Sunday, October 16

10:00 a.m. worship in person and online

Matt Helms preaching

The worship bulletin is available to download and print

In person and streamed from the Sanctuary on our YouTube channel: www.bit.ly/fpcvideos

Audio available by phone (toll free) by calling 888.916.9166

Nursery care is available on Sundays at 9:45 a.m. on the fourth floor of the Gratz Center.

4:00 p.m. Jazz at Four worship in person

with Communion

in Buchanan Chapel

Rocky Supinger preaching

The worship bulletin is available to download and print

Looking Ahead on the Worship Calendar

Sunday, October 30 is Reformation Sunday and Commitment Sunday, a day when we will both recall the rich heritage of the Protestant tradition and dedicate our 2023 pledge commitments to Fourth Church and Chicago Lights.

Sunday, November 6 is All Saints’ Sunday. Our 10:00 a.m. service that morning will include a time of remembrance for all departed loved ones, and as part of that remembrance the Morning Choir will sing “Requiem” by Maurice Duruflé.

This coming Tuesday, October 18 we will be hosting a Michigan Avenue Forum: “The 1619 Project Revisited: Race, History, and the Future—A Conversation with Nikole Hannah-Jones and Natalie Moore.”

This program will feature Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and author of the New York Times’ 1619 Project, Nikole Hannah-Jones, together with WBEZ’s Natalie Moore.

D. Bradford Hunt, Professor and Chair in the Department of History at Loyola University, will moderate this important conversation, which will include our speakers exploring and reflecting on the reactions to and examining the backlash and positive developments since the publication of The 1619 Project.

They will also discuss the importance of playing a leadership role in creating awareness and dismantling systems of oppression to rebuild a new transparent and equitable order.

Tuesday, October 18

7:00 p.m.

in the Sanctuary and livestreamed on YouTube (www.bit.ly/fpcvideos)

Please note that there will be no Forum video or audio recording available after the event.

Get your pets ready for an outing to the Michigan Avenue courtyard next Saturday, October 22!

We will be gathering that day at 10:00 a.m. for a Blessing of the Animals service, giving thanks to God for the creatures that bless our lives. All pets are welcome! (Please have them on leash or in a carrier.)

If you’d rather not bring your pets, please bring photographs of them and join us as we celebrate the wonders of God’s creation and our relationships with its creatures, great and small!

Our 2023 stewardship campaign for Fourth Presbyterian Church and Chicago Lights is underway, giving us opportunity to celebrate the particular ways in which this faith community is committed to actively participating in God’s re-creating and reconciling work in this world. 

It is also an invitation to each one of us to join in that work through our financial support.

In the days ahead, please prayerfully consider the investment you will make in your Fourth Church family and its work and the work of Chicago Lights in 2023 and make a pledge by Reformation Sunday, October 30, which is also Commitment Sunday.

We also invite you to take time to reflect on the question “How is Fourth Church home to you?” We would welcome hearing your thoughts and stories about that, which you can share with our stewardship team at giving@fourthchurch.org

More about the 2023 stewardship campaign

During Coffee Hour this Sunday morning, Andrea Denney, Executive Director of Operational Ministries, will be at the Stewardship table to answer any questions you might have about the challenges of operating the buildings that make up our Fourth Church home, including those that are more than a century old.

Chicago Lights Tutoring

Tutors are needed on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday evenings to partner with Chicago Lights Tutoring students.

If you would like to learn more about becoming an in-person or virtual mentor and connecting one-to-one with a student one evening a week from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. at the Gratz Center or via Zoom, contact Mark Dennison or visit chicagolights.org/volunteer/#tutoring

Fourth Church Choral Society

The Choral Society welcomes individuals who like to sing to join in performing Mahler’s Second Symphony “Resurrection” with organist David Briggs on Friday, November 11.

Weekly rehearsals take place on Thursdays at 7:00 p.m. in Buchanan Chapel. 

Addresses for Our College Students

On Sunday, October 30 our youth will be putting together care packages to send to our college students.

If you are a current college student or your child is at college, please send their mailing address to Katie Patterson by Sunday, October 23 so we can send a care package to them.

New Zoom Small Groups are starting this month and will meet weekly for approximately a month.

Groups will be looking at The 1619 Project by Nikole Hannah-Jones; Hospitality: The Sacred Art by Nanette Sawyer; Silencing White Noise: Six Practices to Overcome our Inaction on Race by Willie Dwayne Francois III; or So You Want to Talk about Race by Ijeoma Oluo.

If you would like to connect with five to seven other people via Zoom for a time of fellowship, relationship building, and spiritual formation, please email Simon Crow.

“Ezekiel: Where Is Home in Exile?”

Taught by Jina Kang of McCormick Theological Seminary, “Ezekiel: Where Is Home in Exile?” invites us to explore the biblical book of Ezekiel through the lens of migration.

As we do so, we will listen for how—set in a time of uncertainty and crisis—the prophet’s voice in the book of Ezekiel prompts empathetic responses to ancient and contemporary experiences of exile.

Sundays, October 16 and 30

(no class on October 23)

11:15 a.m.

in Borwell Dining Room and via Zoom

Register for the class here

The Zoom link for attending online is www.bit.ly/ezekiel1022

“African American Spirituality

and the Continuous Struggle for U.S. Democracy”

Next Sunday morning Randal Maurice Jelks—Professor of African and African American Studies and American Studies, clergy in the Presbyterian Church (USA), and a documentary film producer—will lead a one-session class on “African American Spirituality and the Continuous Struggle for U.S. Democracy.”

Sunday, October 23

8:45 a.m.

in Borwell Dining Room

Register for the class at www.bit.ly/spirituality1023