Second Sunday of Advent, December 10

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

Tom Are Jr. preaching

Worship bulletin

11:00 a.m. worship in person only

Tom Are Jr. preaching

Worship bulletin

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

The Gathering: Communion at 2:00

Nancy Benson-Nicol preaching

Worship bulletin

6:30 p.m. worship in person and online

Festival of Advent Lessons and Music

Worship bulletin

Welcoming Amy Pagliarella

Some of you may have already had opportunity to connect with one of our newest staff members, Amy Pagliarella, who in late October joined us as Parish Associate for Caring Ministries.

This Sunday morning, Amy — who in her new role is helping to take Fourth Church to the homes of older adults who may not be able to be with us in person — will be one of our worship leaders.

If you are with us in person on Sunday, please take a moment to extend a warm welcome to Amy! If you regularly connect with us online, you can drop her a welcome note via email. 

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.

On the second Sunday of the month — which means this Sunday! — Sunday School children in the 9:30 a.m. class are invited to come to worship with their parents. At the time of the Gloria Patri, the children will meet up with their teachers and head to their classrooms.

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

This Sunday, December 10 is the last day to make Christmas flower gifts in remembrance of loved ones and those who are special in your life.

Contributions can be made in their name toward the purchase of the Christmas flowers, wreaths, and garlands that will decorate the Sanctuary and Gratz Center this Advent and Christmas season.

A list of those remembered will be printed in the Christmas bulletin.

Contributions can be made online and must be received by this Sunday, December 10 in order for names to be included in the bulletin.

For more information, contact Gloria Vicente.

We hope you will join us this Sunday evening as we gather in person and online for one of our beloved Advent traditions at Fourth Church, the Festival of Advent Lessons and Music. 

Once again we will hear the scripture readings of the season and hear and sing the music of Advent as we anticipate the birth of Jesus Christ.

Sunday, December 10

6:30 p.m.

in the Sanctuary and livestreamed at www.bit.ly/fpcvideos

This year the Cookies-and-Cocoa reception will take place a week later, during morning Coffee Hour on Sunday, December 17.

Our weekly Advent “Rhythm and Word” video series, which weaves together scripture, prayer, and music, offers a resource for your Advent prayer and reflection.

A new ten-minute video is released each Wednesday evening on YouTube; to receive them by email, subscribe at www.bit.ly/rhythmandwordemail 

To watch the first video of the series, click here (or on the image below).

Advent devotions written by Fourth Church members and staff are also available as a resource for personal meditation and prayer.

To receive them daily by email, sign up online at www.bit.ly/fpcdevotions or read them online on our website.

Christmas Wishes for Tutoring Students

There is still time to help fill Christmas Wishes for the nearly 200 students participating in Chicago Lights Tutoring.

Gift cards can be dropped off through this Monday, December 11, and monetary contributions toward book and gift card purchases can be made through this Friday, December 15.

Read more

Light Up a Life

The annual “Light Up a Life” offering provides funds for

• 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

Gifts can be made to this offering 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.

“Conserving Historic Murals by Frederic Clay Bartlett:

A Primer in Art Conservation”

This Sunday, Elizabeth Kendall and Peter Schoemann, principals of Parma Conservation, who led the recent restoration process of our Sanctuary murals, will share with us the challenges, techniques, and desired results of mural conservation in an architectural setting.

We will see examples that illustrate the science involved in art conservation, with featured attention given to mural conservation projects here at Fourth Church and also Second Presbyterian Church.

Those attending the class in person will have opportunity to view the Bartlett murals in our Sanctuary after the 11:00 a.m. service has ended.

Sunday, December 10 

11:00 a.m. 

Borwell Dining Room and via Zoom

Register here for the Zoom link

Elizabeth Kendall and Peter Schoemann working in September on the Sanctuary ceiling murals that were painted over the North Balcony by Frederic C. Bartlett in the winter of 1913–1914.

“Art and Faith of the Crèche:

The Collection of James and Emilia Govan”

The crèche, or nativity scene, came about in the thirteenth century when St. Francis of Assisi created a living nativity scene as part of a Christmas Eve mass.

Join us as Loyola Museum of Art (LUMA) museum manager and curator Kyle Mathers enlightens us on the history of the crèche and the amazing James and Emilia Govan collection at LUMA that contains more than 500 crèches, representing more than 100 countries.

