March 18, 2021
On the church calendar are many opportunities to connect online with the Fourth Church community and one another. Included among them are—

  • Friday Noonday Concerts, including a March 19 performance by the string quartet Juliani Ensemble
  • Sacred Pause meditation on Saturday and Tuesday mornings
  • “Pandemics, Biblical Reflections, and a Christian Call to Action,” an adult education class, which concludes this Sunday morning, March 21
  • Men’s Bible Study on Tuesday mornings
  • Knitting and Crocheting this Tuesday, March 23
  • Morning Prayer on Wednesday mornings
  • Benevolent Guild on Wednesday mornings
  • Horizons Bible Study for Women on Wednesday, March 24
  • Inquirers’ Class on Sunday, April 11 for those interested in becoming members of Fourth Church

For information about whom to contact for an event’s Zoom details, 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 of some of the opportunities you will find on the calendar, keep reading!
Fifth Sunday in Lent, March 21

11:00 a.m. worship online
10:45 a.m. prelude
Shannon J. Kershner preaching
The worship bulletin will be available to download and print on Friday

Streamed from the Sanctuary at www.bit.ly/FPCworship


Connecting to Our Online Worship Services
Our online worship services are available live at 11:00 a.m. (Central) via

For those who do not have Internet access, we also make our worship services available to listen to via the phone. If you know of someone for whom this audio opportunity would be welcome, please encourage them to call 888.916.9166 (toll-free) at the time of the service.


Throughout the Week
The Sunday service is available for viewing throughout the week at www.bit.ly/FPCworship.

Worship and sermon podcasts are available via iTunes and Spotify, and you can sign up to receive the text of the weekly sermon by email.
You can remember loved ones and recognize those who are special in your life by making a contribution toward the purchase of flowers to decorate the Sanctuary for our online Easter service.

A list of those remembered will be printed in the Easter Sunday bulletin. For names to be included in the bulletin, contributions must be received by next Sunday, March 28.

Palm/Passion Sunday, March 28
Palm/Passion Sunday Service
11:00 a.m. online

Join us online next Sunday, March 28 when an introit by children as well as images of them waving palms will usher us into our Palm Sunday singing of loud hosannas. Our focus will then turn to the Passion story that leads us into Holy Week.

To join in the spirit of this day that is both festive and somber, we encourage you to download and print a palm (www.bit.ly/palmcolor) to have on hand as we together sing “all glory, laud, and honor.”

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!
A longtime symbol of our One Great Hour of Sharing Offering has been the fish banks that Sunday School children have presented during the Palm Sunday processional. Although they won’t have opportunity to do that this year, you still have opportunity to take part in this offering, touching the lives of those in need as we reach out to those most vulnerable, both here in our city and around the world.

Your gifts to the One Great Hour of Sharing offering support the work of

Fourth Church Meals Ministry

Chicago Lights Tutoring and Elam Davies Social Service Center

Presbyterian Disaster Assistance, Hunger, and Self-Development of People Programs

Gifts to this offering can be made by

•   giving online

•   writing “Lenten Offering” on the memo line of a check made payable to Fourth Presbyterian Church and mailed to Resource Development, Fourth Presbyterian Church, 126 E. Chestnut, Chicago, IL 60611.2014.
As our Lenten journey takes us into Holy Week at the beginning of April, we will travel 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.


Maundy Thursday, April 1
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 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 during the service. 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.


Good Friday, April 2
Good Friday Service
7:30 p.m. online

Meditations on each of the Seven Last Words of Christ—offered by our pastors—will guide our Good Friday worship service online this year.

The service will conclude with the church bells tolling 33 times—once for each of the years of Jesus’ life at the time he was crucified—followed by the extinguishing of the Christ candle.


Holy Saturday, April 3
Easter Vigil
8:00 p.m. via Zoom
For Zoom details, register at www.bit.ly/eastervigil21

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.

During this service we will remember our baptism and 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.

There are a few additional things you might gather as well that will help you to participate most fully:

  • a candle, which you can light (if it is safe to do so) as a way for spreading the light of Christ
  • a noisemaker for celebrating the resurrection (this could be keys on a key ring, or a bell, or percussion of any kind)
  • a small bowl of water for remembering our baptism
  • the bread and juice for sharing Communion
Easter Sunday, April 4
Easter Sunday Service
11:00 a.m. online

We hope you and your loved ones near and far will join us online on Easter Sunday, April 4 as we gather in festive celebration of the resurrection of the Lord!

