Sermon Archive
Gaza: From Heartbreak Comes Courage and Inspiration
Presentation- Gaza: From Heartbreak Comes Courage and Inspiration Gloucester UU Church, August 10, 2025 Susan Nicholson, Ph.D., J.D. I. INTRODUCTION Those of you who know of my 20 year advocacy for Palestinian human rights will not be surprised I was deeply impacted...
What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?
What to the Slave Is the Fourth of July? — Reflections For Our Time Honoring Frederick Douglass and Reimagining Freedom Today Introduction Thank you for gathering with me today. We meet not only to commemorate the birth of a nation, but to reflect on the complexities...
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...
Upcoming Services
"Grab the Rope: Some Tips on Becoming" led by guest Rev. Rebecca Shelbe-Hall. Music provided by Andy Soll and our choir. Please join us at 10am. Everyone is welcome!
Worship is in-person, or at the livestream link below.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIeJfO72kLh-gAtZZT-QOng/live
Recent News
Sunday April 26
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....
Building A House Called Tomorrow
Building a House Called Tomorrow © Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church April 19, 2026 When you think about it, a church really is a remarkable thing. To open the service I chose words of a colleague, the Reverend Leslie Takahashi, that set forth...
Sunday Apr 19
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...