Sermon Archive
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...
Potluck
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
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...
Upcoming Services
Gloucester UU joins Rockport and Essex for worship this Sunday at First Univ of Essex, or on Zoom.Sunday August 23rd 10 am Stronger Together with Rev. Tess BaumbergerJoin us for a service about how we can be stronger by working together, using the symbols of spinning threads and weaving tapestries. The service will include a simple ritual, poetry, and meditations on the power of collaboration.To join us via Zoom please visit uuessex.org and click on the Zoom link. If you’re coming in person, there is some street parking or you can use the municipal lot. Coming from Gloucester you would go past the church and take your first left onto Martin Street, then go left again on Shepherd Street. Please know the central spots in the lot are reserved for boat and trailer parking during the summer. If you go up the stairs at the end of the lot, you can cross the parking lot and make your way to the church.
Recent News
Sunday July 12
Please join us in the Social Hall Sunday morning for an informal service that is centered around a shared meal and guided conversation. Steve Lacey will provide the music. Please note: there will be no livestream Sunday morning since we will be downstairs. Following...
Sunday July 5
At the July 5 service, we will observe the Flower Communion, a traditional UU celebration of the gifts of nature and of the individual personal gifts that each of us brings to create our church community. Please plan to bring, on July 5, one or two flowers, if you...
Next Book Discussion – Aug 18
We will be discussing Arbornaut by Margaret Lowman on Aug 18, 3pm in the Williams Room. Everyone is welcome. Any questions contact Peter Hornbeck. ARBORNAUT: A LIFE DISCOVERING THE EIGHTH CONTINENT IN THE TREES ABOVE US by Margaret D. Lowman (2021). It is an...