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...

Resurrection of the Creation © Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church Easter Sunday, April 21, 2019   The ancient story tells us that on the day Jesus was crucified, there were two other men crucified beside him. One of them asked Jesus to remember him as he...

What Might You Sacrifice? © Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church April 14, 2019   …And last spring along the Back Shore swam right whales. Early in May last year, a pod of right whales, a rather large percentage of the tiny number of right whales still...

Sunday, March 24, 2019   Call to Worship by Kathleen McTigue (excerpt) Here in the refuge of this Sabbath home We turn our busy minds toward silence, And our full hearts toward one another. We move together through the mysteries: The bright surprise of birth and...

From Heart to Head and Back to Heart Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church March 31, 2019   “We were born with silence, and as we grew up, we lost the silence and were filled with words. We lived in our hearts, and as time passed, we moved into our heads…”...