Patrimony’s Middle Age

Men’s Work, Ritual, Culture, Crisis

~A session devoted to living where social conscience, radical hospitality and the sacraments of trade meet. A session for the culture of patrimony, the patrimony of culture: matrimony’s asymmetrical twin ~

March 18, 2026

Duncan BC, Canada

This event is now sold out. To be added to a waitlist, please email khadija@orphanwisdom.com

A gathering for men who might be stumbling into their own middle age, wondering about the arc of their days, perhaps a second marriage, or trying to step into their spirit work, and longing for eldering in real time.

Stephen Jenkinson will be joined by Ian MacKenzie
and host Sean Aiken.

In the wake of Stephen’s new book Matrimony: Ritual, Culture, and the Hearts Work, this is one of only two events in Canada to mark this occasion.

Learn more about Ian MacKenzie’s work at “The Mythic Masculine”

Details

An intimate event held in a yurt with men in mind.

Set among a well-loved garden of a small community in Duncan, BC.
(Exact location will be shared with registered guests.)

Homemade lunch will be served

Two sessions with Stephen Jenkinson

There’ll be no refunds

Cost
$150 CAD for Canadian residents
$150 USD for international folks

This event is now sold out. To be added to a waitlist, please email khadija@orphanwisdom.com

Schedule

Wednesday March 18th:
9:30am – Doors
10am-12noon – Meeting
12noon – Lunch
1pm-3pm – Hands-on Task
3pm-4:30pm – Meeting
4:30pm-5pm Book Signing

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.

Ian MacKenzie is a mythosomatic guide & filmmaker, as well as the founder of The Mythic Masculine, a platform dedicated to realigning masculinity with thriving life. For over 15 years, he’s been tracking the global emergence of imaginal culture. From the desert of Burning Man to the heart of Occupy Wall St, he has sought and amplified the voices of visionaries, artists and activists who have been working toward planetary system change. He is the co-director of The Village of Lovers as well as Lost Nation Road, Amplify Her, and Sacred Economics.

Sean Aiken is a bestselling author with Penguin Random House and a TEDx speaker who has shared his work with audiences across North America and Europe. Since joining the Orphan Wisdom School in 2014, Sean has been a devoted student of Stephen Jenkinson’s work – often following him from event to event, whether selling books at the back, diligently taking notes in the front, or serving as a self-designated “roadie” on his 2015 UK tour. In 2017, Stephen officiated the wedding of Sean and his wife, Danielle – one of many ceremonies that continue to shape an enduring apprenticeship and friendship that has profoundly impacted Sean’s life and way of being in the world.