Ian M. Holland
I am a UCC church pastor approved for ordination by the Metropolitan Boston Association of the Massachusetts Conference of the United Church of Christ. My ordination date is April 22, 2012.
On Oct. 16, 2011, the congregation of First Church Swampscott voted to call me to serve them as their next Senior Minister. I started there on Nov 21. Thanks be to God.
In prior years I served four churches in various capacities. I was a seminarian field-education student at South Acton Congregational Church for two years, a ministerial intern at Payson Park Church, UCC, Belmont for a year. For a number of years I was also one of the worship leaders of the Thursday night Jazz Worship Service at the Old South Church in Boston. In June, 2010 I completed a year serving First Church Somerville, UCC in Somerville MA as their support pastor. Their senior minister took 11 months medical leave to battle cancer. I was their pastor during this challenging period in the life of the congregation.
I was born in Cork City, Ireland, and raised as a Catholic. After earning bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Mathematics and Computer Science from the National University of Ireland, I came to the US in 1987 to enter the computer science Ph.D. program at Northeastern University, Boston. I completed my Ph.D. studies in 1992 and began a career in software development, first with IBM in Florida and Texas, and then with Kronos Incorporated, a software company in Chelmsford Massachusetts. I was a vice president of engineering at Kronos until August 2007 when I left to become a full-time seminarian.
Over the four year period beginning in Summer 2005, I earned a Master's of Divinity Degree from Andover Newton Theological School.
For the past 20 years, my church home has been Old South Church in Boston, a historic church of the UCC. I am married with two teenage children and live in Westford, MA.
Awards
I was elected to the Jonathan Edward's Honors Society by the faculty of Andover Newton Theological School.
I received the 2010 Andover Newton Award for Excellence in Biblical Studies.
I am a co-inventor of seven patents awarded by US Patent Office.
In 2005 I received an “Outstanding Alumni” award from Northeastern University recognizing my contributions to the field of Computer Science.
I am a co-author of a number of published papers in the fields of software engineering and object oriented software design.
I am a co-author of a number of published papers in the fields of software engineering and object oriented software design.
