Meet Reverend Catherine Lyle
Reverend Catherine Lyle has been invited to serve the First Presbyterian Church as the interim pastor. As interim pastor, she is providing spiritual leadership, pastoral guidance, and support while the congregation explores the vision for the future. She comes from the Sandpoint Methodist Church where she serves half-time since 2022. During this interim season for First Presbyterian Church, we are experimenting with blended worship services offering holy traditions and additional sensory ways for younger generations to connect with Spirit. We invite all to worship with us during this time (Sunday services at 11 am) and share what is on your heart, what you love about First Presbyterian and something you have dreamed we might do with you in worship and community. Also, during this time Pastor Catherine officiates Presbyterian weddings, funerals, and communion. She is a half-time pastor with lots of energy and looking forward to knowing more of her Sandpoint neighbors.
Rev. Catherine Lyle takes an ecumenical approach when spreading the good news. Attending several kinds of churches as a former child in foster care helped her appreciate the good parts of churches and support the whole body of Christ. Initially, Rev. Catherine Lyle was baptized Catholic; she rebelled greatly from her Irish/Scottish roots and became a Methodist in her middle school years joining Cheney UMC, where she served as the EWU campus minister while also sitting on the EWU Catholic Newman Center as their ecumenical chair. At 19 she graduated with her BA from Eastern Washington University, followed by a fun summer studying Irish history and Literature at NUI in Galway, Ireland.
As a young adult she says she had a million questions and didn’t want dogmatic answers from biased religious leaders. Subsequently, she earned an MA in philosophy from WSU where Greek philosophy and culture would later provide a broader understanding of the New Testament that was born from an occupied Greco-Roman culture. It was in these graduate years her roommate (an Episcopal priest) set her up on a blind date with Kevin James, a network engineer. Now married and best friends for the last two decades, they have two wonderful sons.
When not studying and being a mom, she worked in many nonprofits including the YWCA Domestic Violence Shelter, AmeriCorps, Habitat for Humanity, Shalom Ministries, and Manito UMC. It was at Manito that she found herself seeking creative ways for children to worship and share their relationship with Jesus.
She enjoys meeting new people and hearing their stories, preaching on Sundays, and ministering to underpaid, tired out parents and kids surrounded by unhealthy food and divisive politics to love their God, love themselves, and love their neighbors. She encourages everyone to live with hope.
Rev. Catherine Lyle is available for scheduled appointments on most Mondays and Wednesdays. Contact the church to set a time up and chat about what is in your heart!