Windstone Farm Community
Linlathen is Windstone Farm Community’s annual summer conference, a three-day event for ministers, authors, musicians, scientists, artists, philosophers, and laypersons. Centered around lectures and conversations on theology, nature, and culture, Linlathen is at its heart a means of building thoughtful community that embodies the love of Christ and attest to his “life more abundant,” here in rural Eastern Ontario.
2026
The Cosmic Theatre of Reconciliation:
C.S Lewis, Restorative Justice, & Ecotheology
The vision of Lewis – as expressed in his account of 'The Great Dance' in Perelandra – is of a universe in which the triune God is universally present, connecting all things and living beings together in interactive relationships, and moving the whole towards fulfilment. In her seminar Miranda Warner will explore how, on the human scale, the restorative justice encounter provides a 'theatre' in which God is present, creating empathy in the participants, making new connections and enabling reconciliation. Paul Fiddes will then respond by considering how this same divine dynamic is at work in the whole natural world, moving all things and beings from resistance to cooperation with God's reconciling purposes. Fiddes will probe the relevance of this vision to the ecological crisis that faces the earth and its inhabitants, proposing that the whole creation which is already held in the interweaving relations of love of the Trinity can be drawn 'farther up and further in'. Together they will invite each other – and those in attendance – into deeper consideration and conversation.
This year is an invite-only weekend; 2027 will again be open invite.
2026 Public Event on July 2nd is open to all (see below).
Speakers
PAUL
FIDDES
MIRANDA WARNER
Reverend Professor Paul Fiddes is a renowned English Baptist theologian and literary scholar and a Fellow of the British Academy, and has been described as "one of the leading scholars of theology and literature writing today.” Professor of Systematic Theology in the University of Oxford, Principal Emeritus and Senior Research Fellow of Regent's Park College, Oxford, and a former chairman of the Oxford Faculty Board of Theology, he is also an Emeritus Ecumenical Canon of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford. Paul’s ecumenical work is extensive and exemplary.
After his studies at Oxford, Paul spent time at the University of Tübingen where his teachers included Jürgen Moltmann and Eberhard Jüngle. He has continued to guest-teach and lecture throughout Europe – including being a Nordenhaug Lecturer in Prague and Doctor Honoris Causa of the University of Bucharest – and elsewhere across the globe.
Paul is the author of more than forty academic books, one novel (A Unicorn Dies: A Novel of Mystery and Ideas), and more than 190 articles, book chapters, and published lectures. His titles range from More Things in Heaven & Earth: Shakespeare, Theology, and the Interplay of Texts, to The Creative Suffering of God to Charles Williams and C.S. Lewis: Friends in Co-Inherence to Romans Through the Centuries to Participating in God: A Pastoral Doctrine of the Trinity. Paul is also lauded for his collaborative work, as in the recent publication God, Struggle, and Suffering in the Evolution of Life and in his directorship of Oxford's inter-faith 'Love in Religion' project (Oxford Centre for Religion and Culture), and has done extensive editorial work. Paul is a Ecumenical Prebendary of St Endellion, the mediaeval Collegiate Church of St Endelienta in Cornwall, UK , which has a special concern for spirituality and the arts (and is one of only three medieval collegiate foundations in England that remain in active use outside of university settings).
Of particular interest for Canadians, Paul was a founder of the 'Oxford Studies Program’, through which students from Canada's Tyndale, Redeemer, and Crandall universities are registered each year as associate students at Regent's Park College, Oxford. (And alums of which include several Windstone friends.)
Miranda Warner was born and raised in the UK and has spent most of her adult life living as an immigrant, then citizen and treaty partner in Aotearoa New Zealand. She is the Business Lead for Restorative Justice Nelson and has been a Restorative Justice facilitator for five years. She also works as a Community Mobiliser for the family and sexual violence prevention movement Hikitia!, where she focusses on the prevention of family and sexual violence in male spaces, youth spaces, and in the church. Miranda has previously worked in kids and youth work, and as a Family Violence Clinician working alongside persons of all ages who have used violence and those who have had violence used against them. She has an MA in Divinity (Edinburgh). She worked for an Anglican Church for seven years as the Children’s Outreach Worker.
Miranda is a playwright, a poet, an actor, a musician, and a producer of theatre. She also has an MA in ‘Applied Theatre; Drama and The Criminal Justice System’ (London) and is currently writing a chapter on the use of the arts in community engagement in Restorative Justice. Her current and some of her most recent acting parts have included: a speed-dating Columbus crab, an M15 operative in Operation Mincemeat, and as Matilda's Trunchball. In 2023 Miranda produced and acted in All of Us, (a play exploring restorative justice in the context of family violence), and toured both the play and the film of the play, locally and nationally (including discussion times). Miranda loves to use drama as a tool for building emotional literacy, deepening empathy, and learning healthy relational skills. She has facilitated groups exploring these themes in primary schools in Aotearoa NZ and in Pollsmoor maximum security prison in Cape Town South Africa, and she trains actors who deliver drama-based sex and relationships education to teenagers nationally in Aotearoa NZ. Miranda is currently creating a podcast musical about the incredible nun, educator, justice advocate and fun specialist Mary Ward (1585 – 1645).
Miranda is a devoted pilgrim of the Camino de Santiago, a learner of the Māori language, a preacher, and a former facilitator of the most creative daily ‘Vacation Bible Camps' imaginable! Above all she is an advocate of fun and friendship.
Public
Lecture
Support Linlathen Conferences
The Linlathen Conference is run by Windstone Community along with a group of hard-working, passionate volunteers. Your sponsorship will facilitate incredible conversations, make space for faith-defining discoveries, and inspire people towards building communities like this wherever they are planted.
You can sponsor the Clergy Lunch, Conference Booklet, Cathie Nicholl Scholars, Public Lecture, Tshirts, or reach out with your own idea for sponsorship - we'd love to talk about it with you!
To send a tax-receiptable sponsorship donation, please give through the general donation form, adding a memo/note: LINLATHEN.
To learn more about sponsoring a Linlathen Conference, reach out to us!
