Travel these days is nearly continuous for the Thebaid Project, for which I am very thankful! And I am greatly anticipating my first pilgrimage to Holy Archangel Michael and All Angels Skete, in Weatherby, Missouri, September 25-28. 

From the Skete’s website, you can get a real sense of their life and growth:

We are two communities serving God as one, Holy Archangel Michael and All Angels Skete (led by Hieromonk Alexii) and St. Xenia Sisterhood (led by Abbess Brigid). The brotherhood has two monks and one novice; and the sisterhood has three nuns and one novice.
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Thanks to the mercies of our Kind Creator and Savior, Jesus Christ, the prayers and sacrificial gifts of many, we acquired a property that included a total of 80-acres, with 15-acres of farmable pasture, 65-acres of forest, trails, and ponds, and 7 well-built structures….

This video from three years ago gives a good walking tour of the main building and some of the grounds, but much work has been done since then:

Continued from the Skete website:

At the monastery, we have:

• Daily cycle of Church Services, praying for benefactors and many in need
• St. Gabriel Orthodox Cemetery on one acre of monastery land with four buried here.
• Pilgrims visiting each month (mostly from the Greater Kansas City area, but others from Des Moines, Omaha, Lincoln, St. Louis, Denver, Idaho, Alaska, and as far away as Eritrea, Ethiopia, Croatia, Serbia, Ukraine, and Russia).
• Retreats from parish groups.
• Prayer walks though the trails
• Prayer ropes, and wooden prayer beads made from monastery trees (made by the sisters)
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Additionally, with the help of volunteers and some contract labor, we have:

• Added a new barn/shed, and a new greenhouse
• Cleared and prepared a two-acre vineyard (Vines will be planted in May!)
• Started a new beehive
• Planted ancient emmer wheat (supposedly gluten intolerant diets are able to eat it!)
• Discovered wonderful morel mushrooms!

Visit Holy Archangel Michael and All Angels Skete website for more videos and photos, and catch up on the news of their life.

I expect to be able to post photos from Holy Archangel Michael the first week of October. In the meantime, watch for Part 2 of the Missouri Trip, and perhaps even more announcements soon…