CONTENTS
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Youth Sunday
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Junior and Senior Highs Leading Worship
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Fourth Church Youth have been busy this month planning and writing the liturgy for this Sunday's 9:30 and 11:00 a.m. worship services.
Senior high youth will lead the service at 9:30 a.m., and those in junior high will lead at 11:00 a.m., with youth also sharing their reflections--in place of the sermon--at both services.
We hope you will join us Sunday morning as we, as a community, live out the promise we made to these youth in their baptism: to support and nurture them as they--and we--grow together in faithful discipleship.
Time:
Sunday, February 19
9:30 a.m. Senior Highs leading
11:00 a.m. Junior Highs leading
Place:
Sanctuary
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Participating in the Work of the Wider Church
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This Sunday during the 9:30 a.m. service of worship we will commission the following elders from Fourth Church, who have been elected by our Session to serve as our 2017 Commissioners to the Presbytery of Chicago:
Martha Brown
Lisa Dagher
Hope Daniels
Sam Evans
Abbie Fassnacht
Maggie McGuire
Judy Monroe
Roger Wilson
--Alternates
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Nan Birmingham
Larry Nicholson
Beverly Washington
Our Chicago Presbytery Assembly consists of the clergy members of the Presbytery of Chicago and an approximately equal number of elders from congregations in the presbytery. The purpose of this assembly, which gathers in stated meetings at regular intervals (five or six times a year and whenever called into special session) is to oversee the presbytery's mission and governance.
Each congregation's Session is asked to elect a certain number of ruling elders to serve as commissioners to the presbytery. We are grateful to our commissioners for their participation on our behalf in matters of the Presbytery of Chicago and thus the work of the wider church!
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An Author Discussion and a Dramatic Reading
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This Sunday, author and Sun-Times columnist Maudlyne Ihejirika will be with us following 11:00 worship to talk about her book, Escape From Nigeria: A Memoir of Faith, Love, and War.
Escape from Nigeria
chronicles the early life of Ihejirika's mother and her struggles to protect six small children during the brutal Nigerian-Biafran War (July 1967-January 1970).
In this true, compelling, and heartrending story, readers gain a new context for understanding the current global refugee crisis and the anti-refugee backlash taking hold in American political discourse. "A riveting and heartwarming memoir," this book is, says one reviewer, "a love story, full of wisdom, pain, and unwavering optimism, a testament to the resilience and ultimate triumph of the human spirit."
Our Black History Month observances will then continue on Monday evening, February 27 with a dramatic reading of Richard Durham's Railway to Freedom, a radio play originally broadcast in July 1948. Railway to Freedom is a beautiful story about Harriet Tubman and her journey through and for the Underground Railroad.
Richard Durham's Destination Freedom radio program--which aired on Chicago's WMAQ from June 27, 1948, until its cancellation in August of 1950--was unlike anything else being broadcast over the airwaves at the time. For more than two years audiences tuned in every Sunday morning and were treated to dramatized stories featuring prominent African Americans.
Please join us in honoring black history and celebrating those who paved the way to freedom as a nation. There will be a talk back with the actors and refreshments following the performance.
Time:
Sunday, February 19 at 12:30 p.m. (book conversation)
Monday, February 27 at 6:30 p.m. (dramatic reading)
Place
Page Smith Room
(book conversation)
Buchanan Chapel
(dramatic reading)
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A Book Conversation with Rocky Supinger
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What does it mean to grow up in a networked world?
How might that be affecting the church?
Explore these questions with Rocky Supinger when we continue our adult education book series with discussion of It's Complicated: The Social Lives of Networked Teens by danah boyd, a leading researcher into youth and digital media.
Come join the conversation about social networking, our youth, and the church.
Time:
Tuesdays, February 21 and 28
6:30 p.m.
Place:
Page Smith Room
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Exploring Spiritual Disciplines and Contemplation
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This Lent, join us in exploring spiritual practices that can deepen our faith journey as disciples of Jesus Christ.
