If you know someone who would like to receive 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
|
|
Palm/Passion Sunday, April 5
As we begin our Holy Week journey on Sunday, we hope you will be with us online to join millions around the globe who, on this holy day, will be raising loud hosannas.
Print a Palm, Join Our Virtual Crowd
Take a photo of your palm or of you and your palm and
share it on social media, tagging @FourthChurch. Together we can create a virtual crowd welcoming Jesus on his entry into Jerusalem!
Children’s Chapel
Later today Pastor Matt will be sending an invitation to children and families to join him for a livestreamed Palm/Passion Sunday Children’s Chapel! Watch for the instructions on how to connect for this festive celebration.
Sunday, April 5
9:30 a.m. online via Zoom
Instructions for how to connect will be sent directly to our children-and-family list.
Palm/Passion Sunday Worship
Our livestreamed worship on Palm/Passion Sunday will continue our
Lenten sermon series
on “Questions Jesus Asked.
” We will think together about a “A Question of Despair” as we consider Jesus’ cry of “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:39–50).
Sunday, April 5
11:00 a.m. online
Shannon J. Kershner preaching
Our offering will be
received online
or via Venmo (@Fourth-Church). Our giving in this season supports our ongoing work of being church, as we continue to serve those in need and to pay our staff, whether they are able to work remotely or not.
If the 11:00 time does not fit your schedule, the service will be available for viewing throughout the week.
|
|
Last week we enjoyed a wonderful livestreamed piano concert by our Director of Music, John Sherer, direct from his living room.
This week plan to be with us when John will again be sharing with us another live-from-home piano concert
Friday, April 3
12:10 p.m.
John Sherer, piano
There will be no Noonday Concert next Friday, April 10, when we will be observing Good Friday with a livestreamed worship service at 12:10 p.m. at
www.bit.ly/FPCworship
.
|
|
Our Holy Week journey will take us from the Last Supper to the cross to the tomb, as together we keep vigil.
As we do so, we will gather online for worship on Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday, for
Holy Week services
livestreamed at
www.bit.ly/FPCworship.
Maundy Thursday, April 9
Tenebrae Communion Service
7:30 p.m. online
Our Maundy Thursday online service will follow the ancient Office of Tenebrae (from the Latin for “shadows”). As our pastors read, from their homes, the Passion narrative texts and extinguish candles, this service will portray the progression from light to darkness in the passion of Jesus, beginning with his abandonment on Thursday and concluding with his crucifixion.
As is traditional on Maundy Thursday, we will also be celebrating the Lord’s Supper, although virtually. We invite you to have some bread and juice on hand so that we might together take part, from our own homes, in this shared meal.
This celebration of Communion during our online worship is a way, the Presbyterian Church (USA) has noted, that we can continue to emphasize the unity of the body, the church, in an extraordinary time when we are not able to worship together in person for an extended period.
Good Friday, April 10
Noonday Service
12:10 p.m. online
This Good Friday online worship opportunity will include our pastors each offering, from their homes, a meditation on one of the Seven Last Words of Christ.
Holy Saturday, April 11
Easter Vigil
8:00 p.m. online
An ancient tradition of the church, the Easter vigil invites us into the story of salvation as we mark the conclusion of Lent and the dawning of Easter. We will hear readings from the story of salvation, from creation through redemption.
We will also celebrate together from our own homes the Lord’s Supper, and so we invite you to have bread and juice on hand before joining us online.
|
|
Easter Sunday, April 12
Although we will not be able to gather in person, we hope you will join us online on Easter Sunday, April 12 as we gather in festive celebration of the resurrection of the Lord!
11:00 a.m. online
Shannon J. Kershner preaching
|
|
Throughout Lent, our Sunday School children have been filling fish banks with their contribution to our One Great Hour of Sharing Offering. You too have opportunity to join them in touching the lives of those in need, as we reach out to those most vulnerable, both here in our city and around the world.
Fourth Church Meals Ministry, which is is continuing to serve those in our community who are hungry. Staff and volunteers are outside in the Cloister handing out “to go” lunches on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays and “to go” meals for Sunday Night Supper. This enables us to distribute meals while also limiting lines and in-person gatherings.
Chicago Lights Elam Davies Social Service Center, which is also continuing to offer “curbside” emergency services on Tuesdays from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. and Wednesdays through Fridays from 10:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. These services include essential emergency clothing, hygiene items, and pre-assembled bags of food for those who have scheduled Food Pantry appointments.
Chicago Lights Tutoring, which in these days of closed schools is facilitating virtual relationships between mentors and students, supplying educational and engagement tools, and creating content for e-learning.
Fourth Church Shower Ministry, which throughout the year welcomes guests without access to bathing facilities to use the showers at Fourth Church, with nearly 1,000 showers taken annually.
