House for a Thousand Years

It gives me a kind of perfect joy to announce the construction of a new residence hall at Clear Creek, a building we call “the Chapter House.” This large building will include essential rooms for the life of the monastery, including the Chapter Room, the Sacristy, the Infirmary, and more than 30 cells. This much needed part of the monastery has been a long time coming. Construction is to last for 16 months, beginning in the middle of May.

If “a picture is worth a thousand words,” then the graphic art (spanning the inside two pages) of our architect, Mr. William Heyer, and his team, will give you an excellent idea of the scope and beauty of this construction project—and much to talk about. If you could see the conditions in which about twenty of our monks live at this moment, you would understand even better the reasons for this project. It is not merely a matter of adding more space for comfort. The edifice will allow us, not only to provide appropriate housing for much of our community, but also to continue receiving monastic vocations, the young men that are already knocking at our door.

Although I hesitate to quote figures relating to the financial aspect of this construction project (some find this unworthy of religious), a number of people have asked me to let our friends know what the real price is for this building. So this time we are going to lay before you the cost and the challenge we face in terms of the funds we need to raise. The basic spread is between the amount of money currently in our construction fund, which is about $8,400,000, and the price of this construction project, which comes to something like $12,700,000. Although in the normal course of things we would receive a fair portion of the necessary funds, the difference, $4,300,000, is nevertheless a very large amount of money for us to find during that period of 16 months. There is definitely a great challenge to be met with your help.

The past twenty years have taught us how generous are friends are in terms of their support, both spiritual and material. This is why we now move forward with great confidence, especially during this special year dedicated to Saint Joseph, in our great effort to build something beautiful for God, a monastery for a millennium.

br. Philip Anderson, Abbot of Our Lady of Clear Creek

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Clear Creek Abbey Construction Timeline

Phase 1
	Timeline: 2002-2004, 2006-2007 Components: The Crypt of the Church (West) Residence Hall(housing 41 monks, 9 guests) Porter’s Lodge (with bookstore,and housing for 2 monks)
Phase 2
	Timeline: 2010-2012 Components: Partial construction of the Church’s walls, with a temporary roof Crypt Brickwork
Phase 3
	Timeline: 2016-2017 Components: Final construction of the Church’s Apse/Chevet Partial construction of the Church’s transepts
Phase 4
	Projected: 2021-2022 Component: (East) Residence Hall, with cells to house 33 monks, including a chapter room and sacristy

Some of the temporary modules that have been used to house monks for several years now. Once the East Residence Hall is completed, 20 monks will be able to move out of these sheds and into the Residence Hall.

A completed monk cell in our West Residence Hall.

A monk breaks ground for the new East Residence Hall.

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