbert, Oklahoma at the invitation of Bishop Edward James Slattery. Clear Creek is the second monastery of the Solesmes Congregation established in the United States; the first is a house of nuns at Westfield, Vermont. The monastery is being built in phases, and until the church was finished, services were held in the crypt.
Abbey CommunityEdit
In February 2010, Clear Creek Abbey gained abbatial status. It uses the 1962 Roman Missal. The choir is well known for its Gregorian chant. Its first abbot, as of 2010, is Dom Philip Anderson, who had been the prior since the monastery's founding. He has said, "We just follow the old monastic life. We pray, worship and do manual labor and give counseling to people... There's a whole culture war going on and a series of disappointments with the Catholic Church in America. People look to this monastery as a new beginning, as a new element that has a solid backing in a long tradition of monastic life."
Clear Creek is currently actively recruiting to its full capacity of 60-70 monks. As of 2003, there were 22 monks, while by 2013, there were over 40. The community currently numbers 50 monks.
The monastery is also actively fundraising, having raised $4 million (as of 2003) of a target of $32 million. After a large gift was received in 2009, construction on the church moved forward in 2011. The west façade, the nave, and the transept were raised to half their intended height. A roof was put over this new structure, allowing it to be used already as a church. In 2013 the schematic architectural plans for the remaining buildings were completed. A contract for the construction of the church’s eastern portion, or chevet, was signed on March 10, 2016.