Fifth Sunday in Lent, March 17

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

Tom Are Jr. preaching

Worship bulletin

11:00 a.m. worship in person

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

Bowling Green Choir

We look forward to the A Cappella Choir of Bowling Green State University sharing their musical gifts with us during our morning worship services this Sunday. Directed by Mark Edward Munson, this choir is primarily composed of freshmen and sophomores majoring in music at the northwestern Ohio university.

Lenten Candles

Each Sunday during Lent we are extinguishing a candle at the front of the Sanctuary.

Just as we lit candles on the Advent wreath to symbolize the light coming into the world through the birth of Christ, so now our extinguishing of candles points to the Lenten progression from light to the shadows of Good Friday and the crucifixion. 

The first step in our search for a new pastor will be the election of a Pastor Nominating Committee (PNC) later this spring.

To help the Nominating Committee prepare a slate of recommended PNC candidates, the committee asks that you take a moment between now and April 7 to submit your suggestions of individuals to serve on the Pastor Nominating Committee.

You can complete online a form to indicate your willingness to be considered for the PNC or to recommend someone else.

The Nominating Committee will be hosting two information sessions about serving on the PNC:

• In person on Sunday, March 17 at 10:45 a.m. in the Morse Lounge (next to reception)
•  Via Zoom on Tuesday, March 19 at 5:15 p.m.

Register online for the information sessions (and to receive the March 19 Zoom details).

For details or more information, visit fourthchurch.org/pnc or email the Nominating Committee.

This Sunday, March 17 is the last day to make Easter flower contributions in remembrance or honor of a loved one. A list of those memorialized by the Sanctuary flowers and whose names are received by March 17 will be printed in the Easter bulletin.

Contributions can be made online at www.bit.ly/fpcgift

For more information, contact Gloria Vicente (312.252.3571).

Your gifts to our Lenten One Great Hour of Sharing Offering touch the lives of those in need, respond to injustice, provide shelter, and feed the hungry, both here in our city and around the world.

Your gifts support

• Fourth Church Meals Ministry
• Chicago Lights Tutoring
• Chicago Lights Social Service Center
• Presbyterian Disaster Assistance
• Presbyterian Hunger Program
• Presbyterian Self-Development of People

You can make a gift to the special offering supporting the above six programs by using the envelopes in the pew racks or by designating “One Great Hour of Sharing” when giving at fourthchurch.org/give or via Venmo or by writing it on the memo line of a check made payable to Fourth Presbyterian Church.

During Lent our Sunday School youth have been decorating fish banks, which they are filling with their contributions to the One Great Hour of Sharing offering. During the palm procession next Sunday morning they will bring forward their filled banks to place on the table with our offering plates.

Palm/Passion Sunday is next Sunday, March 24, the day when one of Fourth Church’s most beloved traditions takes place during morning worship: the procession of children entering the Sanctuary waving palms.

On this first day of Holy Week — the most important week on the Christian calendar — we celebrate with palms and loud hosannas Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem. But the tone will quickly change, as shouts of “Hosanna!” give way to the cries of “Crucify him!” and we remember where this journey leads: to the cross of Good Friday.

Palm/Passion Sunday | March 24

9:30 a.m. in person and online

with palm procession

11:00 a.m. in person

with palm procession

2:00 p.m. in person and online

The Gathering: Communion at 2:00

Our Palm Sunday celebration will lead us into Jesus’ Passion and Holy Week. We hope you will join us as we pause to observe those solemn days.

Maundy Thursday | March 28

12:10 p.m. in person

with Communion and optional foot and handwashing

6:30 p.m. in person and livestreamed

Tenebrae

with Communion

The evening service follows the ancient Office of Tenebrae (from the Latin for “shadows”). The service portrays the progression from light to darkness in the passion of Jesus, beginning with his abandonment on Thursday and concluding with his crucifixion. The service ends with the Sanctuary in complete darkness.

Good Friday | March 29

12:10 p.m. in person

Good Friday Service

5:30 p.m. in person

Children’s Program

in Buchanan Chapel

6:30 p.m. in person and livestreamed

Choral Service

with the Morning Choir singing Stabat Mater by Francis Poulenc

The evening service concludes with the bells tolling thirty-three times — once for each year of Jesus’ life on earth — and the extinguishing of the flickering Christ candle.

Holy Saturday| March 30

7:00 p.m. in person

Easter Vigil

An ancient tradition of the church, the Saturday evening Easter vigil invites us into the story of salvation as we mark the conclusion of Lent and the dawning of Easter.

Together we hear readings from scripture that cover the story of salvation, from creation through redemption, and join together in sacred song.

Each Easter Sunday we gather for a festive celebration of the resurrection of the Lord!

