Derwyn brings to the Church of the Good Shepherd almost 20 years of pastoral experience from two different Christian traditions. Raised in a Christian home, he was brought up in the Pentecostal church and went on to become a pastor in that tradition for about 13 years. When he and his family moved to Toronto in 2009 so that he could pursue graduate studies at Wycliffe College, a process of openness to other expressions of the Christian faith that had begun 9 years earlier resulted in a significant change for them. Attracted to the profound nature of the Eucharistic liturgy and the openness of the Anglican approach to the Bible and Christianity, the Costinak’s were confirmed at St John’s York Mills Anglican Church in Toronto a year or so later. Following his ordination to the diaconate in May 2013, he arrived in Calgary in August to be the Assistant Priest at St James Anglican Church. Ordained to the priesthood in January 2014, Derwyn spent almost four years at St James before enthusiastically becoming the ninth priest to serve at Good Shepherd on May 1st, 2017.
Derwyn possesses a love of life and a number of interests and experiences that he uses to assist him in his passion to communicate well. He is a musician and motorcyclist, he has worked on a pilot’s licence and has raced karts, does sim racing in his spare time, is a Formula 1 and Tour de France fan, and is the Chaplain for the King's Own Calgary Regiment. He believes that “maturity is simply knowing when to be immature” (and you can quote him on that). A lover of dark roast coffee, red wine, and dark ale, his motto is: “you should never drink anything you can see through,” though he does make significant exceptions for water and Scotch. And when he’s out riding his bicycle, he’s often thinking about how “real life” and “church life” come together, so that the two become one and without the quotation marks…