You are invited to take part in a six-week "Path of Discipleship" experience that begins on Tuesday, March 7. Participants will gather at 6:00 p.m. for a shared meal, after which a member of the pastoral staff (a different person each week) will lead us in a discussion of a section of Richard Foster's book Celebration of Discipline. Then we will have time for small-group conversations about the text.
This "Path to Discipleship" series is offered by our Spiritual Formation Council and has limited space, so be sure to register online soon!
Those looking for a one-day opportunity are encouraged to consider the contemplative retreat at Fourth Church that we will be cohosting with Urban Village Church on Saturday, March 4. This
daylong Lenten retreat will be an experience of reclaiming and relearning the history and practice of early Christian contemplation with the intersections it holds in our current lives, practices, prayer, and activism.
Led by guest facilitator Teresa Pasquale Mateus, author of Sacred Wounds and a specialist in contemplative spirituality from a non-white perspective, this retreat will be a healing, prayerful, and active journey into our collective pasts and communal present. There will also be a special focus on issues of trauma and healing, lament and forgiveness, that are inherent to this process of reclamation.
To register for the retreat, contact Nancy Davis.
Time:
Saturday, March 4 (retreat)
9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m.
Tuesdays, March 7-April 11 (Path to Discipleship)
6:00-8:30 p.m.
Place:
Borwell Dining Room (retreat)
Page Smith and Randolph Rooms (Path to Discipleship)
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A Women at Fourth Presentation
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Women at Fourth invite you to come talk trash this Thursday--specifically the choices we make and the ways we handle waste.
Guest speaker Sue Smith, a trainer with the national nonprofit Keep America Beautiful (KAB), will cover the EPA Integrated Solid Waste hierarchy when she comes to talk with us about KAB, which inspires and educates people to take action every day to improve and beautify their community environment.
Sue, who travels and trains in the affiliate network of more than 600 cities and communities, has been named Citizen Connect Envoy for the U.S. Department of State Public Diplomacy outreach for Thailand, Burma, Guyana, and Iraq and congressionally appointed to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for Environmental Education.
Come help us envision a country where every community is a clean, green, and beautiful place to live!
Time:
Thursday, February 23
5:30 p.m.
Place:
Bumpus Room
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Worship This Week
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Sunday, February 19, 2017
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8:00 a.m.
Communion
Victoria G. Curtiss,
Associate Pastor
9:30 and 11:00 a.m.
Reception of New Members at 11:00
Senior Highs leading at 9:30
Junior Highs leading at 11:00
4:00 p.m.
Jazz Communion
Nanette Sawyer,
Minister for Congregational Life
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Concerts at Fourth Church
All concerts are free unless ticket information is noted.
Friday, February 24, 2017
John W. W. Sherer, organist
(Organist and Director of Music at Fourth Church)
12:10 p.m. in the Sanctuary
Friday, March 3, 2017
Mio Nakamura, pianist
12:10 p.m. in Buchanan Chapel
Cosponsored by the Musicians Club of Women
John Sherer and Academy Orchestra, Music Institute of Chicago
Poulenc's Organ Concerto
7:30 p.m. in the Sanctuary
Tuesday, March 7, 2017
Chicago Ensemble
7:30 p.m. in Buchanan Chapel
Tickets available through Chicago Ensemble
Friday, March 10, 2017
Elizabeth Lenti, organist
12:10 p.m. in the Sanctuary
A complete concert schedule is available online.
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Volunteer at Fourth Church
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There are several ways to get involved in the mission and ministry of Fourth Church. See below for details!
Current Volunteer Needs
Tutors are needed one evening a week from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. at the church to work with student of the Chicago Lights Tutoring program. A one-session orientation will be held Monday, March 6 at 6:00 p.m. in Borwell Dining Room. RSVP to Fernie Tiflis at
ftiflis@chicagolights.org
Greeters and ushers for the 4:00 p.m. jazz worship service
Shopping aides for guests of the food pantry in the Chicago Lights Elam Davies Social Services Center
Coffee Hour hosts to serve refreshments on Sunday mornings
Connection Corner assistants during Coffee Hour
Current Donation Needs
Paper or plastic bags with handles
Sturdy winter clothing
Clean blankets for Social Service Center guests
A complete list of volunteer needs is available
online.
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