Sunday, September 10

We are excited to begin our new worship schedule this Sunday! We will have two morning services with organ and choir and a 2:00 afternoon service that is more intimate. All three services will take place in the Sanctuary.

9:30 a.m. worship in person and online

Nancy Benson-Nicol preaching

Worship bulletin

11:00 a.m. worship in person only

Nancy Benson-Nicol preaching

Worship bulletin

2:00 p.m. worship in person and online

The Gathering: Communion at 2:00

Rocky Supinger preaching

Worship bulletin

Livestreamed Services

Livestreamed worship services (9:30 a.m. and 2:00 p.m.) 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.

Children in Worship

Children are always welcome in worship! During the morning services nursery care is also available for infants through two-year-olds.

The Gathering: Communion at 2:00

The Gathering: Communion at 2:00 is the new name for our afternoon service, which is also taking place at the new time of 2:00 on Sunday afternoons.

This more casual, intimate service, which will feature music by the instrumentalists who helped to lead the jazz service, will take place in the Sanctuary and be livestreamed. We hope you will come experience it!

It’s time again for Get Connected Sunday!

Come join us in Anderson Hall this Sunday following the 9:30 and 11:00 a.m. services, when we will have information tables set up for you to learn about opportunities to connect with Fourth Church and one another this autumn.

The World Mission and Social Justice table will also offer you the chance to meet representatives from two of Fourth Church’s longtime mission partners, Learning Edge Tutoring and Breakthrough Ministries, who will share what they are doing in the Austin and East Garfield Park communities and how you can get involved.

Always a high-energy day, Get Connected Sunday is also the day when Sunday School, youth gatherings, and adult education classes resume.

We hope to see you for this festive start to a new program year!

Invite a friend and join us for our Neighborhood Block Party, which also will be this Sunday, September 10!

It will take place from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. in the Michigan Avenue courtyard.

There will be music, games, ice cream, popcorn, lemonade, a pet blessing, temporary tattoos, a bounce house, and more!

Come enjoy the fun!

Sunday Morning Adult Education

Also kicking off on September 10 is Sunday morning Adult Education, which begins with Vicky Curtiss teaching a class on Celtic spirituality at 11:00 a.m. in person and via Zoom. For Zoom details, register online

The class will include a discussion of the Christians of ancient Britain and Ireland who developed their lively spiritual tradition apart from the influence of the Roman Church. It will also explore the Celtic life-affirming theology of creation, daily life and work, incarnation, friendship, pilgrimage, blessing, social justice, and prayer.

Sundays, September 10–24

11:00 a.m.

Borwell Dining Room and via Zoom

Register for Zoom details

Sunday School and Youth Groups

This Sunday we also begin a new year of Sunday School at 9:30 and 11:00 a.m. on the fourth floor of the Gratz Center.

Children’s Choir (grades 2–5) rehearses at 9:00 a.m.; Cherub Choir (ages three–grade 1) at 10:15 a.m.; and Youth Choir (grades 6–12) at 10:30 a.m., all in Room 4G.

Youth gatherings resume as well, with eighth-grade Confirmation at 9:30 a.m. in Room 5G; Junior High (grades 6 and 7) at 9:30 a.m. in the Bumpus Room; and Senior High at 11:00 a.m. also in the Bumpus Room.

If you have an eighth grader who is interested in participating in Confirmation, please register prior to this Sunday, when there will be a gathering of Confirmation students and parents at 9:30 a.m.

Center for Life and Learning

Coming up on Monday, September 11 is the launch of the Autumn Session of the Center for Life and Learning.

This session of weekday classes for those sixty and over includes twenty weekly classes as well as several Special Topic classes and events sprinkled throughout the fourteen-week term.

You can learn more about the autumn offerings on the CLL web pages.

There you can also register to become a CLL member.

Covenant Conversation

“Beyond Words: From Mere Welcome to True Belonging” is an all-day event sponsored by the Covenant Network of Presbyterians and the Chicago Presbytery and hosted at Fourth Church on Saturday, September 30.

The program, which will include worship, will explore how Christians can show true hospitality to anyone who walks through our church doors, especially members of the LGBTQIA+ community.

Saturday, September 30

10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

at Fourth Church

Register to attend

Deep Listening Dinner at the Urban Farm

A Deep Listening Dinner at the Chicago Lights Urban Farm will take place this Saturday evening, September 16. An optional tour of the farm will be offered beforehand.

The tour will include the farm’s gardens and greenhouses as well as time to discover all that takes place there, such as providing more than 5,000 pounds of Cabrini-grown produce to the community and more than 30 CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) bags of produce and staples for free each week. Teens and youth working there also learn how to run a farm while sourcing, packaging, preserving, and distributing more than 1,500 meals for those who could use one. 

If you are interested in taking part in this tour and the opportunity to get to know one another better over a shared meal, RSVP at www.bit.ly/deeplistening923

Saturday, September 16 

4:00 p.m. Farm tour (optional)

5:00–7:00 p.m. Dinner and conversation

Chicago Lights Urban Farm (444 W. Chicago)

Registration required

Zoom Small Groups

New Zoom Small Groups will be beginning at the end of September

If you would like to connect with five to seven other people via Zoom for a time of fellowship, relationship building, and spiritual formation or simply want to learn more about our small-group opportunities, please email Simon Crow.

The Officer Nominating Committee is in need of recommendations of individuals to serve in leadership positions opening in 2024 for Elder, Deacon, Trustee, Nominating Committee, and the Chicago Lights Board.

If you know any Fourth Church members — including yourself! — who have demonstrated gifts for leadership and ministry, please offer your recommendations via the online form at www.bit.ly/nominating2024 or by using the paper forms in the pew racks.

Representatives from the Nominating Committee will also be at Coffee Hour this Sunday if you’d like to learn more!

“Cheers to 40 Years!” will celebrate the Chicago Lights Elam Davies Social Service Center this Tuesday evening, September 12 at the Columbia Yacht Club.

Advance tickets are required for this event recognizing the impact of the program that grew out of the vision of former Fourth Church Pastor Dr. Elam Davies. 

Come be part of the life-changing work of the Social Service Center, ensuring that more than 1,300 people who come through the Center’s doors each year — no matter what their situation — have access to the resources they need to move toward hope. 

Tuesday, September 12

5:30–8:30 p.m.

Columbia Yacht Club

Tickets required

Veterans’ Support Group

The new Veterans’ Support Group will meet for the first time on Sunday, September 17 at 12:00 p.m. in the Randolph Room and via Zoom.

Led by Chaplain Mark Schimmelpfennig — a longtime Fourth Church member, a leader of the Road Home project at Rush Medical Center, and a veteran who served in the U.S. Army — the group will provide a safe, confidential space for veterans, their families, and friends to share their experiences.

For Zoom details, email Nancy Benson-Nicol.

Grief Support Group

Our lives inevitably include loss and suffering and thus grief. The four-week Grief Support Group seeks to help individuals move through that grieving experience and into the rest of their life in a heathy manner.

These support groups are hosted by our Replogle Center for Counseling and Well-Being, with the next one beginning Wednesday, September 27 at 7:00 p.m. via Zoom.

To register (required), email Sharon Crawford Tucker or call the Center at 312.787.8425.

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.

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.

Deaths

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

Patricia (Trish) Roder Autrey

Died on August 29, 2023

Pamela Greanias

Died September 7, 2023

The exterior scaffolding on the Fourth Church campus is to enable tuckpointing, flashing, and window repair being done this summer.

The scaffolding in the North Balcony of the Sanctuary is to assist in addressing the gradual delamination of some of the Frederic Clay Bartlett murals on the ceiling.