Ne• minister taking pulpit at Unitarian Church Aug. 1

Nantucket’s Unitarian Universalist congregation has announced that Rev. Linda Simmons will become its new settled minister Aug. 1. The congregation called Rev. Simmons to the Nantucket ministry by unanimous vote at a congregational meeting in April.

Joining Simmons is her husband, Gary Langley. The couple will live at the congregation’s Fair Street parsonage.

Simmons recently graduated from Harvard Divinity School. She served a two-year internship at First Church in Boston and worked another two years as senior youth and coming of age coordinator at First Religious Society in Carlisle, Mass. She completed her chaplaincy at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston.

Before entering Divinity School, Simmons worked in the education field for 15 years. Positions she held ranged from teaching high-school English to serving as senior manager of a large nonprofit helping at-risk youth graduate from high school and high-school dropouts earn their GEDs.

Simmons feels ministry is the culmination of her life’s work and enters this ministry on Nantucket with great enthusiasm and joy.

Rev. Linda Simmons

Langley, has been a professional architectural photographer for more than 20 years. He recently sold his photography business to his business partner and looks forward to focusing on opportunities to explore and photograph the expansive natural world on the island.

Simmons arrives on Nantucket as interim minister Rev. David M. Horst completes his two years of service on the island. He is moving to northern New Jersey to serve the Central Unitarian Church in Paramus.

The Nantucket congregation will host a thank-you and farewell party in honor of Rev. Horst and his family on the church grounds Sunday, July 21 after the morning church service.

On Sunday, July 28, Horst and Simmons will lead the morning service together and share their personal perspectives on faith in a dialogue sermon entitled “The Faith We Make.”

They will discuss what they have faith in, what faith means to them and how it continues to shape them in their ministries and personal lives.

The Nantucket Unitarian Universalist congregation, which gathers at the historic Second Congregational Meeting House, also known as the Unitarian Meeting House, is Nantucket’s home of liberal religion, music and learning. Sunday-morning services begin at 10:45 a.m. followed by coffee and conversation.

A children’s program and child care are provided every Sunday from 10:30 a.m. to noon. The Meeting House, easily identifiable by its gold dome, is located at 11 Orange St., just off Main Street. For more information, visit UnitarianChurch-Nantucket.org or call (508) 228-5466.