Warne, Robert Maxwell, 1914-2009

The Rev. Robert Maxwell (Max) Warne was born in Peterborough, Ontario on April 22, 1914. He attended Union College and was ordained by BC Conference in 1944. After ordination, he served Keremeos pastoral charge (1944-1948); Westview United Church, Powell River (1948-1952); Cloverdale United Church, Surrey (1952-1958); and Oak Avenue United Church, Surrey (1956-1958).

Warne held several positions in the Church and was an active member on various committees and commissions. He was one of the central workers on the Metropolitan Council for Church Extension, which granted loans for the building or renovation of church buildings in the Lower Mainland of BC. Warne served as the Director of the Church Extension Council and Board of Home Missions (1958-1973) and as Superintendent of Home Mission (1960-1970) for several presbyteries outside Vancouver, including Cariboo, Kamloops-Okanagan, Kootenay, Fraser, Victoria, and Westminster presbyteries. In cooperation with the presbyteries, he supervised all aid-receiving missions and charges, the oversight of an annual fund-raising campaign, and the organization of new pastoral charges and mission fields. In 1969, the Church Extension Council work in the Lower Mainland was absorbed by the newly incorporated Metropolitan Council of The United Church of Canada in the Lower Mainland.

Max Warne was also an accomplished violinist, and included music as part of his congregational ministry. His wife, Berna, shared in the ministry of music as a pianist. After retirement, Warne served as a visiting minister at Queen's Avenue United Church in New Westminster, and as Minister Emeritus at St. Andrew's-Wesley United Church in Vancouver. In 2002, he received an honorary doctorate from the Vancouver School of Theology. He died on his 95th birthday in 2009.