Motion is the Reality Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church April 18, 2021     I hope that you are able to think of yourself as a shimmering jewel, one of billions that together make up the universe.  Can you picture it?  What color would you be?   We Unitarian...

Hope Rises © Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester Unitarian Universalist Church April 4, 2021     I find that in recent weeks I have been thinking back frequently to last Easter.  I remember the almost heartbreaking hope we had, on that last Sunday together in March of...

Tales of Liberation Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church March 28, 2021     Passover   The story of Passover is an ancient one.  A famine in Israel forced the patriarch Jacob to lead his large extended family to Egypt, to reunite with his...

A Year in the Life© Two Reflections Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church March 14, 2021   1)         A Year in the Life   Like many of my colleagues, and perhaps many of you, I have had a song stuck in my head this week: Seasons of Love, from the musical Rent. ...

The Silent Vow Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church March 7, 2021 Perhaps the most compelling task we face as humans is that of sorting out what truly belongs to ourselves, and what the world imposes upon us.  Over our lifetimes, we are constantly moving:...

To Walk Together Reverend Janet Parsons, Gloucester UU Church February 28, 2021   There comes a time, when a person has started attending seminary, that attending parties starts to become a little bit weird. Old friends aren’t quite sure what to say to you, so they...

An Orientation of the Heart Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church February 14, 2021   “We will rebuild, reconcile, and recover. And every known nook of our nation and every corner called our country, our people diverse and beautiful, will emerge battered and...

Where We See Everyone’s Face Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church February 7, 2021 It’s hard to talk about Beloved Community these days.  It’s hard to imagine it, to summon its ideals, its grace, and its promise of unconditional love. It’s hard to consider...

Imaginings – Rev Janet Parsons and Karl Frank Jan 31, 2021 We have such an unusual and interesting service for you this morning! Thank goodness we have five Sundays this month. There has been a theme all month, but we’ve barely been able to scratch the surface of it...

What’s Stopping Us? Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church January 17, 2021 (Martin Luther King Sunday)   It’s still a scene that I love to watch, and that still can bring tears to my eyes: the scene in Grant Park in Chicago, on November 5, 2008, when Barack...

Reimagining a Country © Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church January 10, 2021   “They left for their own country by another road.”   So ends the tale of the Magi, the Wise Men, the astronomers from the East who saw a new star and followed it to find...

Hope Arising Reverend Janet Parsons January 3, 2021   This has likely been the most anticipated, the most consequential New Year since the turn of the century 20 years ago now. This New Year, I found myself feeling as though it wasn’t enough to just watch the ball...