Presbyterian Hunger Program, which takes action to alleviate hunger, care for creation, and address the systemic causes of poverty so all may be fed.
Self-Development of People, which partners with communities responding to their experiences of oppression, poverty, and injustice and educates Presbyterians about the impact of these issues.
Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, which works alongside communities as they recover and find hope after the devastation of natural or human-caused disasters and provides support for refugees.
You can make a “One Great Hour of Sharing” gift by writing “Lenten Offering” on the memo line of a check made payable to Fourth Presbyterian Church (and mailed to Fourth Presbyterian Church, 126 E. Chestnut, Chicago, IL 60611), or
make a gift online.
|
|
Did you see the Fourth Church contribution to the
global #bearhunt?
Or the
aerial view of social distancing while waiting for “to go” Sunday Night Supper?
How about the glimpse of our
lookalike sibling church, First Presbyterian Church of Van Wert, Ohio?
For these and ongoing images of what we’re up to, be sure to follow us on
Instagram and
Facebook.
As you engage with us via these platforms, please know that
you are what makes our social media social! Your liking, commenting, sharing, and inviting is what connects us with others, expanding our reach and increasing our visibility. That in turn is how we together spread the word about what is going on at Fourth Church and Chicago Lights, build community, and extend hospitality and care, even while apart!
|
|
This past Tuesday, Vicky Curtiss, Associate Pastor for Mission, announced she will be retiring at the end of May.
Vicky wrote, “I have decided to retire from Fourth Presbyterian Church on June 1, 2020. I want to spend more time with my family, work on the Leadership Team of Chicago Regional Organizing for Antiracism (CROAR), and hopefully be a co-pastor again with my husband, Kent Organ, in a shared interim role.”
|
|
Families, in addition to joining us for Palm Sunday Children’s Chapel, we invite you to create your own Sunday School at home this weekend!
|
|
As we strengthen our intergenerational connections during this time, youth and older adults in our Center for Life and Learning program are being paired up as pen pals. Youth interested in becoming a pen pal with a CLL member can send their names to
Rocky Supinger.
Youth Ministry also continues to host online weekly Junior High Family Gatherings, Senior High Gatherings, and “Suddenly-Home-from-College” Gatherings.
Confirmation is also going to meet online this Sunday to discuss their faith narratives, and there will again be a Sermon Talk-Back Session for youth following the 11:00 a.m. livestream of worship.
|
|
Our TwentiesThirties Ministry has created several opportunities for young adults to be together online as well.
A “Midday Examen Check-In” using the book
Reimagining the Ignatian Examen meets weekly via Zoom to walk through different forms of this ancient prayer practice.
There is also a social hour of online trivia.
And on Sundays those in their twenties and thirties are invited to join a post-worship online Coffee Hour, to gather and catch up as well as to share thoughts on the week’s sermon.
For details about connecting with any of these opportunities, contact
Joe Morrow
.
|
|
Our Replogle Center for Counseling and Well-Being shares the following:
The COVID-19 virus has required that we all make radical changes in our lives.
This is not easy. In times of stress, relationships can be strained and people fear for themselves and those they hold dear. The restrictions and limitations on our normal activities can lead to frustration and anger.
To adapt to and endure these changes we are summoned to access our inner strength, hope, patience, and generosity of spirit. Most of us need support and guidance to do this. In a moment of crisis it is critical that we maintain our psychological flexibility and emotional well-being, not only for ourselves but for the benefit of the community around us.
The therapists at the Replogle Center for Counseling and Well-Being are here to support you by the use of teletherapy. In a teletherapy session therapists and clients meet face-to-face via the computer, a tablet, or smartphone. As in all therapy, these sessions are strictly confidential.
To schedule an appointment with a therapist or to learn more about how teletherapy can work for you, please call the Center at 312.787.2729, ext 2260.
|
|
Fourth Church is a connectional community committed to living out our care for one another and remaining together while apart. We very much we want to hear from you! Our pastors, Deacons, Stephen Ministers, and other volunteers are available to connect with you by phone and email.
Please let us know—
- if you have a prayer request. Dave Handley, our Interim Minister for Pastoral Care, is receiving these as part of our Morning Prayer and Deacon Prayer Ministries.
- if you are a medical professional. Please let your Pastoral Care Office know who you are so we can reach out and care for you as well in what we know are are difficult days for you.
- if you are—or someone you know is—in self-quarantine or feeling isolated, lonely, anxious, or sick. Please contact our Pastoral Care Office so that we can reach out to you.
- if you would like to be in phone contact with a Stephen Minister. Please leave a confidential message at 312.573.3365 or contact Dave Handley.
- if you are available to reach out via phone or email to those in our community who might be feeling isolated or lonely. Our Pastoral Care Office is collecting names of those willing to help in this way.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
