Sermon Archive
The Rhythms of Our Lives
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...
Where Shall You Seek Beauty?
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
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
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
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
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
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?
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...
A Journey in Poetry
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
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…”...
Greening Power
Greening Power Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester Unitarian Universalist Church March 17, 2019 Today is all about green. Each year Americans celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, taking to the streets to party, with parades, and green clothes, hair, face paint, and...
Encountering the Sacred Everywhere
Encountering the Sacred Everywhere Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church March 10, 2019 On my very first morning in India, I found myself in a tour bus bouncing down the highway from the Varanasi airport to the hotel. Suddenly the tour guide called our attention...
Upcoming Services
To Learn from the Land, led by Reverend Janet Parsons. We'll honor Earth Day by seeing ourselves as truly part of nature, not separate from it. Music provided by Andrew Glennon.
Worship is in-person, or at the livestream link below.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIeJfO72kLh-gAtZZT-QOng/live
Recent News
Announcing Socktober
The fourth annual Socks and Underwear drive sponsored by the Gloucester Unitarian Universalist Church has a new name – Socktober! During October we will be collecting donations of socks, underwear, hats, gloves and mittens for women and men, girls and boys, to benefit...
To Do More That Feel
To Do More Than Feel © Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church October 5, 2025 One thing that has taken me completely by surprise in recent months has been a growing awareness that many voices on the political right are adamantly opposed to the moral value of...
Sunday Oct 5
To Do More Than Feel, led by Reverend Janet Parsons with music by Steve Lacey. Our spiritual theme for October is Cultivating Compassion. What does compassion ask of us? How is it different than empathy? Join us at 10AM in-person or at the livestream link below....