This Sunday is two special days in one! Before we turn to our Christmas Eve celebrations, we will first mark the Fourth Sunday of Advent with a 10:00 a.m. service in the morning.

Fourth Sunday of Advent, December 24

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

Tom Are Jr. preaching

Worship bulletin

We will not have Coffee Hour this Sunday morning but look forward to gathering again for a time of fellowship after worship on December 31.

One Morning Service

Please note that on both Christmas Eve and New Year’s Eve we will have only one morning worship service, and it will be at 10:00 a.m.

We will return to our regular Sunday worship schedule on January 7.

Our Advent journey ends Sunday afternoon with our arrival at the manger, where we behold the Word made flesh.

We hope you will join us — whether online or in person — as we gather around the telling of the birth of Emmanuel, God with us, and sing again the joyous songs of Christmas!

Christmas Eve | Sunday, December 24

Four Candlelit Christmas Eve Services



Christmas Eve Children’s Pageant

4:00 p.m.

in person only

Matt Helms preaching

Worship bulletin

Christmas Eve Family Service

6:00 p.m.

in person only

Tom Are Jr. preaching

Worship bulletin

Christmas Eve Lessons and Carols

8:00 p.m.

in person and livestreamed

Tom Are Jr. preaching

Worship bulletin

Christmas Eve Lessons and Carols

10:00 p.m.

(identical to the 8:00 service)

in person only

Tom Are Jr. preaching

Worship bulletin

About Our Christmas Eve Services

Entry to the Sanctuary will be through the glass Loggia doors next to the courtyard on Michigan Avenue.

Seating will begin at 3:15 p.m. for the Pageant; seating for the other three services will begin forty-five to thirty minutes prior to the start of each service.

Discounted parking will be available at the 900 N. Michigan garage only, at the rate of $9 for 6 hours (and $18 for up to 12 hours). Discount validation tickets can be picked up from the ushers on Christmas Eve.

There will not be nursery care in the afternoon or evening. As on every Sunday, children are invited to be with their parents in worship.

Livestreamed worship (8:00 p.m. Lessons and Carols service) is accessible by going to www.bit.ly/fpcvideos, subscribing to our YouTube channel, or clicking on the photo with a “Play” arrow on the home page of the Fourth Church website.

For those who do not have Internet access, our livestreamed services are available to listen to via the phone. If you know of someone for whom this audio opportunity would be welcome, please encourage them to call 888.916.9166 (toll-free) at the time of the service.

If the livestreamed worship time does not fit with your schedule, our streamed services are also available to watch via our YouTube channel at any time afterwards.

Christmas Day Service

Monday, December 25

10:00 a.m.

in person only

Rocky Supinger preaching

Worship bulletin

Discounted Christmas Day parking will be available at the 900 N. Michigan garage only and will cost $20. Parking validations can be purchased in the Commons on Christmas morning prior to returning to the garage. 

There will not be nursery care on Christmas Day. As with our Sunday services, children are invited to be with their parents in worship.

For those looking for an online option on Christmas Day, we invite you to view the Christmas Eve service from the evening before or any of our past Christmas season offerings available on YouTube.

We will also be sharing on YouTube a brief Christmas “Rhythm and Word” video time of scripture, music, and reflection that morning.

At the turning of the year we will come together with neighbors and our friends from Holy Name Cathedral for our annual New Year’s Eve service in the style of Taizé.

This quiet 6:30 p.m. service in our Sanctuary offers moving music, space for prayer, and meditative pause for reflecting on the year past and looking ahead to the year to come.

A time of fellowship will follow this opportunity for worship and reflection.

New Year’s Eve Taizé

Sunday, December 31

6:30 p.m.

in the Sanctuary (in person only)

As we celebrate this season, we invite you to join us in sharing Christmas joy with our neighbors, our city, and the world through the annual “Light Up a Life” offering.

Gifts to this offering are given to

• Fourth Church programs that support our neighbors and congregation
• Chicago Lights, as it extends kindness and love to those who are most vulnerable
• Presbyterian Church (USA) Joy Offering
• Presbyterian Disaster Assistance

Contributions can be made by noting “Light Up a Life” in the Designation or Comments section when giving via the Fourth Church website or Venmo or by writing it on the memo line of a check made payable to Fourth Presbyterian Church.

Gifts can also be made using the “Light Up a Life” envelopes in the Sanctuary on Sundays or Christmas Day.

