pictured above: Estuary’s founding team (2022)
CO-PASTORS
Darren DeMelo (he/him)
Darren is a second-generation immigrant settler, living on beautiful, ancestral, and stolen Coast Salish lands. Darren has been leading and cultivating community with various roles in a variety of churches in the Peace Church tradition over the past 13 years and has been involved in a number of initiatives, including a cooperative community cafe. With a constellation of experiences and formal learning (Bachelors of Music; Masters of Theology), Darren is constantly seeking new and creative ways of forming community life that is local, artistic, organic, collaborative, just …and delicious. Darren and his family are grateful to be learning how to live gently and humbly alongside the ever-growing spiritual community of Estuary.
Lee Kosa (he/him)
Lee grew up exploring the fields, woods, and streams of rural eastern Pennsylvania – the traditional land of the Lenape people. His love of drawing led him to the Rhode Island School of Design where he completed a Bachelor of Fine Arts with a focus on illustration and design. After working as a graphic designer for several years, Lee and his wife Sage moved to Vancouver, BC where Lee earned an MDiv from Regent College before going on to pastor in urban and suburban churches in Metro Vancouver. A Convinced Anabaptist, Lee is compelled to pursue peace with the people and other-than-human inhabitants of the Boundary Bay watershed. In addition to pastoring, Lee works as a spiritual director, works for his wife’s gardening business, and enjoys living into the rhythms of life in Ladner with his wife and three children – Lucas, Jude, and Eden.