“With Our Minds We Make The World” Sunday, July 28, 2018 By Reverend Mark Nelson On a glorious Sunday morning in July, you would never know it. It is so hard to see on a day like today. But weather patterns and the climate are changing in ways that pose a monumental...

Hidden in Plain Sight Reverend Parsons July 21, 2019 It’s tourist season, and when we’re driving around town we see those nice little banners that proclaim Gloucester to be “America’s Oldest Seaport”, and that it was settled in 1623. And certainly this is something to...

The Power (and the Work) of We Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church June 30, 2019   “We the people…” “We the people, in order to form a more perfect Union…” “We hold these truths to be self-evident…” Our nation’s birthday approaches. If we count our age...

Peace, Energy and Forgiveness Marylou Bassani, July 14, 2019 In November of 2003 Gary Ridgway, the Green River Killer, was found guilty of multiple counts of murder. One by one family members rose to give impact statements. Angry sentiments were directed toward...

Mr. Trump and our spiritual practice July 7, 2019 Two experiences inform what I wish to say this morning: one new and one old. First: At the time of the last election I got a terrible feeling that I was going to be in a perpetual state of upset. I had no peace....

Douglas Smith’s sermon 6/23/2019 Gloucester Unitarian Universalist Church We don’t usually think of this time of year as midsummer, but it is just in these longest days that midsummer festivals are celebrated – and have been from time immemorial. Stonehenge, built in...

The Rhythms of Our Lives © Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church June 9, 2019 “Whatever beat is moving through your bones, Whatever holy disturbance is rising in your chest…” This much we all know about our lives, and the lives of all creatures: there is a beat...

We gather here, surrounded by the promise of a June morning, in the wake of yet another mass shooting. As the number of dead and wounded people rise, month by month, week by week, across our country, we face the threat not only of being direct victims of a gun...

Let My Heart Be Open Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester Unitarian Universalist Church May 26, 2019   With spring finally here, I have been trying to spend some time out in the yard. The other day I decided to get a shovel and dig up the new patch of Japanese...

Connecting the Threads of Kindness by Kelly Knox May 26, 2019 I came across kindness by accident. Kindness as a project that is. Kindness in general, that was birthing happenstance. My mother is one of the kindest people I know. I never heard her say an unkind word...

Getting Proximate Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester Unitarian Universalist Church May 12, 2019   “Be brave enough to start a conversation that matters.” “Treasure curiosity more than certainty.” (from “Turning to One Another,” by Margaret J. Wheatley) Bryan...

To Touch Inward Springs © Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester Unitarian Universalist Church May 5, 2019   Two hundred years ago, the arguments between liberal and conservative Congregationalists in New England were almost as intense as the conflicts between...