The Cloud in the Paper © Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church April 14, 2024   Diana Beresford was orphaned at the age of 12. Both of her parents died within months of each other, and she was left in the care of an indifferent uncle in the city of Cork, in...

Universal Resurrection © Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church March 31, 2024   There is so much that we understand about this time of year, this time when life begins to emerge from the cold, barren earth. We know enough science to anticipate this emergence, to...

Countless Small Actions © Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church March 10, 2024     We had a good time talking about butterflies in our service last week. For those who weren’t here or watching online, I was talking about how personal transformation in our lives...

Imaginal Cells © Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church March 3, 2024     He was an enemy of the earliest Christians, a Pharisee named Saul of Tarsus, who was charged with hunting down the apostles and their followers, and ordering them dragged off to prison. He...

Reparations Service. 2/18/24 Remarks Dick Prouty   As you look around this sanctuary today and take in the wonderfully designed woodwork and stained-glass windows, how many of you are aware that this building was built in large part by the fortunes of families on Cape...

Confronting the Past, Creating the Future © Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church February 18, 2024     In April of 1862, at the height of the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln signed a law giving freedom to enslaved people in the District of Columbia. This...

Toward a Truly Liberating Theology for UU’s © Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church February 11, 2024     It was Dr. Paul Farmer, the late founder of Partners in Health, who introduced me to the concept of Liberation Theology. I was devouring Tracy Kidder’s...

The Stories Behind the Music © Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church February 4, 2024   Today is the time and the place to call upon the memories of the ancestors. Today we are hearing of heroes, and of giants. In the words of our author Qiyamah Rahman, “It is...

Love the Hell Out of This World © Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church January 21, 2024     I read a story recently by the Reverend Susan Frederick-Gray, who just last June finished her term as the president of the Unitarian Universalist Association. She was...

Power Without Love…Love Without Power © Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church January 14, 2024     It wasn’t until the election of 2016 that I fully came to understand the depth of the derision and dislike that conservative sectors of our country, actually,...