Sermon Archive
Caring for the Stranger
Caring for the Stranger Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church July 20, 2025 I’ve been watching, this spring and summer, as efforts to capture and detain undocumented immigrants have filled our news and our social media. There have been some dramatic scenes of...
The Living Earth – My Journey Through Deep Time
Sermon presented at Gloucester UU Church July 13, 2025 by Mern Sibley “The Living Earth - My Journey through Deep Time” In the days following the election last November, I found myself feeling discouraged. I imagine many of you felt the same way. So many hourly and...
The Right of Conscience
The Right of Conscience © Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church June 15, 2025 On January 21st, 2025, the day following the presidential inauguration, there was a national prayer service held at Washington’s National Cathedral. I read through the service and it...
We Need You to Be Who You Are
We Need You to Be Who You Are © Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church June 8, 2025 This week, during the parade of daily adventures that range from the absurd to the corrupt to the cruel to the merely incompetent, a memorandum from the Secretary of the Navy...
Finding Our Voices Beyond the Boundaries
Finding Our Voices Beyond the Boundaries Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church May 18, 2025 “The opposite of war isn’t peace, it’s creation.” I was reminded recently of these lyrics from the song La Vie Boheme in the musical Rent, and they struck me as relevant...
Our Sheltering Promise
Our Sheltering Promise Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church April 27, 2025 “This is no time for a casual faith.” One of my strongest memories of the protests against the white supremacists who showed up in Charlottesville, Virginia back in the summer of 2017 is...
Rising Up in Joy
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
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
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
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
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
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...
Upcoming Services
Building a House Called Tomorrow, led by Reverend Janet Parsons with music by Steve Lacey. As we do each year, we'll reflect on why we create a church community, and how we support it. In a world that shifts daily, a church is meant to hold the center for us. How well can we hold it?
Worship is in-person, or at the livestream link below.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIeJfO72kLh-gAtZZT-QOng/live
Recent News
Sunday April 5
Dying is the Opposite of Leaving, led by Reverend Janet Parsons, with Andrew Soll, organist, and the church choir. Join us for Easter Sunday, as we celebrate that Love has the last word. Everyone is welcome! At our church, community is more important than belief. So...
To Speak Out Against Kings
To Speak Out Against Kings © Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church March 29, 2026 By 1980, El Salvador was overrun with paramilitary groups: death squads, who roamed the country assassinating people in the name of “traditional values”, and “law and...
Sunday March 29
To Speak Out Against Kings, led by Reverend Janet Parsons. On this Palm Sunday, with a country rife with conflict, we will look at the lessons of prophets, ancient and modern. What do they have to tell us? Music provided by Andrew Glennon and our choir. Worship is...