For those who have inquired about how to have year-end gifts to Fourth Church and Chicago Lights applied to our 2023 budgets and credited as a 2023 contribution—

• Gifts must be charged to your credit card by 11:59 p.m. on December 31
• Or, if they are mailed, they must be postmarked with a 2023 date
• Gifts can also be placed in the offering plate or dropped off at the church offices between now and December 31. (Please note that the campus is closed on December 26 and 29.)

Credit card gifts can be made online via the Fourth Church website. Gifts can also be made using Venmo (@Fourth-Church).

Gifts by mail should be sent to

Resource Development

Fourth Presbyterian Church

126 E. Chestnut St.

Chicago, IL 60611.2014

If you have any questions about year-end giving or if you would like information about making gifts through stock transfers or required distributions from one’s IRA or prepaying one’s 2024 pledge, please email giving@fourthchurch.org.

After lighting a new candle on the Advent wreath each Sunday in December, we will light one more this Sunday morning as we mark the Fourth Sunday of Advent — and prepare for our Christmas Eve festivities in the afternoon and evening!

Thank you to the Fourth Church and Chicago Lights staff and the Day School students for decorating our campus for the season!

From adorning the tree —

— to wrapping boxes to put under it —

— to adding the finishing touch of handmade ornaments, it’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas at Fourth Church!

The Challenges of the Season

Feelings of grief over losses can be heightened at this time of year. Expectations for the holidays can be different from the realities.

The season can be lonely, and the turning of the year can be both challenging and an opportunity when we seek someone to walk alongside us in embracing change and possibilities.

Fourth Church’s Replogle Center for Counseling and Well-Being offers various resources and a supportive environment for reflecting on, exploring, and coping with such experiences. To learn how the Replogle Center can help, call the Center at 312.787.8425 or visit the Center’s website: www.reploglecenter.org

Conversation and Presence

If you would like to talk to a pastor, please call the church (312.787.4570) and your request will be forwarded to someone on the pastoral staff.

If you would like to alert pastoral staff to emerging pastoral care needs, please email caringministries@fourthchurch.org; however if the situation is an emergency or requires immediate attention, please call the church at 312.787.4570 to be connected to the Minister on Call.

For one-to-one spiritual and emotional support through life challenges, we encourage you to consider being paired with a Stephen Minister. To learn more about this resource, contact Nancy Benson-Nicol, Associate Pastor for Caring Ministries and Spiritual Formation, or leave a confidential message for a Stephen Minister at 312.573.3365.

To set up a time to talk or for more information about how the staff of the Replogle Center for Counseling and Well-Being can be a resource for you, call the Center at 312.787.2729, ext. 2260.

To join a Grief Group facilitated by our Replogle Center, email Sharon Crawford-Tucker.

Prayer

If you would like to submit a prayer request to our Morning Prayer or Deacon Prayer Ministries, please email caringministries@fourthchurch.org

If you would like to join in praying for others—members of Fourth Church and those in need—we invite you to gather with us for Wednesday Morning Prayer at 9:30 a.m. via Zoom or at 10:00 a.m. in person. For Zoom details, email Nancy Benson-Nicol. (Morning Prayer will be via Zoom only on Wednesday, December 27.)

Deaths

We give thanks to God for the gift of life eternal.

Karen Dirks

Died October 25, 2023

David Makowski

Died November 22, 2023

George Orthel Van Verst

Died December 8, 2023

Children in Worship

Children are always welcome in worship at Fourth Church! If you need to step out to comfort your child, the Hospitality Suite, on the second floor of the Gratz Center, is a quiet space for families where worship is livestreamed.

During Sunday morning services nursery care is available on the fourth floor of the Gratz Center for infants through two-year-olds.

Please note that there will not be nursery care on Christmas Eve afternoon or evening or on Christmas Day. We encourage children to join their parents in worship for those services.

Livestreamed Services

Livestreamed worship services (10:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m. on December 24) are accessible by going to www.bit.ly/fpcvideos, subscribing to our YouTube channel, or clicking on the photo with a “Play” arrow on the home page of the Fourth Church website.

These livestreams are available to view anytime after the service begins if you would prefer to connect online at a later time. For tips on how to watch — from the beginning — a service already in progress, see www.fourthchurch.org/watch-from-the-beginning

Audio-only by phone is available (toll free) by calling 888.916.9166 just prior to the start of the service