Sermon Archive
For There is Always Light
For There is Always Light © Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church March 20, 2022 The fog yesterday sent me into a very pensive state of mind. I stared for long periods at the patterns created by the bare tree branches, which was about all I could see. I find...
The Saving Power of We
The Saving Power of We © Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church February 20, 2022 This past week an unusual news story caught my eye. It told of a priest in the Roman Catholic diocese of Phoenix who was discovered to be conducting the sacrament of baptism...
Circles of Love
Circles of Love © Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church February 13, 2022 Last week an article in the Boston Globe magazine caught my eye; it was about the legacy of Maria Mitchell, known as the first female astronomer in the United States. (“The Heirs of...
The Road to Hell
The Road to Hell © Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church January 30, 2022 “If you come as softly as wind within the trees You may hear what I hear See what sorrow sees. If you come as lightly as threading dew I will take you gladly, nor ask more of...
Sacred Moments and Holy Places
Sacred Moments and Holy Places © Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester Unitarian Universalist Church January 23, 2022 The other day Thich Nhat Hanh, the venerable Vietnamese Zen Buddhist monk, transitioned from this life to the next one at the age of 95. His life was...
Dictionary.com’s Word of the Year
Dictionary.com’s 2021 Word of the Year © Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church January 16, 2022 In case there are any of you who haven’t looked up the 2021 Word of the Year yet, we’ll get to that in just a minute. Maybe your curiosity got the better of you and...
To Live with Zeal
To Live with Zeal © Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church January 9, 2022 On a summer day in 1845, Henry David Thoreau wrote these few words in his journal: “July 5. Saturday, Walden. Yesterday I came here to live.” And live there he did, for two years, two...
Cultural Humility
Kelly Knox Dec 12, 2021 Good Morning. It is so wonderful to be here, to see everyone. I have missed this community so very much. The idea for what has now morphed into nothing more than a conversation starter, was born of me telling Reverend Janet that I was chairing...
Giving Thanks for the Pizzazz
Giving Thanks for the Pizzazz © Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church November 21, 2021 Yesterday afternoon the Gloucester Meetinghouse Foundation hosted a symposium on refugees and immigration right here in our sanctuary. There was so much information shared,...
Allowing Our Hearts to Break
Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester Unitarian Universalist Church November 7, 2021 Suddenly, it’s November. Like the trees, who spend autumn drawing nourishment back into their roots, we, too, find that our instincts begin to turn us inward, toward memory and...
What Graveyards Are
What Graveyards Are 1418 Words Karl Frank Oct 31, 2021 When asked if I would deliver a homily today, in a service where we would commemorate the dead, I knew I had some ideas about those things, more particularly about graveyards. I had recently read Robert...
Make Our Broken Pieces Whole
Make Our Broken Pieces Whole © Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church October 24, 2021 I had a really positive experience the other day, that I enjoyed thoroughly – I got to sit with a couple of church members to air some conflict. I’ve said often that...
Upcoming Services
Dec 22, 2024
Turning Toward the Light, led by Reverend Janet Parsons, with music by Nami Hamada.
Join us at 10am in-person or at the livestream link below.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIeJfO72kLh-gAtZZT-QOng/live
Childcare will be provided for elementary-age children and older.
Christmas Eve Service, Dec 24, 7pm. Please join us for a retelling of the traditional Christmas story with scripture, contemporary readings, and lots of music. We will sing Silent Night by candlelight at the end. Everyone is welcome! This service will be livestreamed at the link above.
Recent News
Pilgrims in a Pilgrim Church
Pilgrims in a Pilgrim Church Gloucester Unitarian Universalist Church Reverend Janet Parsons September 29, 2024 Part One: Lonely Voyages Into the Unknown I love to picture the scene in my mind’s eye: a traveler from England whose ship had gone aground, walking along a...
Sunday, October 6
This Sunday's worship is led by Reverend Janet Parsons with music provided by Andy Soll. Please join us at 10am in-person or at the livestream link below. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIeJfO72kLh-gAtZZT-QOng/live Children's programming will be provided by Kiana...
A Time for Balance, A Time for Gratitude
A Time for Balance, A Time for Gratitude © Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church September 22, 2024 I’ve been noticing an interesting trend all along the shoreline here on Cape Ann in the past couple of years: perhaps you have as well. On many of our rocky...