Rising Up in Joy Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church April 20, 2025 “Life happens, keeps happening… One day, it happens; you take a breath, and it doesn’t hurt to breathe. You start to see people again, really see them. Hope rises. Community rises. You rise....

Of Empire and Liberation © Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church April 13, 2025 This is the time of year when life begins to return, and the Spirit is moving. In two of the world’s important religious traditions, Judaism and Christianity, ancient stories are...

Sabbath as Resistance Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church March 30, 2025 (adapted from original 1/3/16) “Let there be stillness in my heart for a moment, the balance point between breathing in and breathing out, like the pause of a dancer between movements in...

Trusting Hope © Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church March 23, 2025 Well. What a year this past week has been. One thing has become clear over the past two months, and that is: we’ve been strapped into a roller coaster for a very long ride. Now, roller coasters...

Trusting Religious Community © Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church March 16, 2025 It’s a story that never seems to end. This week, along with the daily headlines that just seem to go from bad to worse, a news story popped up about a megachurch pastor who was...

Unsheathing the Heart © Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church March 9, 2025 There is an ancient teaching that has long been attributed to the Buddha himself. It says, “Be ye lamps unto yourselves; be your own confidence; hold to the truth within yourselves as to...

Potluck © Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church February 23, 2025 There is an old fable that I’m sure just about everyone knows: the story of Stone Soup. In this tale, an old woman suddenly arrives in a poor village. People there lived a pinched existence, and...

Love in Action © Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church February 16, 2025 On September 20, 1958, Martin Luther King Jr. was holding a book signing in Manhattan, having just published Stride Toward Freedom, his book about the Montgomery bus boycott. A mentally ill...

Waiting at the Threshold © Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church February 2, 2025 The ancient legend tells us that St. Brigid of Kildare, in Ireland, was born on a threshold, at dawn, between indoors and outdoors, between night and day. She is celebrated at...

To Take on Tomorrow © Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church January 19, 2025 In the early 1760’s, a 12-year old African boy from Guinea emerged from a slave ship in Boston speaking not a word of English. He was purchased there on the dock by a man named Timothy...

The Power of Stories © Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church January 12, 2025 There’s an old story that is found in Stephen Covey’s book, The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, supposedly about Captain Horatio Hornblower. The story goes that some navy...

Christmas Begins at Midnight © Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church December 24, 2024 This year, I had the great good fortune of witnessing the aurora borealis, the northern lights, right from my front yard. It was a magical moment; truly a bucket list...