The Jesus Session
The spirit of translation. The translation of spirit.
Recorded live from the Orphan Wisdom Teaching Hall
Stephen Jenkinson was joined by two esteemed guests
Janeta Kobes, and Andrew McLuhan, Director of the McLuhan Institute.
On January 10th and 11th 2026
It’s not to late to be woven in.
What’s included:
• Three recordings from 2017 Jesus Session
• Private community chat group
• The weekend filmed event will be posted January 20
• All material will be accessible until January 31, 2027
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.
“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 released 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.
Andrew McLuhan’s father Eric McLuhan, was the son and collaborator of Marshall McLuhan, preeminent 20th century media scholar, critic and professor of English Literature. Andrew is a poet, writer, speaker, and founded The McLuhan Institute in 2017 to continue the work of his father and grandfather. He lives and works and drives his family’s two kids to hockey in Prince Edward County, Ontario.
Janeta Kobes B.Th. Certified Spiritual Care Practitioner (CASC), Registered Psychotherapist (CRPO), Practitioner of Energy Medicine, Four Winds Society. KHSC Spiritual Health Practitioner in Palliative Care, Oncology, Critical Care, 2001-2022. Orphan Wisdom School, 2010-2023. Daughter of Dutch CRC immigrants, Mother and Oma. In service to Life, Seen & Unseen Realms, tending to Soul and Ceremony.
The Jesus Session
The spirit of translation. The Translation of spirit
~Livestream event from the Orphan Wisdom Teaching Hall~
