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...

Truth Alone is Strong  © Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church October 9, 2022     If you are like me, perhaps you felt your eyebrows raise at the mention of Abraham Lincoln in our reading, ordering the execution of 38 Dakota warriors on the day after Christmas...

The Courage to Search the Heart© Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church October 2, 2022     It was 25 years ago now:  one of the earliest school shootings that I remember hearing of, at Heath High School in West Paducah, Kentucky. This was even before the...

To Transcend Ourselves Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester Unitarian Universalist Church September 18, 2022     She was an unsuccessful author, and was drinking more and more, and struggling to stay afloat. On weekends she would sometimes visit a flea market near her...

All of Life Depends on Water © Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester Unitarian Universalist Church September 11, 2022   All of life depends on water.   This summer has been a challenging one for those of us who garden, and my heart goes out to all those who farm, who rely...

The Sound of Water on Stone © Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church August 21, 2022   Last winter, in preparing to set forth on my recent sabbatical, I set a number of goals for myself. This can be risky: I wasn’t confident that I would succeed in achieving most...

Returning to the Well Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester Unitarian Universalist Church August 14, 2022   It’s a steep climb, up the hill known as Dun I on the Isle of Iona in Scotland. To get to the base of the hill, you open a farmer’s gate, cross a pasture dotted...

Blessings from a Small Island Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church August 7, 2022     It’s a tiny island, the Isle of Iona. To reach it, off the coast of Scotland, a pilgrim has to take a train, a bus, and two ferries. But pilgrimages are supposed to be...

Being at home in the world.  A homily for the Gloucester UU Church. -Karl Frank, July 31, 2022     This title came to me when I read a book, “The disappearance of ritual”. The author is Byung-Chul Han, born in South Korea, now the head of a University in Berlin,...