We are pleased to share with St. Mark’s that we have entered into an agreement with the Rev. Amy Seymour to serve as our Interim Pastor during Pastor Gretchen’s family leave. Starting August 30, and continuing for three months, Pastor Amy will help provide pastoral care, serve as a worship leader, and support several of our ministries. She is already a familiar face to some at St. Mark’s, having previously joined us as a guest preacher.

Pastor Amy is a Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) minister who lives on the South Hill with her husband and two teenage children.
Her eldest headed off to college in Minnesota this fall.
She brings more than 20 years of ministry experience
and most recently served as
Interim Pastor at Bethany Presbyterian Church.

Pastor Amy moved to Spokane in 2017 from Northern California.
She earned her Master of Divinity from San Francisco Theological Seminary and served for more than eleven years as solo pastor of Windsor Presbyterian Church. Originally from the South, she has spent much of her adult life in the West and Northwest, including Alaska. Over the course of her ministry, she has served alongside youth, women experiencing homelessness,
farming communities, and affordable-housing ministries.

In addition to her MDiv, Pastor Amy earned a Master of Fine Arts in nonfiction creative writing from Eastern Washington University.
Outside of ministry, Pastor Amy enjoys knitting,
cooking and baking, reading, and hiking.
We are grateful to welcome her into this season of ministry
at St. Mark’s and look forward to the gifts
she will share with our congregation.

To email Pastor Gretchen, click here.

Gretchen cares about supporting others as they experience
the living God in all of life
and are healed and freed by those encounters
to live fully for and with others. 

Gretchen grew up in Iowa as the daughter of an immigrant mother and
a Lutheran pastor. She is a graduate of Luther College (BA), with an MBA and MPA from Syracuse University,
an MDiv from Wartburg Theological Seminary,
and a certificate in Ignatian Spiritual Direction from Creighton  University. 

After serving the ELCA’s Churchwide Office,
Gretchen served with the Enterprise Foundation,
financing affordable housing development across New York and Texas.
She led the ecumenical food pantry board of Micah 6 of Austin, Texas and served on the founding team of Open Door Exchange,
a Long Island furniture bank.
She also treasures the time as chaplain with

North Shore University Hospital, Children’s Hospital of Omaha, 

Creighton University Campus Ministry,
and Sacred Heart Medical Center.

Gretchen savors chances to share
a long conversation with family or friend, sing, play piano, 

hike near mountain streams, 

dig in the dirt, or watch Zag basketball.
She is grateful to serve alongside the people of St. Mark's since 2024.