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Sermon Archive

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...

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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,...

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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...

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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...

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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...

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The ‘We’ Above the ‘I’

The ‘We’ Above the ‘I’ © Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church October 10, 2021   Braiding Sweetgrass, a beautiful book about indigenous wisdom and what plants have to teach us, is full of stories. The author, Robin Wall Kimmerer, recounted that she once met a...

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Good Neighbors

Good Neighbors © Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church October 3, 2021   There is a hillside in Salem, that I discovered recently. It’s a small area, tucked between two ordinary houses on an ordinary street. It is a hillside known as Proctor’s Ledge, and there,...

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The Guidance System

Led by Newt Fink, Aug 22, 2021   August 22, 2021  UU The guidance system In many examples from nature we see the workings of an apparent guidance system. A tiny bird, the Red Knot, migrates every year eight thousand miles without a map, without a device, through...

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Flower Communion

Led by Lucille LePage July 18, 2021 So, what is a Flower Communion?  And what is its significance? The story begins almost 100 years ago, in Czechoslovakia, with Dr. Norbert Capek and his wife Maja.  Both were Unitarian ministers who started the Unitarian Church of...

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New Beginnings

New Beginnings Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church July 11, 2021   I chose this reading this morning (from John O’Donohue’s To Bless the Space Between Us) because I think a great deal about how this time is a new beginning for us.  It’s not a time we asked...

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A Tale of Three Americas

A Tale of Three Americas © Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church July 4, 2021   I was taken by surprise the other day while I was driving down Route 128.  I was listening to an NPR interview with Keith Lockhart, the conductor of the Boston Pops, about plans for...

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Sermon June 20, 2021

Karl Frank, Sally Waite, Peggy Kimball June 20, 2021   Sally, Peggy, and I have all mentioned along the way a few of our daily spiritual practices, as how the poetry and prayers we brought to you, came to us.  If only it had come to us at the edge of the darkness...

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Upcoming Services

To Take on Tomorrow, led by Reverend Janet Parsons with music by Andrew Soll and the church choir. On this Martin Luther King weekend, the country is at an inflection point.

Our service is in-person, or at the livestream link below. Everyone is welcome!

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCIeJfO72kLh-gAtZZT-QOng/live

Kiana will be providing childcare for elementary-age and older.

Recent News

Thinking Too Much and Listening Too Little

Thinking Too Much and Listening Too Little © Reverend Janet Parsons Gloucester UU Church October 13, 2024 How many of you got to see the Northern Lights the other night? I found it as thrilling as it was back in May when I got to see them for the very first time in my...

Sunday, October 20

Seeking the Bell Stand Within, led by Reverend Janet Parsons, with music by Steve Lacey. Thomas Merton once wrote, "there is in all things...a hidden wholeness." But how do we hear that in times of great turmoil and stress? Please join us at 10am in-person or at the...

Thinking Too Much and Listening Too Little

Thinking Too Much and Listening Too Little, led by Reverend Janet Parsons with music by Sanae Kanda. Our theme for October is Deep Listening. As we prepare to honor Indigenous Peoples this weekend, we will consider the indigenous practice of listening to the natural...