Lorina Pyle

• First Spiritualist Church of San Diego
• Contact: 3777 Forty Second St., San Diego 619-284-4646 www.1st-spiritualistchurch.org
• Membership: 87
• Pastor: Lorina Pyle 
• Age: 52
• Born: Price, UT
• Formation: “After an intense search of self-healing and self-understanding…I turned my focus inward on meditation.”
• Years Ordained: 9

San Diego Reader: How long do you spend writing your sermon?

Pastor Lorina Pyle: I start every Sunday off with a thought for contemplation, something powerful, wonderful, a self-enhancing tool to think about throughout the week. I used to spend a week or two working on a sermon, but now I find that if I meditate and open myself up, I can connect with the universe, God, and the angels, and bring through any information that needs to come through that day. I found my sermons are much more powerful and heartfelt when I trust in God instead of formulating something I put down on paper myself.

SDR: What is the mission of your church?

PP: The mission of First Spiritualist is to provide teachings. I call this church a schoolroom. We’ve had some amazing ministers ordained and out in the world from here. Our mission is to help, heal, empower and love.

SDR: Where is the strangest place you found God?

PP: [The author of Damaged: A Survivor’s Story of the Damage Done by Sexual and Physical Abuse,] Pastor Pyle testified at the 2014 trial of Donald J. Davis in Telluride, CO. Davis was suspected of multiple cases of rape, including that of Pastor Pyle when she was 14 years old, and charged with five of those cases (not including Pyle’s). After entering an Alford Plea – asserting innocence but acknowledging that the evidence would likely lead to conviction – Davis pled guilty to two counts of assault with a deadly weapon, one count of assault of a child, and one count of contributing to the delinquency of a minor. Fifty-three years old at the time, he received a sentence of 35 years without parole, which given his age, likely amounts to a life sentence.] The Telluride courthouse was a big building, double-story, with big windows at the top. The windows that day were open slightly, and when the judge walked in [to deliver her verdict] and said, “Donald Davis, you are guilty of all counts, and you’re going to be in prison for the rest of your life,” I swear to you, God filled that room. It was a calm day, and the wind must have blown 35 miles per hour. Every window in that courthouse blew open that day as the wind blew through, as if God was saying, “This is your sense of justice, and we’re with you, and the angels are watching over you.” It was so powerful. Everyone in the courthouse noticed that this was not normal. When the gavel came down, and this wind came through – that was the strangest but most powerful time in my whole life to see God.

SDR: Where do you go when you die?

PP: I believe in re-incarnation, even if all spiritualists do not, and I believe it’s an opportunity for our souls to evolve, that is, expand. This world is a classroom that teaches us through experience and contrasts, and in that way we learn what we want and what brings us joy. Through that, I feel we learn and grow, and our souls evolve. Through that evolution, we don’t always go back to where we started from when we leave heaven, but we may go to a more elevated state of knowingness with other like-minded souls.