Easter Sunday | March 31

6:30 a.m. in person

Sunrise Service

at Oak Street Beach

9:30 a.m. in person

Children’s Program

with children up through fifth grade enjoying a time of Bible story and crafts

in the Gratz Center

9:30 a.m. in person and livestreamed

Easter Service

11:30 a.m. in person

Easter Service

Please note that to accommodate the number of worshipers, this second service in the Sanctuary starts a half hour later on Easter than on other Sundays.

2:00 p.m. in person and livestreamed

The Gathering with Communion

Read more about Holy Week and Easter on our website at fourthchurch.org/lent-easter

Planning is underway for fall enrollment in our Day School for the 2024–2025 school year.

If you or someone you know would be interested in learning more about our weekday preschool program, please contact Day School Director Kathy Hager or visit the Day School website.

You can also learn more about the Day School through the free class being held on Friday morning, March 22: “Together We Play: Movement and Family Yoga.”

The class takes place from 9:45 to 11:15 a.m. on Friday in the Bumpus Room. 

A Civil Rights Trail Pilgrimage to New Orleans, Jackson, Montgomery, and Birmingham is on our calendar for October 18–27.

Cosponsored by Fourth Church and the Community Presbyterian Church of Clarendon Hills, this curated journey will take travelers to locations central to our nation’s civil rights movement. 

This ten-day pilgrimage to the South — Alabama, Louisiana, and Mississippi — promises to deliver a deeper understanding of and insights into the historic movers and movements of the historic and ongoing civil rights struggles as travelers learn personal stories, visit museums and historical sites, and experience cultural immersion. 

Learn more, and download a trip brochure, on our website.

To join the pilgrimage, apply online.

This photo, from four years ago today, was taken nine minutes after the 11:00 a.m. service started. Apart from the clergy in the chancel and two musicians in the choir loft, the church was empty on what was the first Sunday in our 149-year history that we did not gather in person. Instead, we worshiped via livestream only, as across the country the pandemic quarantining began.

One of the last major events at Fourth Church prior to the pandemic closures in 2020 was a concert by the Morehouse College Glee Club. This past Monday we were thrilled to welcome the Glee Club back to the Sanctuary for another stirring performance.

Always a moving moment, at the close of the concert the alumni in the audience came forward to join in singing the Morehouse College hymn, “Dear Old Morehouse.”

The World Mission and Social Justice (WMSJ) Council hosted a panel discussion on “Bring Chicago Home” on Thursday, looking at the upcoming referendum that will appear on ballots for City of Chicago residents. The pursuit of equitable housing for all Chicagoans is a mission priority for the WMSJ Council, and this conversation provided opportunity both to connect a faith-driven response with the current discussions happening around public policy and to understand implications for some of our community partners. 

The new Elders, Deacons, and Trustees whom you elected at the February Annual Meeting are gathering on Sunday afternoons for Officer Training, in preparation for their ordination and commissioning in May.

During the first session of the “The Sacraments” Adult Education class — which continues this Sunday morning — Nancy Benson-Nicol asked how many participants had been baptized as an infant and thus had no personal memory of experiencing the Sacrament of Baptism.

On Wednesday our Center for Life and Learning held its annual memorial service in honor and remembrance of CLL members who died in the past year. 

Death

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

Susan Ann Nowicki

Died January 31, 2024

Curious to discover more about this congregation, and the opportunities and resources available to you here, as well as learn about the Presbyterian Church (USA)?

Interested in becoming a member of Fourth Church?

Join us for one of our upcoming one-session Inquirers’ Classes.

Sunday, March 24

12:15 p.m. | Room 5F

Register here

Wednesday, April 10

6:30 p.m. | via zoom

Register here

For additional information about Fourth Church membership, visit our website or reach out to Matt Helms, Associate Pastor for Children, Family, and Welcoming Ministries, who would welcome hearing from you.

Conversation and Presence

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.

Grief Groups facilitated by the Replogle Center for Counseling and Well-Being meet for four weeks via Zoom, with the next one beginning Wednesday, May 15. To learn more or register for a group, contact the group facilitator, Sharon Crawford-Tucker.

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, illnesses, hospitalizations, or deaths, please email Gloria Fleming, Assistant for Caring Ministries and Spiritual Formation; 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.

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.

Prayer

If you would like to submit a prayer request to our Morning Prayer or Deacon Prayer Ministries, please email Gloria Fleming or Nancy Benson-Nicol.

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 weekly at 9:30 a.m. via Zoom. On the first Wednesday of the month we also gather at 10:00 a.m. for in-person Morning Prayer in Buchanan Chapel. (Our next in-person Morning Prayer will be on March 6.) For Zoom details, email Nancy Benson-Nicol.

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.

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 just prior to the start of the service 9:30 service.