Our Pastor

Reverend Cindy Towle Kephart

Pastor Cindy graduated from Fuller Theological Seminary with an MDiv in 2014. She especially loved studying Hebrew, the Psalms, New Testament and Presbyterian Polity! She completed the ordination requirements in the San Francisco Presbytery in 2015 and in 2016 she attended Interim/Transitional Ministry training. Cindy was called to Grace to be our Interim pastor in 2017.

Cindy spent one year training as a chaplain at the UCSF Medical Center and worked at California Pacific Medical Center, also in San Francisco, as a staff chaplain. Much of her work at each hospital was in pediatrics. She also cherishes her time with elderly adults. Cindy had a family member who lived for many years in a dementia care unit and then in a skilled nursing unit. For two years, Cindy regularly conducted Sunday services and was a guest speaker at both a rehabilitation center and a retirement residence.

Cindy was a long-time member of Park Boulevard Presbyterian Church (PBPC) in Oakland, beginning there when her family lived a few blocks from the church. She has many happy memories of sitting in the pew with her three young children as they ate what they referred to as “church candy” and drew what they designated “church art.” In the recent years Cindy served as a ruling elder at PBPC and frequently assisted in leading worship. Cindy was a pastoral intern at First Presbyterian Church, Richmond. She primarily ministered to members of the congregation who had fled the northern mountains of Laos in the late 1970’s.

Before arriving at Grace, Cindy had been a frequent guest preacher at a number of churches in the Bay Area. She had the unique opportunity to preach numerous times from the back of a truck at a drive-in service held in a Safeway parking lot in Pinole!

Many years ago Cindy was a Peace Corps volunteer in the Philippines. She holds an MBA from UC Berkeley and worked in banking in San Francisco. Cindy and her husband, Murray, have been married for more than three decades. They raised their three children in Oakland and Lafayette, where they currently live. Cindy is delighted to be at Grace Presbyterian during this transitional time.

Parrish Associate Reverend Carrie Lane, M.Div., C.T.

Pastor Carrie is a proud graduate of UC Davis (Go Ags!) and San Francisco Theological Seminary. She began her ordained ministry in the Bay Area in 1994. In addition to being our Parish Associate, she is currently a specialized minister in Stockton Presbytery working at Hospice of San Joaquin as the Manager of Bereavement Services.

She enjoys providing pulpit supply for us (and other churches in the area). Someday, she hopes to be brave enough to copy World Renowned Minister Joyce Meyer and say “I’m preaching better than you are acting” in one of her sermons! You just never know – it may happen soon!

She lives in Galt and is the mother of 2 busy teenagers and one sloppy dog.