The Crucible © Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church February 5, 2023     I took time yesterday to stand and watch the sea smoke rising and blowing. At times it was so thick that the water was completely covered with a layer of swirling white. Huge puffy clouds...

Those in the Shadows © Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church January 15, 2023     Those “honor-driven activists.” We ‘find memory beneath their doors, and taste the blessings of their midwifery.’  (Sonia Sanchez, “Progress Report”)   Today we pause and look...

A Dual Hunger © Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church January 8, 2023     There is a moment, when we are watching the swinging of a pendulum, when there’s a slowing, a pause, before the pendulum begins to move back in the other direction. Picture this with me...

We Are the Dwelling Place © Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church December 24, 2022   The photo was posted on social media, among many photos of the flooding and the angry surf over the past two days. The photographer, Jay Albert, managed to capture the moment...

Who Makes Much of a Miracle? © Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church December 4, 2022   “As for me, I know of nothing else but miracles,” wrote Walt Whitman.   We have entered the season of miracles, of enduring stories, tales of events that we cannot explain,...

Living Free From Hunger © Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church November 20, 2022   You can tell when Thanksgiving is approaching in my extended family. Conversation on the family WhatsApp group starts to heat up, with queries about the head count, and food...

So That Fresh, Green Leaves Might GrowReverend Janet ParsonsGloucester UU Church  November 13, 2022“The moon changes, the atmosphere changes,And yet this is all somehow a constant,Something solid to count on, Constantly in motion.”        (Mary Wellemeyer, Constantly...

Jeremy Taylor Melvin Reflection - All Souls’ Day Given at: Gloucester UU Church October 30th, 2022   I went to Ipswich yesterday.  I grew up there, but go there infrequently.  Or at least not much to the part of town I grew up in.  And when I do, I am usually driving,...

Rising to Change © Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church November 6, 2022   It seems that there is an election in a couple of days. I’m sure that you might have noticed. Quite some time ago, in a fit of anger over some of the actions, or inactions, of the...

    Courage Confronting Racism Dick Prouty. 10.23.202     Fifty years ago this month, Doris and I were in bed @ 10:30PM in our new house in Lanesville, just up from the Cove, on a chilly evening.  Suddenly, we heard a lot of commotion in the front yard and looked out...

Reading                               from A Larger Hope, by Russell Miller                    Pat   Our first reading is excerpted from an account of the early years of John Murray and the Universalists here in Gloucester.   “In February, 1777, 16 members of the...

The Flow of Abundance © Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church October 16, 2022   These days, when I meditate, I most often find myself envisioning water; sunlight filtering down through water, the gentle waves rocking underwater plants and sand to and fro, the...