Sermon Archive
To Live Like a River Flows
To Live Like a River Flows © Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church February 22, 2026 People often wonder how a minister creates a sermon. Frankly, the minister often wonders this herself. But people tend to be curious about the process: how we find...
Jame Baldwin: On Love and Salvation
James Baldwin: On Love and Salvation Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church February 15, 2026 He could have grown to adulthood consumed with hatred. In fact, he harbored great anger at the way his country treated him and other marginalized people....
To Take Back Our Land Again
To Take Back Our Land Again © Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church January 18, 2026 As I was writing this sermon yesterday, I heard that there was a large-scale protest taking place in Minneapolis, the city most recently targeted for authoritarian control of...
We Fight for Roses, Too!
We Fight for Roses, Too! © Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church January 11, 2026 The story began 114 years ago, on January 1, 1912. That day, a new law took effect in Massachusetts that reduced the number of hours in the work week for women, from 56 hours per...
Prepare Him Room
Prepare Him Room © Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church Christmas Eve 2025 One of the most beloved of Christmas church traditions is the staging of Christmas pageants, when a community dresses up in costumes and retells the ancient story, complete with...
A Light for Dark Days
A Light for Dark Days © Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church December 21, 2025 The Gospel of John tells us: “..the light was the light of all people. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it.” (John 1:4b-5.) The year was 1993, over...
New Life Begins in the Dark
New Life Begins in the Dark © Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church December 14, 2025 There are many wonderful aspects of living on Cape Ann: the beauty and wonder of the ocean, the variety of places to explore on foot, with plenty of woods and fascinating rock...
Practicing Hope as a Verb
Practicing Hope as a Verb © Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church December 7, 2025 “Imagine the world as a theater,” wrote author Rebecca Solnit. “Imagine the world as a theater. The acts of the powerful and the official occupy center stage. The traditional...
Grief..And Gratitude
Grief…And Gratitude Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church November 2, 2025 Often when I am leading a memorial service, I tell the people gathered that “it is hard and important work” that we are doing together as we prepare to say goodbye to someone we love. In...
Fiercely Compassionate
Fiercely Compassionate © Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church October 26, 2025 Times are hard in the city of Chicago these days. Since September 9, when the Department of Homeland Security launched what it named Operation Midway Blitz, over 1000 people have...
Proclaiming Democracy
Proclaimdem/rel101925 Rev. Art McDonald Oct 19, 2025 I’m one of those dinosaurs who still gets the daily newspaper, the Boston Globe, delivered 7 days a week. As a Latin American historian once wrote, I eat the newspaper for breakfast. A few months back, an article in...
Giving, Receiving, as Love Shows Us How
Giving, Receiving, as Love Shows Us How © Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church October 12, 2025 It was almost exactly 10 years ago now, in November of 2015, to be exact, that presidential candidate Donald Trump openly mocked a reporter with a physical...
Upcoming Services
The Road Ahead, led by Reverend Janet Parsons, with Andrew Glennon, pianist. Our theme for November is Healing. Join us as we consider our work in the days and years ahead with the election behind us. The mood will be upbeat and coffee hour will be extra celebratory!
Worship is in-person or at the livestream link below. Please join us at 10am. Everyone is welcome!
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIeJfO72kLh-gAtZZT-QOng/live
Recent News
Next Book Discussion – Dec 15, 2pm
Our pick for the next book group is below. We will meet in the Williams Room on Dec 15. Everyone is welcome. You do not need to be a church member. Questions contact Peter Hornbeck. Everything the Light Touches (2022) by Janice Pariat, mingles fact with fiction,...
Sunday Oct 25
Monsters and Masks and Shadows, led by Reverend Janet Parsons. As Halloween approaches, and the ancient Celtic festival of Samhain, it's a time when the veil between the earthly realm and the unseen grows thin. We enjoy the spooky aspect of the holiday, but what are...
Becoming the Ocean
Becoming the Ocean © Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church October 18, 2026 When I was a child, I just loved playing on a seesaw whenever I went to a playground. That sense of shooting up into the sky, and then rapidly returning to earth, over and over,...