A unique refuge in Forest, Ohio restoring natural rhythm, wellbeing, and community through quiet training in the contemplative and domestic arts.
“A place to resonate with the rhythm of goodness.”
Forest Sanctuary is a rhythm-centered refuge in Forest, Ohio—a living demonstration of how silence, song, food, shared work, and creative devotion can restore our natural sense of time, meaning, and belonging.
Rooted in a beautifully restored former Presbyterian chapel with stained glass murals and a beautifully functioning pipe organ, the sanctuary serves as a U.S. flagship project of WholeFam.org and anchors a growing global network of community-led sanctuaries devoted to seasonal wholeness.
Community music sharing and universal access to musical expression is centered as both human birthright and critical medicine for our times.
We work to continue the faithful legacy of the skilled builders of this beautiful edifice, now rescued thanks to the greater global stewardship efforts of WholeFam.org.
Here, we offer silent stays, community meals, land-based self-healing, musical comfort gatherings, a wide range of learning opportunities, and a third space for community shared celebrations of life—welcoming fellow neighbors, nonprofits, kinshares, and families alike in a model that practically deprioritizes monetization:
“Good for Goodness’ Sake.”
Music: A Direct Experience of Goodness
Music is the backbone of Forest Sanctuary. We are at heart a devotional arts movement demonstrating the direct, daily, lived experience of good for goodness’ sake. In this way, music open a practical doorway into a “good” life, sung from the inside out in daily life. We:
- Host group singing for all ages and abilities—especially those who feel left out of traditional musical or religious spaces
- Offer musical comfort trainings for seniors, children, caregivers, and those recovering from trauma
- Provide performance and recording support for devotional musicians, choirs, teachers, and practice groups
- Establish music as a regulation practice equal in value to food, water, sunlight, and breath
- Embody singing as a direct means to experience current and immediate wholeness—within and between humans
You do not need to know how to sing “right.” Every person has a right to sing, and its our handiest key to self-healing. We are devoted to the daily art of devotion itself, a gesture of walking in reverence to the already-good rhythms of life itself.
