Clear Creek Abbey
Our Lady of the Annunciation of Clear Creek Abbey or Clear Creek Abbey is a Benedictine Abbey in the Ozark Mountains near Hulbert in Cherokee County, Oklahoma, under the jurisdiction of the Diocese of Tulsa. Origins. The monastery traces its roots to the Abbey of Fontgombault in France. Thirty-one 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, Masses were said in the crypt. Abbey Community. 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. In recent years, a community of lay families has started to gather around the abbey. 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 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. They have a special relationship with the Little Sisters Disciples of the Lamb.