As the Rector at Christ Church Cranbrook, I’m the head pastor of a church with over 2,300 members in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan. We’re involved in about 20 organizations located everywhere from Pontiac and Detroit. We’re known as a place where we care for people outside the church as much as we care for people inside the church.
In 2017, Edie Franklin came to me and talked about this project called Sanctum House—a covenantal community that was created by women and for women. It was shown to be the most effective way to address re-entry issues with women who are survivors of human trafficking.
We gave them a significant donation, and we also wanted to create opportunities for us to have hands-on experience that was appropriate but also intimate. We came up with an idea that we would create healing space in the landscape of Sanctum House.
The video below describes some of the work we’ve done with Sanctum House.
Initially, this was one house, but Sanctum House continued to grow. It became a whole campus. And our volunteers every year gather together and they completely rework the landscape of Sanctum House. This included:
- New flower beds
- Pieces for vegetable gardens
- Flower gardens
- Spaces where people can sit, meditate, pray, and be able to make some of the beautiful decisions that you have to make in life as you’re going through the journey that these brave women are going through.
It also gives us an opportunity to interact with these women, to have lunch with them, and to hear their story and to bless the things that they do. Every time I go out there, there’s always this moment where we bless something—where there is a peace pole or something on the campus that conveys to the women who are there that they are safe, that this world can be trusted, and that there are people around them who care and love them.
I am always happy to support Sanctum House. We are grateful for the relationship we’ve built. I am proud to be one of the organizations that stepped forward when we heard about the work that it was doing, and we hope to continue to do this for the time being and for the future—as long as Sanctum House is there.
To get involved with Sanctum House, you can offer to donate or volunteer your time on their website.
Fr. William Danaher is the Executive Director of Faith in Detroit and Rector at Christ Church Cranbrook. Learn more about Rev. Dr. William Danaher on the Christ Church Cranbrook website or check out his full professional background.