Trailer for SANCTUARY Series
Introducing “Sanctuary”, a 10 part video series about healing mind, body, spirit and relationships from the effects of colonialism:
S – Sacred Place, Healing Pathway (Sanctuary)
A – Access (Gate)
N – Need (Altar of Sacrifice)
C – Cleansing (Washbasin)
T – Teachings (Table of Shewbread)
U – Unity (Lampstand)
A – Abiding (Altar of Incense)
R – Reliance (Ark of the Covenant – Manna)
Y – Yoked (Ark of the Covenant – 10 Commandments)
+ – the cross-our calling (Ark of the Covenant – Budded Almond Branch)
Sacred Place, Healing Pathway: Introduction
Episode 1
In this video program, our family and friends will share with you how we experience sanctuary on the “pathway for keeping”, as we decolonize our full human experience of mind (healing from the generational impact of trauma, addictions, and lifestyle imbalance), body (reviving physical wellness into daily living progressively), spirit (growing in a restorative and developmental relationship with our triune Creator God) and our social/environmental relationships (living in harmonious relationship with nature and others in God’s Kingdom). Please join us on the Journey Home!
Access: Gate
Episode 2
Accessing a restorative relationship with our Creator God through knowing and following Jesus involves our whole human experience. We access, or come to an understanding of our Creator by healing our mind. We give our Creator access to our heart through how we care for our bodies. We access reconciliation with our Creator through a spiritually intimate relationship with Him. And we can create access for others to desire their Creator when the Holy Spirit works through our relationships. Our family and friends will share by our life stories how to access a restorative relationship with God through mind, body, spirit and relationship to nature and others.
Need: Altar of Sacrifice
Episode 2: Gate
Episode 3
The next element in the sanctuary courtyard, just inside the entry gate, was an altar of sacrifice. The purpose of this altar was to burn sacrifices brought by the people to pay for their wrongs of breaking God’s laws of love. It was the place where they repented and acknowledged their need for reconciliation with God. The only way for their wrongs against God to be reconciled was by the sacrifice of a perfect lamb. This perfect lamb represented God’s plan to pay the price himself through His son Jesus Christ, who lived a perfect life in order to reconcile our debt of wrongs against His Ways of Love and restore us to a right relationship with Him. A little over 2000 years ago, God sacrificed himself in the form of His Son Jesus to pay the penalty of death for everyone who has broken His Way of Love by hurting ourselves, others, and Him. He did this to fulfill the need of all human beings to be restored into right relationship with Him once again. Our family & friends will share with you how reconciliation with Creator God has enabled us to decolonize our mind, body, spirit, and relationship with nature and others. In this way, we are able to thrive more fully as our Creator intended for us.
Cleansing: Washbasin
Episode 4 (AVAILABLE DECEMBER 2024)
A practice that Huu-ay-aht has done for millennia is the practice of ʔuusimč (Oomsootch). Our elders tell us that when we cleanse our bodies, our minds can be made clean, making us aware of ourselves. Spiritual bathing, ʔuusimč, is done in many ways, but the central characteristics of ʔuusimč include the daily practice of getting up early before the sun comes up and going to a place that is secluded where no one except the Creator can hear your prayers.
The ʔuusimč process includes alternating between prayer and submerging our entire body in the water. The way my father taught me, prayer and bathing took place in a cycle of seven. My father taught me that the first prayer was for your wife, the second prayer was for your children, the third prayer was for family, the fourth prayer was for the community, the fifth prayer was for your enemies, the sixth prayer was for yourself, the seventh prayer was asking for the things you need.
ʔuusimč was done to cleanse our whole selves daily. This process has been described as a regeneration, a new birth, a renewing, cleansing, and washing away of defilement through our spiritual communion with our Creator. My Uncle, Robert Dennis describes ʔuusimč as a type of baptism that Huu-ay-aht have always practiced.
Baptism in the Bible is a washing away of sins to be saved. The Bible says in Titus 3:5, “He saved us through the washing of the Holy Spirit whom he poured on us generously through Jesus Christ our Savior.” Our Creator taught us these ways from our beginning.
-Brad Dennis