On Sunday, August 14, the Rev. Dr. Emilie M. Townes, dean of Vanderbilt Divinity School, will be the guest preacher at Union Chapel in Oak Bluffs.

Reverend Townes is an ordained American Baptist clergywoman who earned a doctorate in philosophy from the Joint Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary/Northwestern University Program in Religious and Theological Studies in 1989. She also received a doctorate in ministry from the University of Chicago in 1982. Reverend Townes continues her research on women and health in the African diaspora in Brazil and the United States, and also currently serves as president of the Society for the Study of Black Religion (2012–2016).

Her sermon is entitled Songs of Zion.

Union Chapel is located on Narragansett avenue at the intersection with Kennebec and Circuit avenues. On Sunday, the organ prelude begins at 9:40 a.m. and the worship at 10 a.m.