Sunday, December 17

11:00 a.m.

Borwell Dining Room and via Zoom

Register here for the Zoom link

The sounds of music continue to fill Fourth Church this month. If you are looking for a musical treat to add to your holiday celebrations, you can find a variety of opportunities on our concert calendar!

A Festival of Advent Lessons and Music

Sunday, December 10

6:30 p.m.

in the Sanctuary and livestreamed

The choirs of Fourth Church sing seasonal favorites during this evening worship service.

Handel’s Messiah

with Chicago Camerata

Friday, December 15

7:30 p.m.

in Buchanan Chapel

Tickets required, available through Chicago Camerata

(25 percent discount with code FPCC)

A Tower Brass Christmas

Saturday, December 16

5:00 p.m.

in the Sanctuary and livestreamed

No tickets required, but a $20 donation per person is suggested

Christmas Cantata by Daniel Pinkham

Sunday, December 17

9:30 and 11:00 a.m.

in the Sanctuary and (at 9:30 a.m.) livestreamed

The Morning Choir and Tower Brass perform this seasonal work.

For a complete schedule of concerts at Fourth Church, see www.fourthchurch.org/concerts

For many, the celebration of Christmas is made difficult by feelings of loneliness, grief, alienation, and sadness, whether personal or collective.

Our “Longest Night” service, which will be hosted by our Stephen Ministers on Wednesday evening, December 20, recognizes and makes space for these feelings and challenges.

Those who would appreciate a time of reflection prior to the service are invited to walk the labyrinth in Anderson Hall. Spiritual Formation Council hosts will be on hand to offer guidance. 

Wednesday, December 20

Labyrinth Walk

5:30–6:30 p.m.

Anderson Hall

“Longest Night” Service

6:30 p.m.

Buchanan Chapel (in person only)

Sunday, December 24



Fourth Sunday of Advent Service

10:00 a.m.

in person and livestreamed

Four Candlelit Christmas Eve Services

Christmas Eve Children’s Pageant

4:00 p.m.

in person only

Christmas Eve Family Service

6:00 p.m.

in person only

Christmas Eve Lessons and Carols

8:00 p.m.

in person and livestreamed

Christmas Eve Lessons and Carols

10:00 p.m.

in person only

Monday, December 25

Christmas Day Service

10:00 a.m.

in person only

Read more about Christmas at Fourth Church

Late last week we decorated the Sanctuary for Advent, including hoisting a purple-bowed wreath high above the choir loft.

Then on Sunday families created Advent wreaths to use at home.

On Monday our holiday concert season kicked off with more than 1,000 people attending the Civic Orchestra presentation of an all-Bach program. Several members of our Morning Choir sang with the chorus, and our Organ Scholar, Michael Rees (at center at the harpsichord), played the harpsichord and organ.

That concert was followed, on Tuesday and Wednesday nights, by sellout crowds again filling every seat in the Sanctuary, this time to hear the a cappella group Chanticleer’s Christmas concert, a longtime annual holiday tradition at Fourth Church offered by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

Meals Ministry

With the Tremont Hotel next door to the church serving as a shelter from December to May for up to 116 of our unhoused Chicago neighbors, our Meals Ministry anticipates an increase in meal guests in the weeks ahead, in particular for Sunday Night Supper.

That means we need additional volunteers to cook and serve those Sunday meals. If you can help, please sign up via VOMO.

For more information about volunteering with Meals Ministry, contact Mike Usiak.

Chicago Lights Gala of Hope Committee

Planning is underway for the 2024 Chicago Lights Gala of Hope, which will be held Friday, March 1 at the Old Post Office. (Mark your calendar!)

Co-chairs Betsy Zeiger and Caryn Borg-Breen are looking for individuals to join the Gala of Hope Committee to help solicit sponsorships, secure items for the live and silent auction, and invite people to attend this fun and festive event, which provides approximately 20 percent of Chicago Lights’ annual revenue.

A committee kickoff meeting will be held this coming Tuesday evening via Zoom.

Tuesday, December 12

6:15 p.m.

via Zoom

(Meeting ID: 835 7408 0381; Passcode: 501191)

For more information about the Gala or the committee, contact Caryn Blomquist.

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.

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

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 for the 9:30 service is available (toll free) by calling 888.916.9166 just prior to 9:30.