Bio: John Plunkett
John Harrison Plunkett was born in the shipbuilding town of Barrow-in-Furness on the northwest coast of England on February 12, 1949. His parents, John and Jane—or Jack and Jenny as they were more fondly known—are now both deceased.
Most of John's happy childhood was spent in Bootle and Litherland—distant suburbs of the major port city of Liverpool. He has an older brother, Thomas, and a younger sister, Diane, who both still reside in Litherland. John's secondary education was at the Bootle Grammar School for Boys, and for his post-secondary education in electronics, telecommunications engineering, and management and accounting, he attended several technical colleges in northern England and western Canada.
John followed his father into a telecommunications career. He worked as an engineering technician for British Post Office Telephones (now British Telecom) from April 1970 until November 1973, then for the British Columbia Telephone Company (now Telus) from February 1974 until his retirement in January 2003.
Having studied and performed music at school, been an avid chorister, and grown up in the birthplace of the Beatles, John developed a natural passion for music. He met Tricia in 1970, while performing in a popular music band at a wedding. Tricia was born in Ormskirk, Lancashire, England on November 8, 1953. They were married on May 6, 1972, and moved from Liverpool to Lancaster, the county town of Lancashire. They immigrated to Canada on January 1, 1974.
John and Tricia have four daughters: Joanne (born 1977; married to Benjamin Wulf; daughter Hannah; residing in Waxhaw, NC), Susanne (born 1979; married to Warren Lee; daughter Madison; residing in Victoria, BC), Linda (born 1982; married to Daniel Clark; residing in Puyallup, WA), and Kathleen (born 1986; residing in Victoria, BC). They also had a beautiful son, David John, who was born in 1985 with a malformed heart and died at just two days old. They greatly yearn for the day that their family will be complete, when they will be able to hold David in their arms once again.
John's interests include classical and popular music, classical literature, art, travel, history, and ancient architecture. When Tricia can tear herself away from granddaughter Madison, she enjoys crafts, computer graphics, gardening, and working on the church sermon transcribing team.
John first came into contact with God's church in the summer of 1965 at the age of sixteen. Listening as usual to his favourite popular music station—Radio Caroline—a "pirate radio ship" which broadcast to Western Europe from the waters of the Irish Sea, one evening, after the day's music programming had ended, he stayed tuned in and heard a Garner Ted Armstrong's "World Tomorrow" broadcast refuting the theory of evolution. Soon after this introduction, John visited the Bricket Wood campus of Ambassador College (near St. Albans, Hertfordshire, England) where he counselled with evangelist Raymond McNair. As he matured, John continued to study and, step-by-step, began to learn and live God's way of life. After meeting John and learning about the truth of God, Tricia also readily accepted it. The two were baptized in December 1977 by the late Walter Johnson, the beloved minister of the North Vancouver, BC, congregation.
In April 1979, John's employer transferred him and his family to the lovely city of Victoria, British Columbia. After a subsequent, two-year work assignment in Ottawa, Ontario, the Plunkett family returned to Victoria, where John was ordained a deacon in August 1986.
Despite the ominous rumblings that were becoming evident as the nineties began, the greater bulk of the negative doctrinal changes being wrought in the church were effectively hidden from the somewhat isolated Vancouver Island congregations until the latter months of 1994. At that time, the mask hiding the changes was abruptly removed by the showing of the two, now infamous, video-taped sermons by Joseph Tkach, Sr. Along with many other members, the Plunkett family—with some sadness, fear, and reluctance—parted company with the Worldwide Church of God in the early months of 1995. As in other areas, the confused Victoria brethren, all striving to maintain the "faith once delivered," were scattered among different groups. In 1997, after a short period as an independent assembly, the largest of the Victoria groups—to which the Plunketts belonged—requested a visit from John and Evelyn Ritenbaugh and, soon afterwards, were warmly welcomed into the fellowship of the Church of the Great God.
Since then, John has served our scattered Canadian membership as office manager and treasurer. In addition to his office, writing, editing, and speaking duties, he maintains the CGG-Canada website. John was ordained as a Local Elder on October 7, 2004.
John can be reached at jplunkett@cgg.org.
