Clear Creek Abbey

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Clear Creek Abbey

The Abbey of Our Lady of the Annunciation in Clear Creek is an abbey of Benedictine Congregation of Solesmes in Hulbert , Oklahoma , USA .

history

In the early 1970s, students at the University of Kansas , including several people who had converted to Catholicism , were interested in medieval Benedictine monasteries for socio-political and religious reasons and wanted such institutions to be founded in the USA as well. A group of 31 male, white Americans visited in 1972 for a long time the altritualistische Benedictine - Abbey Fontgombault in France , and about a dozen of them finally went in there. In the 1990s, these monks returned with the permission of the abbey and at the invitation of the bishopEdward J. Slattery returned to their homeland and in 1999, together with some French and Canadian confreres, founded the monastery Our Lady of Clear Creek in eastern Oklahoma as a dependent priory of Fontgombault.

As in the French mother monastery, whose customs the Americans copied, Holy Mass is celebrated in the old custom and the Office is prayed in the form that was usual before the liturgical reform of the Second Vatican Council . This includes that the choir prayer with all the hearing in its complete form at the traditional times, i.e. H. seven times a day and once a night. The traditional Benedictine lifestyle of the monks also includes strict observance of the Benedictine Rule, including the strict requirement of silence . The monastery does not pursue any apostolic activities , but is fully dedicated to prayer and physical work, especially in agriculture , in accordance with the Benedictine motto Ora et labora . As usual in monasteries before the reform of religious life in the wake of the Second Vatican Council, there are two classes of monks in Clear Creek, choir monks (priest monks) and conversers (lay brothers who pray less, are not allowed to study and work more for it).

After the monastery was founded, the monks initially lived on a ranch on the monastery grounds that had been converted for their needs . They used the wood they had cut themselves from the surrounding forests for renovations and extensions. The construction of the monastery, planned on behalf of the monks by the architect Thomas Gordon Smith of the University of Notre Dame, in a neoclassical style based on neo-Romanesque models, for which construction costs are estimated at 24 million dollars, began in 2003. Completed were in 2010 a multi-storey residential wing and the crypt of the future monumental abbey basilica. The crypt, where the monks have been celebrating their prayer times and services ever since, was inaugurated by Bishop Slattery in 2008. Thanks to a large donation from 2009, the west facade and the main nave of the church could be erected up to half of the planned height by 2011. The financing for the further construction of the eastern section of the abbey church was secured in 2016.

On February 11, 2010, the monastery, which is located in the Diocese of Tulsa , received the canonical status of an abbey. The first abbot was Philip Anderson OSB , who had directed the monastery as prior since it was founded. He regards the strictly contemplative life in his monastery, combined with the monastic self-sufficiency economy and Gregorian chant , as an attractive offer for discerning young men who uncompromisingly want to realize a radical religious ideal, and sees himself confirmed by the growth of his community. The convent began in 1999 with 9 monks and 4 conversations, had 33 members in 2010 and a total of 44 in 2014, who came to the monastery in Oklahoma from all over the Anglo-Saxon world. The plan is to create enough space for a convent of around 60 monks when the monastery is completed.

Since around the middle of the 2010s, traditionalist families who have left the monastery have been settling in the wasteland around the monastery, who want to escape what they consider to be a decadent American everyday culture and seek spiritual ties to the traditional Benedictine monks. In the secluded area - the nearest supermarket in Tahlequah can be reached from Clear Creek in less than an hour by car via simple country roads - they try to make a living from farming as a self-sufficient provider. The main attraction for these settlers is the Latin mass of the fathers in the pre-conciliar rite and the desire to be able to raise their children in a closed, traditional Catholic environment far away from harmful social influences. Abbot Philip explicitly encourages people to strive for demarcation: “ If we wish to save the souls of our children, we have to make some decisions ” ( Philip Anderson OSB , German : “ If we want to save the souls of our children, we have to make certain decisions to meet").

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. Jump up ↑ Article: Clear Creek Elevated to Abbey February 22, 2010 on Medal, accessed online February 22, 2010
  2. ↑ Rod Dreher: The Benedict Option In Clear Creek. In: The American Conservative , February 17, 2017, accessed August 16, 2020.
  3. ^ Ian Lovett: Wary of Modern Society, Some Christians Choose a Life Apart. In: The Wall Street Journal , February 17, 2017, accessed August 16, 2020.

Coordinates: 36 ° 2 ′ 1.9 ″  N , 95 ° 11 ′ 45 ″  W.