Cathy Victor

I grew up in Winnipeg and Montreal. Montreal was where I began my training in Fine Arts; mainly in painting. I continued my studies in New Brunswick at Mount Allison University, Concordia University in Montreal and with other artists in Montreal. Since then I have lived in 6 different provinces and 8 different cities or towns. I get around.

My husband was a Presbyterian minister and so there were several moves across the country to serve various churches. By the time we moved to Vancouver, we had three kids, and I was working one to one with children with special needs. I used Braille, sign language, my fine art training and the wisdom and inspiration of people such as Jean Vanier and Henri Nouwen. They helped me discover added layers of meaning in my work with people who had incredible challenges.

By the time our kids were in high school I was sensing God’s call to the Ministry of Word and Sacrament. I studied part time at first, but eventually full time at Vancouver School of Theology. I was ordained in the Presbyterian Church.

I was called to two churches just outside of Ottawa, and my husband was called to one within Ottawa. After a few years the Children's’ Hospital of Eastern Ontario invited me to be a chaplain there, which I did while I served one of my small churches part time. It was a full plate, but I especially loved my work at CHEO.

It was intense of course, but so meaningful. Many of my conversations with families there are emblazoned on my heart. I remember asking one young boy - a refugee from Lebanon, what he thought God was like. Without hesitation he said: God is loving, smart and very handsome.

We moved to Victoria and between short terms of serving local churches both in the Presbyterian and United church,  I ran a day program for older adults with developmental and physical disabilities at the Garth Homer Society. I enjoyed my time there often seeing it through the lens of ministry too.

The Lodge at Broadmead - the Veterans long term care home invited me to be chaplain there - or Spiritual Support provider. Whatever the title, it was when I said I was the padre or chaplain that veterans opened up to tell me their stories - like stealing things from Hitler’s bunker. Hearing so many of their experiences, from the beaches of Normandy to working in secret at Bletchley Park with Alan Turing forever changed me.

My husband died suddenly in 2014, and my world took a different turn. 

I’m technically retired now, but in reality I feel I am more of a pastor at large, or one who is undercover. I try to help with services in various places when I am able, but have turned much of my attention to painting in my art studio or spending time in Vancouver with my grown children  and my grandkid who is a newly minted teenager.

I have always loved to sing and I do that whenever I can. (cars are so useful for that)

I love to learn languages and for the last few years have focussed on Ukrainian - partly as a nod to my many Ukrainian grandparents, and in a sense, as a prayer for peace.

Some of my greatest influences come from artists like Vincent Van Gogh (whose faith was important to him), Claude Monet, Lawren Harris and Georgia O’Keefe. Julia of Norwich, Barbara Brown Taylor, Fredrick Buechner, John Swinton, Jan Richardson and John O’Donohue, to name a few more. They have all found a place deep in my heart.

So I can often be found painting birds or flowers, - the beauty of creation- usually in my studio.

My journey has been one that has jumped all over the place, and so I hold on to the words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer who said ‘we must be ready to be interrupted by God.’

Jesus continues to take me to new ways of living. My work as an artist and my work as a pastor are tightly woven together.

The artist Fra Angelico once said that painting is a form of prayer and so I find that I sometimes pray with paint and sometimes paint with words.