About Us
Land Acknowledgement
Stories of Union
Our Calling
Our Leadership
We Want to Hear From You
Land Acknowledgement
The Sacred Waters Center would like to acknowledge that our campus is standing on the unceded land of the first people of this area, the Twana-Skokomish Tribe, past and present. As a ministry of the Episcopal Church, we confess that our church has contributed to, or was complicit in, the process of colonization of the Indigenous peoples of the Western Hemisphere. While those of us alive today are not responsible for what our ancestors did in the past, we are responsible for what we do today, knowing that the colonization process is still in place, and the effects of it are still felt by Indigenous people.
What is now known as the Skokomish Tribe actually was primarily composed of Twana Indians, a Salishan people whose aboriginal territory encompassed the Hood Canal drainage basin in western Washington State. The tribe’s first recorded direct contact with European culture came in 1792 and resulted in a devastating smallpox epidemic that took the lives of many. There were nine Twana communities, the largest being known as the Skokomish, or “big river people.” The Twana subsisted on hunting, fishing and gathering activities, practicing a nomadic life-style during warmer weather and resettling at permanent sites during the winter. Twana descendants live on the Skokomish Reservation, and all have become known as the Skokomish Tribe.
Sacred Waters is specifically located on ancestral hunting & fishing land between "brush hanging over" cove and "view across the canal" in Twana dialect. We honor with gratitude Indigenous people for their resilience, faithfulness, wisdom, and respect for the Earth and all of creation, which we seek to emulate. We invite our guests to join us in nurturing a just relationship with Indigenous tribal people, particularly our neighbors, the Skokomish Indian Tribe, and are called to stand with them in their myriad struggles to recover from the effects of genocide and enforced assimilation into the dominant society.
Stories of Union
Dawn Hanson Smart (https://dawnsmartllc.weebly.com/) is the author of numerous books, including Untangled Intertwined, Crossing Time in Pine Creek, House of Solace, and Path to Portugal. She currently lives and writes on Hood Canal in Washington State, where she grew up, and is contributing local stories for Sacred Waters.
We return to the story of McReavy House and its resurrection…
The restoration of the house has been accomplished through the labor of a group of committed volunteers, the kind support of donors, and grants from the Mason County Historic Preservation Commission. It has been a HUGE undertaking, and thanks go out for the hands-on work of Larry and Mary De Forrest, Quentin Christie, Rick Endicott, Gilbert Leggett, Karen Pentony, John Sundsten, Kerry Myers, Margaret Buechel, Dave Kamin, Joe Fasio, me, and volunteers from Hood Canal Communication and Alderbrook. But most of all, Jayni Kamin.
It is Jayni I’m writing about today. She has been at the helm of this massive effort to bring McReavy House back to life as the chair of the nonprofit board since 2015. She will tell you, “It’s because I love old houses. I always have.”
But let’s start at the beginning…
Jayni grew up in the Skokomish Valley, a fifth-generation member of the Hunter family. She has fond early memories of Union. Waterskiing behind her grandfather’s oyster boat (I did the same). Walking to Ball’s Grocery for penny candy and looking up at the ivy-covered McReavy Mansion and thinking the Addams family lived there. She went to high school in Shelton. She was the Mason County Rodeo Queen in 1973. Loved horses! Rode them all over the hills and by the river in the Valley. When she was fifteen, she and a friend rode from there to Deckerville, up Canyon River, to Camp Grisdale, across the Wynochee Dam, to Donkey Creek, and Copalis to Ocean Shores. Four days of hard riding, three nights of camping. WOW!
From 2002 to 2006, Jayni was a County Commissioner. When she became the chair, she committed to celebrating Mason County and helped launch the Historic Preservation Committee. McReavy House became the first residence listed as a historical site in the county. After it became a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, she joined the board.
About this time, she also became a member of Love in the Name of Christ, mobilizing local churches “to transform lives and communities in the name of Christ”. Twenty-five churches are now a part of the organization. But between this work and her other obligations, she found herself over-busy and left the McReavy House board. In 2015, at the behest of Terry Oliver, Jayni rejoined and became its chair.
