My Heart Shall Sing Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church December 15, 2019   This past Wednesday one of the very first things I saw after I woke up was that Time Magazine’s 2019 Person of the Year had been announced. The award was given to Greta Thunberg,...

First There is Awe© Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church December 8, 2019   Early in my seminary days, I had a conversation with a fellow student about how we experienced the divine, the numinous, the ineffable, or whatever name you might want to give that...

Opening to Love Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church November 17, 2019   There was a great turnout on Wednesday evening at Jalapenos Restaurant down the street. It was World Kindness Day, and our local Kindness Project, conceived and spearheaded by our...

November 10, 2019 Sermon: Choosing Attention in an Era of Distraction Rev. Sue Koehler-Arsenault, Guest Preacher Martha’s of today, you who are worried and distracted by many things, and all of us, consider Mary, who sat at the feet of Jesus and listened to what he...

To Finally Stand Still Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church November 3, 2019   I’ve been living in my ‘new’ house for just over two years now. It has been a long time since I have moved to a new home, and I’ve been very aware that it takes a long time for...

Love Can Build a House that Stands Forever © Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church October 20, 2019 I received an unexpected gift on Wednesday afternoon. A very special gift, in the form of 29 youth, and their adult leaders, who visited us from the First...

Writing in the Book of Life © Reverend Janet Parsons September 29, 2019 It’s hard to deny these past few days: the leaves on the trees are beginning to turn. This past week we’ve been savoring the lingering warmth of late summer, well, early fall, really, and being...

In Praise of the Dappled Things © Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church September 15, 2019 Our poet knew no fame during his lifetime. Nor did he seek any. A Jesuit priest, Gerard Manley Hopkins lived a conflicted life; never sure of how to reconcile his...

Confluence © Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester Unitarian Universalist Church September 8, 2019 Deep in the Amazon, vast rivers meet and mingle their waters. The tributaries that ultimately combine to form the Amazon River begin in the highlands of South America, and...

Libraries, Church, and the Unexpected A sermon delivered on Aug 25, 2019 at Gloucester’s UU Church By Mern Sibley and Roger Garberg Welcome and Announcements Our remarks today compare two different kinds of sanctuary—the church and the public library. Part of the...

Thoreau and the Examined Life by Karl Frank  Aug 18, 2019   In most books, the I, or first person, is omitted; in this it will be retained; that, in respect to egotism, is the main difference. We commonly do not remember, that it is, after all, always the first...

The Ties that Bind Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church August 11, 2019   The story goes that an anthropologist was once studying a tribe of people in Africa. He proposed a game to the children, putting a basket of sweet, ripe fruit near a tree, and...