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Looking for ways to connect with the Fourth Church community and one another? On the church calendar you will find many opportunities to do so online (or, where noted, in person). Included among them are—
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Men’s Bible Study on Tuesday mornings
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Knitting and Crocheting on Tuesday afternoon, June 28
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Horizons Bible Study for women, offered at both noon and in the evening, on Wednesday, July 13, with a summer focus on practicing spiritual disciplines
For information about whom to contact for an event’s Zoom details or the link to register for an event, simply click on the down “arrow” to the right of the event name in the calendar (which is easily accessible from the “Calendar” button in the upper left corner of our website).
For highlights about additional opportunities, keep reading!
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Sunday, June 26
10:00 a.m. worship in person and online
Matt Helms preaching
Audio available by phone (toll free) by calling 888.916.9166
Due to the COVID risk level in Chicago, and consistent with the advice of city health officials, we are recommending, though not requiring, that individuals wear masks during worship and elsewhere on the Fourth Church campus.
4:00 p.m. Jazz at Four worship in person
with Communion
in Buchanan Chapel
Matt Helms preaching
Pride Sunday
The Pride flag signs outside Fourth Church, along Michigan Avenue, are public witness to the inclusive hospitality we extend to all and to our welcome of all of God’s children into the life of the church. (A recent exterior assessment of our facilities revealed that our previous methods of hanging banners over the Sanctuary entrance were damaging the building. While we actively explore alternatives, we are not hanging banners, including the Pride banner, on the facade.)
As we celebrate Pride Sunday this weekend, our Coffee Hour following worship will be sponsored by Fourth Church’s LGBTQIA+ Widen Our Welcome group.
We will also be marching with the Chicago Coalition of Welcoming Churches in the Chicago Pride Parade. The parade begins at 12:00 p.m. this Sunday, and we will meet up beforehand on the west side of Broadway Ave. between Wilson and Sunnyside;
To sign up to march in the parade, for more information about it, or to learn more about Widen Our Welcome, email Simon Crow.
Baccalaureate Sunday
This Sunday is also Baccalaureate Sunday at Fourth Church, a day when we recognize and congratulate Fourth Church members and Chicago Lights Tutoring students who are graduating in 2022.
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Meals Ministry
Fourth Church Meals Ministry is in need of volunteers to assist in preparing and serving meals for our neighbors who are hungry and food insecure. To learn more or explore the various Meals Ministry volunteer needs, see our Volunteer Ministry platform, VOMO ( www.bit.ly/fpcvolunteers).
Social Service Center Food Pantry
The Chicago Lights Social Service Center still needs several more volunteers to unload food trucks, which arrive on second and fourth Mondays of the month. Volunteers are needed from 8:00 to 10:00 a.m. to transfer food from the Greater Chicago Food Depository truck onto food pantry shelves. If you can lend a hand on one of these days, please sign up via Vomo or email Jill Keiser.
Refugee Families
Fourth Church is partnering with Refugee One to resettle two refugee families. If you are interested in being a mentor to a family, contributing to furnishing their home, or if you are simply interested in learning more about this opportunity, contact refugeeproject@fourthchurch.org. |
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Women at Fourth is collecting donations for the annual School Supply Drive. The school supplies will be given to students connected with Chicago Lights Summer Day, Tutoring, and the Urban Farm.
For details about how to contribute or how to receive a list of items needed, contact Simon Crow. |
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The Center for Life and Learning (CLL), which offers programming and community for adults sixty and over, is gearing up for their Summer Term!
Running from July 11 through September 1, this eight-week summer session is anchored by a full portfolio of nine weekly exercise and fitness classes, including Stronger Seniors (twice weekly), Continuing Tap, Continuing T’ai Chi (twice weekly), Silver Barre, Yoga, Zing! Total Fitness, and Range of Motion. All are on Zoom.
The CLL Summer Membership provides access to those classes as well as member-led discussion groups, meditation classes, and some wonderful in-person outings and gatherings.
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Now that summer is here we are also getting ready to kick off another season of Music by the Fountain!
We will launch this series of weekly outdoor concerts next Friday, July 1 with a performance by jazz saxophonist Eric Schneider at 12:10 p.m. in the Michigan Avenue courtyard.
For those who prefer to enjoy our concerts online, we will not be livestreaming the outdoor concerts but invite you to watch your favorite Friday Noonday Concerts from previous seasons on our YouTube channel: www.bit.ly/fpcvideos
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Deaths
We give thanks to God for the gift of life eternal.
Robert J. Darnall
October 19, 2021
Don Funk
June 9, 2022
Barbara Gallas
The Reverend Kent Organ
Husband of former Associate Pastor Vicky Curtiss
June 18, 2022
Kathleen Sievers
June 5, 2022
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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 in Buchanan Chapel. (The chapel is also open for opportunity to walk the labyrinth between 8:30 and 9:30 a.m. on Wednesdays and between 9:00 and 10:00 a.m. on Thursdays.) For Zoom details, email Nancy Benson-Nicol.
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.
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A Mask-Welcoming Community
Although wearing a mask is not required at Fourth Church, we as a community have made a commitment to be a mask-welcoming campus, encouraging the wearing of masks by anyone who wants or needs to wear one.
With the COVID risk level in Chicago at “medium,” we are going a step further to not just encourage but recommend (though not require) that individuals wear masks while on campus.
This is consistent with city health officials recommending that—in light of the “medium risk” level—individuals wear masks indoors when they are not certain of the vaccination status of others present.
As a mask-welcoming—and now recommending—campus, we also remain committed to ensuring no one will feel out of place should they choose to wear a mask while at Fourth Church.
Since some populations are more vulnerable to COVID-19 than others, some programs on the Fourth Church campus choose to require masks. That is a decision that is made on a program-by-program basis.
We continue to have a socially distanced seating section at the front of the Sanctuary on the pulpit side. That section is reserved for those required to or choosing to practice social distancing, and everyone sitting in that section is required to wear a mask. The remainder of the Sanctuary is open seating.
Additionally, we are continuing our practice of not checking vaccination status, but anyone coming on site certifies by doing so that (a) they do not currently have COVID-19; (b) they are not experiencing COVID symptoms; (c) they have no reason to quarantine; and (d) they will wear a mask and practice social distancing if they are not vaccinated against COVID-19.
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If you know someone who would like to receive email updates from us but currently is not, please encourage them to add their email address to our distribution list by signing up at www.bit.ly/newsfromfpc
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