Even before she stepped on the Vineyard as the new minister of the Unitarian-Universalist Society of Martha’s Vineyard, Rev. Jill Cowie believed a deep spiritual power lies within those who live in an island community.

“Islands? Because there are distinct boundaries, I think it helps people create identities that are deeper. It makes people feel special about themselves. I think it also brings a level of commitment to life,” she said.

“When you live in a suburb or in Boston, you can start to feel diluted.”

Ms. Cowie, her husband and four teenagers live in Marshfield.

Though there are services every Sunday at the small Main street, Vineyard Haven chapel, Ms. Cowie will serve as a half-time minister, commuting from Marshfield a few days each week and conducting services usually on the first and third Sunday of every month.

Despite the logistics, Ms. Cowie said she chose to come to the Vineyard to join with the congregation because of what already is here. “I think they enjoy each other and they enjoy learning and growing, laughing. I think there is a certain amount of pride in who they are. They bring a voice to the community.

“This is a really nice congregation. As a congregation, they are healthy. They have vision and they have energy. They have a certain level of confidence on who they are and what they want to be. That is what attracted me. It is exciting for me to be a part of that.”

Like many in the congregation, Reverend Cowie said she is on a quest: “My sense of call to ministry integrates all that is important to me; spiritual and intellectual discovery, healthy relationships, healing and transformation, social change and justice.” í

Ms. Cowie grew up unchurched. “I knew my father was a Unitarian Universalist in church when he was in college,” she said, “My mother was an agnostic Lutheran.”

Rev. Cowie came into spirituality on her own more than 10 years ago. She completed last May the schooling required to become an ordained Universalist minister.

Though this is her first congregation as minister, the word “community” keeps popping up in Ms. Cowie’s description of where she has been and the ways she has stepped in to help others. She went to college at Bar Harbor, lived for a spell in Key West. She got a master’s degree in social work from Boston University in 1988 and did work helping young mothers-to-be along the North Shore, where she said there was a higher than acceptable infant death rate.

While studying at Andover Newton Theological School and tending to her family, she also worked as a codirector of the Neighborhood Corporation in Taunton. There, she and many others worked to restore and bring back to life a portion of the million-square-foot, 19th-century Robertson Mill.

Their intent was to bring about a positive outcome for a troubled historic industrial complex that had become a hazardous site. There was plenty of old brick and crumbling mortar in the project. Ms. Cowie’s gift to the project was working with people.

She likes being a coalition builder. She brings life experience that already fits nicely with the Vineyard Haven-based congregation. As a spiritual leader she has done plenty to be helpful in promoting community, in a modern-day world that isn’t so community centered.

“It is about meeting the needs,” she said.

Spiritual needs too, of course. “I want to bring about an integration between my inward self and my outward self. I feel the congregation does that for each other, too. We don’t have a creed. But we do promise to each other to make the world better.”

For now and looking into the short-term future, Ms. Crowie said she is here to look and to listen. Though she is prepared to go beyond the pulpit, this is her time to learn. Looking farther down the path, she said she hopes to use some of her talents, but for now it is about getting to know those for whom she serves.

The Unitarian Universalist Society of Martha’s Vineyard has been around for a while. It was founded in 1860 as the the Unity Church of Holmes Hole. Years later, the word “church” was used less, and the word “chapel” came into common usage. Today they use the words “congregation” and “society” to best describe their religious assembly. And they meet every Sunday at 11 a.m. at their 109-year-old chapel with diamond-pane glass windows and lots of varnished wood at 238 Main street, in Vineyard Haven.