About

Virginia Battiste, BA, Dip. Ed., MTS, CPE (Basic)

Virginia has a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, a Diploma in Elementary Education, and a Master’s of Theological Studies with a Pastoral Counseling major. She has completed the Clinical Pastoral Education Basic Unit.

She has experience in family counseling and community development, and ended her work career as a Hospital Chaplain. In that role she designed and  implemented training for Pastoral Care Volunteer Visitors for hospital and long-term care visitation. She speaks on the topic of end of life and nearing death awareness and has facilitated the LifeCanada Dying Healed Workshops.

She is Past President of the AB Pastoral Care Association (APCA), and a past Associate Member of the Canadian Association for Spiritual Care (CASC) and the AB Association for Spiritual Care (AASC).

She has made presentations on self-care and facilitated self-care workshops and was a facilitator in a program that trained Board Members of not-for-profit organizations, assisting them in understanding the roles & responsibilities of volunteer Board Members and to improve board governance. As a freelance writer she wrote for both secular and faith-based publications including the Western Catholic Reporter & the Saskatoon Star Phoenix. She also did a stint as a radio News Reporter back in the day.

Previously, she was politically active as a pro-life advocate, and ran as a federal candidate in the 1988 Federal election. She served as the President of Saskatchewan Coalition for Life prior to the national merger with Campaign Life to become Campaign Life Coalition.

She is married to Don, who joins her in ministry, and has two children and five grandchildren. During more than 15 years living in AB, she always said she was from Saskatchewan. Covid-19 sent her back to the couple’s home there to prepare their house for occupancy when Don retires.