The Jesus Session
The spirit of translation. The translation of spirit.
Part cultural critique, part prayerful murmur,
this time Jesus will be a prism, and a prompt, and a verb.
Jan 10-11, 2026
at the Orphan Wisdom Hall
From Stephen:
You know by now that we’ve launched a transliteration/translation project, The Scriptorium, that is wrangling the piles of recordings made over the decades while I was, well, talking.
I talked a lot, I’m seeing now.
As time went on and I moved out beyond my death trade days, and especially once I convened the Orphan Wisdom School, I had reason to wonder on my formal education, and what had come of it. One result of that wondering was an iteration of the School which became known beyond the confines of my little life as The Jesus Session. I did indeed enjoy the mad flurry of it, and the plumbing of the depths of my theological training. Turns out that The Jesus Session took on a kind of life of its own, and routinely I’d be asked on this side of the Atlantic and the other whether I meant to reprise that outing some day.
Yes, I mean to. Come the depths of winter, in my teaching hall, in early January, 2026, as part of the Boreal Session of the Scriptorium, I (along with two steeply qualified guests) will do a two-day new Jesus Session. This one will focus especially on two themes: the spirit of translation, and the translation of spirit. Part cultural critique, part prayerful murmur, this time Jesus will be a prism, and a prompt, and a verb.
Three ways to participate
~The Boreal Session~
In-person January 6-11 at Orphan Wisdom.
Includes accommodation, scullery royalty, transcribing the 2017 Orphan Wisdom School Big Tent Jesus Session, and live participation on the 10th and 11th. Plus online private community group, recordings of the live filmed event with Stephen Jenkinson and his two honoured guests from the Orphan Wisdom Hall by Jan. 20th, 2026.
~Online~
Online audio recordings and filmed event.
Includes Access to three audio sessions from the 2017 Orphan Wisdom School Big Tent Jesus Session, private online community chat group with an opportunity to share questions, and you will receive recordings of the live filmed event with Stephen Jenkinson and his two honoured guests from the Orphan Wisdom Hall by Jan. 20th, 2026.
This is Not a Zoom or Livestream event.
CAD Registration USD Registration
~Live Weekend at The Orphan Wisdom Hall~
In-person January 10-11, 2026.
Includes access to three days from the 2017 Big Tent Jesus Session, online private community group, live participation on Jan. 10th and 11th at the Orphan Wisdom Hall. No accommodation provided. Saturday includes a meal after the live talk. Plus online private community group, recordings of the live filmed event with Stephen Jenkinson and his two honoured guests from the Orphan Wisdom Hall by Jan 20th, 2026.
“You could think of it as a come to Jesus time
that you mightn’t have seen coming”.
Stephen Jenkinson, MTS, MSW
~ Culture activist/ farmer/ author ~
Stephen teaches internationally and has authored seven books of cultural critique. He is the creator and principal instructor of the Orphan Wisdom School, co-founded with his wife Nathalie Roy in 2010. The School’s new project, The Scriptorium (2025), is creating an archive and library of his life’s work.
Apprenticed to a master storyteller as a young man, he worked extensively with dying people and their families. He is a former programme director in a major Canadian hospital and former assistant professor in a prominent Canadian medical school. Stephen has Masters’ degrees from Harvard University (Theology) and the University of Toronto (Social Work).
In 2023 Stephen received a Distinguished Alumni Honours Award from Harvard University for “helping people navigate grief, exploring the liminal space between life and death, and connecting humanity through ceremony and storytelling.”
In August 2025, Sounds True will release Stephen’s newest book: Matrimony: Ritual, Culture, and the Heart’s Work.
He is also the author of Reckoning (co-written with Kimberly Ann Johnson in 2022), A Generation’s Worth: Spirit Work While the Crisis Reigns (2021), Come of Age: The Case for Elderhood in a Time of Trouble (2018), the award-winning Die Wise: A Manifesto for Sanity and Soul (2015), Homecoming: The Haiku Sessions (a live teaching from 2013), How it All Could Be: A workbook for dying people and those who love them (2009), Angel and Executioner: Grief and the Love of Life (a live teaching from 2009), and Money and The Soul’s Desires: A Meditation (2002). He was a contributing author to Palliative Care – Core Skills and Clinical Competencies (2007).
Since co-founding the Nights of Grief and Mystery project with singer/ songwriter Gregory Hoskins in 2015, he has toured this musical/ tent show revival/ storytelling/ ceremony of a show across North America, U.K., Ireland, Israel, Australia and New Zealand. They released their first Nights of Grief & Mystery album in 2017, and at the end of 2020 released two new records: Dark Roads and Rough Gods. A new album release is planned for 2025.
Stephen Jenkinson is also the subject of the feature length documentary film Griefwalker (National Film Board of Canada, 2008, dir. Tim Wilson), a portrait of his work with dying people, and Lost Nation Road, a shorter documentary on the crafting of the Nights of Grief and Mystery tours (2019, dir. Ian Mackenzie). Recently Mattias Olsson, a Swedish filmmaker released Murmurings of the Land (2025 Campfire Stories).
He was a stone sculptor turned wood-carver, and learned the arts of traditional birch bark canoe building. His first house won a Governor General’s Award for architecture. He now lives on a small scale organic farm in an off-grid straw bale house. The 120 year old abandoned granary from across the river which appeared in Griefwalker was dismantled last year and re-erected at the Orphan Wisdom farm, where it is again a working barn.
