Martin Buck

In January of 2025 I accepted the nomination for People's Warden of St. John the Baptist Anglican Church Cobble Hill. In many ways I am the prodigal son, now returned to our church home.

My wife, Irene, and I and our two children came to St. John’s in 1980 when it was a two-point parish coupled with St Andrew’s Cowichan Station. You will see us in the first picture on the wall in the hall celebrating St. John‘s 100th anniversary.  I was Rector’s Warden for Rev. George Rogers back then. I also served as a lay reader when, with the Rector’s blessing, Peter and Marion Holmes, another couple and Irene and I started a family service. Robert and Joanna Weston led the same at St. Andrew’s.  This family service grew to become the major Sunday service. That growth continued in our time at St. John’s under the leadership of Rev Barry Wyckham, Rev Susan and Rev Scott Pittendrigh. Irene and I then were members of Brentwood Anglican Chapel until it was closed. During our time as snowbirds in Phoenix Arizona we became Methodists until that church, Spirit Song, was also closed. During Covid we attended a memorial service for Marion Holmes and heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ being clearly preached again from the pulpit and decided to return to St John’s. We feel so blessed to be part of this community again. Recently I completed the diocese’s lay assistant training. We used to say we had more friends in the cemetery at St. John’s than in the church. That is no longer true. We feel so blessed to have reconnected with old friends and made new ones, all in the service of our Lord Jesus Christ.