It has been through her leadership, her love of old houses and desire to restore them, and the massive effort of a small but determined team, that the house has become what it is today. After ten years, the main rooms of the house are completely refurbished, the sagging foundation shored up, the leaky roof repaired, upgrades made to the electric system and security, the kitchen and main bathroom renovated, an energy-efficient heating system installed, windows replaced with period-style wood ones, and the property rid of scotch broom and much of the ivy twined around its trees. Think that’s it? No, the work will continue—finishing up interior and exterior projects, unveiling a new gallery room where they plan to showcase local and historical art, developing more parking space.
McReavy House shows off the result of that hard work with an annual summer picnic, a holiday party at Christmas time, and jam sessions featuring local musicians. It is also open for use by community groups that want to schedule meetings or hold events there. Historical tours with local docents are offered on Saturdays and Sundays from Memorial Day through Labor Day.
The board is also working to improve online visibility, and most importantly, increase their membership to support long-term bigger projects to restore the original roofline and the box bay window that was removed in the 1970s. Another Union treasure we can help along the way!
Thanks from all of us in Union go to Jayni Kamin for her unflagging dedication. We applaud her love of old houses and their restoration—a boon to our community and a tribute to John McReavy. “My kids say I’m obsessed,” she says. In fact, she told me one of her ten grandchildren asked for a bedtime story. What did he ask for? A story about John McReavy.
Our Calling
The Sacred Waters Center for Restoration and Retreat is an inclusive community rooted in rest and renewal, where every being is affirmed, all spiritual paths are honored, and the Earth herself is our healing teacher and guide.
Sacred Waters is an affirming interspiritual call to rest and human-ecological renewal. We are at home in our common union, honoring our inherent wholeness, and unfolding together within the practice of tenderness. Guided by the great love which holds us all, the soft pulse of tree roots, and the quiet tides that move through stillness and wild spaces, we offer inclusive welcome and a warm bowl of soup, remembering that when what is hard meets what is holy, healing flows outward into the world.
CORE VALUES:
Affirmation and Inclusion
– Embracing and affirming LGBTQIA2S+ identities and creating a space of radical belonging for all by making space for the vulnerable and essential work of cultivating healthy relationships, supporting greater mutual understanding between diverse peoples.
Interspirituality
– Honoring diverse spiritual paths and wisdom traditions rooted in shared sacredness beyond religious boundaries.
Rest and Renewal
– Valuing rest as a sacred, healing act, committing to both human and ecological renewal.
Wholeness and Interconnection
– Recognizing the inherent wholeness in each person by celebrating our interconnectedness with each other and the Earth.
Tenderness and Compassion
– Practicing tenderness as a spiritual and communal discipline by offering care, warmth, and nourishment.
Sacred Activism
– Trusting that healing flows when what is hard meets what is holy and committing to transformation through love, stillness, and presence.
Nature as Sacred Guide
– Listening to and learning from the wisdom of the natural and creaturely world, guided by the rhythms of trees, tides, and wild spaces.
Our Leadership
The Episcopal Diocese of Olympia stands at a transformative moment to expand our missional capacity and deepen our commitment to healing and wholeness, racial equity and creation care. The 13.5 acre property adjacent to St. Andrew's House Retreat and Conference Center, which has hosted the wellness center known as Harmony Hill for almost 40 years, has been acquired through a generous donation. This property offers the facilities and spaces to expand our mission of hospitality toward the cultivation of creative practices in racial and environmental justice, prayer and community. The existing ministries of the Circles of Color, Creation Care, St. Andrew's House and Harmony Retreats of Cancer Lifeline have come together to develop this new collaborative calling now named The Sacred Waters Center for Restoration and Retreat.
The Sacred Waters Leadership Council has contracted with Headwater People LLC to develop a strategic framework for building a sustainable foundation for a thriving new ministry of the Episcopal Diocese. Stay tuned for as we unveil plans in the coming months.
We Want to Hear From You
Get in touch so we can start working together.