OUR STORY

St. Andrew’s House would like to acknowledge that our campus is standing on the ancestral 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.    

 

St. Andrew's House 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. 

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St. Andrew's House began as a retreat center for the Diocese of Olympia in 1954, when the Lodge and its seven acres were given as a gift to the Diocese by the Norton Clapp family, purchased from the Arthur Symons family, who had built the Lodge in 1928.  Shortly thereafter, the Hawthorn Dent family donated the Cottage, below the Lodge on the Hood Canal, to Bishop Stephen Bayne as a place for his rest & recreation.  Bishop Bayne then dedicated what is now Bayne Cottage for the use of all Diocesan clergy and their families. 

 

Since that time, St. Andrew’s House has expanded its hospitality to include churches & clergy of all denominations, art groups, nonprofit organizations, family events, weddings and retreats of all kinds.   A large renovation in 1999, conducted by Burt Duncan, expanded the capacity of St. Andrew’s, adding the Chapel, Sun Room, Dining Room and more rooms for guests.  We are currently conducting a campaign to further expand the accessibility of St. Andrew's House by adding and improving our bedroom spaces to allow more folks to experience our mission of hospitality.

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The Diocese of Olympia consists of all Episcopal churches in Western Washington, from the Pacific Ocean to the Cascade Mountains, and from Vancouver WA on the southern border to Blaine on the Canadian border.

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Our Mission

The mission of St. Andrew's House is to provide retreats for individual & group reflection

and community-building in communion with God and Creation.

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Our Vision

St. Andrew's House will increase the accessibility of its services to all who seek to enter,

while maintaining the warmth, intimacy and home-like quality that our guests most value.

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Walking through the Lodge, or around the serene garden grounds, one gets a strong sense of the many years of fellowship, prayer and love that have rooted St. Andrew’s House in its mission of hospitality as an act of our Christian worship.  Worship is liturgical, literally meaning “work of the people,” and in extending Christ’s hands to all who come to us, we honor both the visitor and the One who loves us all. 

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Blessings,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dan & Lois Oberg 

 

Dan became Director of St. Andrew’s House in September 2016, serving as a lay minister and administrator in nonprofit organizations for many years.  Lois is a Registered Nurse and is currently the Gardener at neighboring Harmony Hill. 

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