World Communion Sunday, October 2

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

with Communion

Shannon J. Kershner preaching

The worship bulletin is available to download and print

In person and streamed from the Sanctuary on our YouTube channel: www.bit.ly/fpcvideos

Audio available by phone (toll free) by calling 888.916.9166

Nursery care is available on Sundays at 9:45 a.m. on the fourth floor of the Gratz Center.

4:00 p.m. Jazz at Four worship in person

with Communion

in Buchanan Chapel

Rocky Supinger preaching

The worship bulletin is available to download and print

World Communion Sunday

This Sunday is World Communion Sunday, a day when we celebrate our oneness in Christ with our global family.

We will be celebrating the Lord’s Supper at both the 10:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. services. Those worshiping with us online at 10:00 a.m. are invited to have bread and juice on hand as we share in this meal from wherever we are.

Peacemaking and Global Witness Offering

This Sunday we will receive a Peacemaking and Global Witness Offering as part of our observance of World Communion Sunday. Gifts to this offering will be directed to efforts toward peacemaking that are supported by the Presbyterian Church (USA) as well as local efforts to address violence in Chicago.

Gifts to this offering can be made using the envelopes in the Sanctuary pew racks; online at www.fourthchurch.org/give-online; or by a check made payable to Fourth Presbyterian Church, with “Peace Offering” in the memo line.

Presbyterian Disaster Assistance (PDA) is delivering aid to those impacted by recent hurricanes; these outreach efforts will continue, providing emotional and spiritual care as well as long-term recovery assistance.

To support the work of PDA in responding to the damage caused by Hurricanes Fiona and Ian and in remaining engaged during the hurricane season, you can make a gift to PDA at www.bit.ly/pdahurricane

Today is the day by which the Nominating Committee has requested recommendations be submitted for candidates for leadership positions opening in 2023 for Elder, Deacon, Trustee, and Nominating Committee as well as the Chicago Lights Board.

If you have not done so already, please take a moment to think of Fourth Church members who have demonstrated gifts for leadership and a commitment to the life and ministry of this congregation.

Then add their names—self-nominations are welcome!—to the Leadership Candidate Form online at www.bit.ly/nominating2023

Our 2023 stewardship campaign for Fourth Presbyterian Church and Chicago Lights is underway, giving us opportunity to celebrate the particular ways in which this faith community is committed to actively participating in God’s re-creating and reconciling work in this world. 

It is also an invitation to each one of us to join in that work through our financial support.

In the days ahead, please prayerfully consider the investment you will make in your Fourth Church family and its work and the work of Chicago Lights in 2023 and make a pledge by Reformation Sunday, October 30, which is also Commitment Sunday.

More about the 2022 stewardship campaign

Widen Our Welcome

LGBTQIA+ Widen Our Welcome will gather for brunch this Sunday, October 2 following 10:00 a.m. worship.

All who would like to join in this time of fellowship are asked to meet at the church reception desk that day to walk together to a nearby restaurant.

New Small Groups

New Zoom Small Groups will be starting again in October.

The groups will be looking at Hospitality: The Sacred Art by Nanette Sawyer, The 1619 Project by Nikole Hannah-Jones, Silencing White Noise: Six Practices to Overcome our Inaction on Race by Willie Dwayne Francois III, and history and current issues facing Indigenous peoples of the United States, among other topics. 

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

Cornerstones

Cornerstones, a fellowship group for those fifty and over, will meet for dinner and a program on Friday, October 7 at 5:30 p.m. in Borwell Dining Room.

Members of Fourth Church’s Racial Equity Council and Joe Morrow will talk about their experiences on the Est. 1619 Pilgrimage to Charleston, South Carolina.

Register (required) for the gathering at www.bit.ly/cfpc1022

First Tuesday Book Club

The First Tuesday Book Club encourages readers to examine the ethical and social issues facing Christians today and provides a forum for wrestling with the complexities of living as faithful people in today’s confusing world.

In October their Zoom discussion will focus on Tears We Cannot Stop: A Sermon to White America by Michael Eric Dyson. In this “provocative and deeply personal call for change Dyson argues that if we are to make real racial progress we must face difficult truths, including being honest about how Black grievance has been ignored, dismissed, or discounted.”

Tuesday, October 4

7:00 p.m.

via Zoom

For Zoom details, register at www.bit.ly/firsttuesday1022

Books by Women

This group of Women at Fourth gathers in person on the second Tuesday of the month to discuss books by woman authors.

In October the topic for Books by Women will be The Personal Librarian by Marie Benedict and Victoria Christopher Murray, a work of historical fiction that tells the story of Belle da Costa Greene and “the lengths to which she must go—for the protection of her family and her legacy—to preserve her carefully crafted white identity in the racist world in which she lives.”

Tuesday, October 11

6:00 p.m.

in the Bumpus Room

On Yom Kippur this year, Shannon Kershner will be preaching at The Beloved Community High Holy Day Experience, which will be held at Trinity United Church of Christ (400 W. 95th St.).

This series of interfaith services on the Jewish High Holy Days—a series that includes, among others, preachers Rabbi Seth Limmer, the Reverend Otis Moss III, and Father Michael Pfleger—continues on Tuesday, October 4 and Wednesday, October 5.

Shannon will preach on the theme of recommitment to self and others on Yom Kippur, this Wednesday, October 5 at 11:00 a.m. at Trinity UCC.

To attend, register at www.open-judaism.org/highholydays, where you can also find a complete worship schedule.

The Fourth Church Choral Society is looking for more individuals who like to sing to join in performing Mahler’s Second Symphony “Resurrection” with organist David Briggs on Friday, November 11.

Weekly rehearsals will begin this Thursday, October 6 at 7:00 p.m. in Buchanan Chapel.

For more information, contact John Sherer

Several of our ministries are in need of volunteers to make the work of our congregation and Chicago Lights possible. 

Might you have the time to help?

Chicago Lights Tutoring

Tutors are needed on Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday evenings to partner with Chicago Lights Tutoring students. For details, contact Mark Dennison.

Purple Ribbons

October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month, which we will be observing with Between Friends. As part of that, this Tuesday, October 4 we will tie purple ribbons on the Michigan Avenue fence. To help tie ribbons or for more information about the month’s events, email Simon Crow.

Chicago Lights Gala of Hope Committee

The Chicago Lights Gala of Hope Committee is in need of individuals to support the annual Gala of Hope fundraising event by securing individual and corporate sponsorships, soliciting auction items, and generating excitement about this evening of fun and philanthropy. To learn more, contact Katy Frey Bever.

Addresses for Our College Students

On Sunday, October 30 our youth will be putting together care packages to send to our college students.

If you are a current college student or your child is at college, please send their mailing address to Katie Patterson by Sunday, October 23 so we can send a care package to them.

On Tuesday, October 18 we will be hosting a Michigan Avenue Forum: “The 1619 Project Revisited: Race, History, and the Future—A Conversation with Nikole Hannah-Jones and Natalie Moore.”

This 7:00 p.m. program in the Sanctuary (which will also be livestreamed on YouTube) will feature Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and author of the New York Times’ 1619 Project, Nikole Hannah-Jones, together with WBEZ’s Natalie Moore, in a discussion moderated by D. Bradford Hunt, Professor and Chair in the Department of History at Loyola University.

Please plan to join us for this important conversation!

Birth

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

Emmett Isaac Allerton

Child of Matthew and Maria Allerton