The service will include the stirring music of brass and organ, handbells and jazz, and the joyous hymns of Easter. This year we will also be celebrating Communion as part of our Easter service.

We invite you to have bread and juice on hand as we share in the Lord’s Supper from our homes.
Our church calendar includes a variety of opportunities for connecting online with others in the Fourth Church community. Among them are the monthly Women at Fourth fellowship gathering, the Cornerstones program for those fifty and over, and, of course, our weekly virtual Coffee Hour via Zoom!

Women at Fourth
Thursday, March 25
6:00 p.m. via Zoom
For Zoom details, email Anne Ellis

All women are invited to a time of fellowship and conversation via Zoom on Thursday, March 25. With a theme of “Rise Up” we will welcome spring and anticipate the celebration of Easter.


Cornerstones
Friday, April 9
5:30 p.m. via Zoom
For Zoom details, register at www.bit.ly/cornerstones0421

Those who are fifty and over are invited to join in a monthly Cornerstones time of fellowship followed by a program. At the April gathering via Zoom, Andrea Denney, Executive Director of Operational Ministries at Fourth Church, will talk about “Our House: Managing and Caring for Fourth Church’s Physical Spaces.”


Virtual Coffee Hour
Each Sunday after worship you are invited to share in a time of conversation with one another, when we gather for virtual Coffee Hour via Zoom.

Following the postlude

Also accessible at www.bit.ly/fpcfellowship

(the link is posted on our website as well: www.fourthchurch.org)

Meeting ID: 963 5583 1751
Passcode: 631276

Phone: Call 1 312.626.6799
and enter Meeting ID 963 5583 1751#
If you’re looking to read ahead, here is what our book groups—yet another way to connect with others through Fourth Church—have planned for their April discussions.

First Tuesday Book Club

Tuesday, April 6
7:00 p.m. via Zoom
For Zoom details, register at www.bit.ly/firsttuesdaybooks

This book group hosted by the Adult Education Committee examines the ethical and social issues facing Christians today.

April book: Just Faith: Reclaiming Progressive Christianity by Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons

Join us for a conversation with progressive Christian activist and writer Guthrie Graves-Fitzsimmons as he talks about Just Faith, a book in which he explains how a strong religious left has accompanied every major progressive advance in our society. In it he resurrects the long history of progressive Christianity to show how it can and must link arms with progressive Muslims and Jews to make the moral case for pluralism, human dignity, and the common good.


Books by Women

Tuesday, April 13
6:00 p.m. via Zoom
For Zoom details, email Anne Ellis

All women are invited to join in monthly Books by Women discussions whenever their schedules allow and the books are of interest.

April book: Olive Again by Elizabeth Strout

Olive Again continues the story begun in the Pulitzer Prize-winning Olive Kitteridge, bringing moments of grace as we follow the protagonist and her neighbors in Crosby, Maine.
Three of our programs are currently looking for volunteers to assist them with their work. Might you be able to help?

Meals Ministry
Fourth Church Meals Ministry is looking for people to assist with
  • Bag Lunch distribution
  • Sandwich making
  • Monday Night Supper
  • Cooking for Sunday Night Supper
  • Sunday Night Supper outdoor volunteers
  • The Baking Team
  • Bulk item breakdown and special projects.

To sign up to help, please go to VOMO, our Volunteer Ministry sign-up platform. In order to allow as many people as interested to help out, prior to Friday, March 26 please do not sign up for more than two dates per month. Safety and health standards are strictly followed.

For more information or assistance with VOMO, please contact Robert Crouch, Director of Volunteer Ministry.


Employment Network
Fourth Church’s Employment Network, which works in partnership with the St. Sabina Employment Resource Center on the South Side, is looking for volunteers interested in supporting job-preparedness workshops on interviewing, entrepreneurship, or credit repair.

The skills of those volunteering for SCORE or CARE Chicago are especially needed as are individuals with organizations that can provide internship and job opportunities in the fields of health care, security, manufacturing, IT, retail, administrative, and commercial driving.

If you can help or would like to learn more, please email employmentnetwork@fourthchurch.org


Adult Youth Ministry Leaders
Fourth Church Youth Ministry, a welcoming and inclusive Christian community where sixth- through twelfth-grade youth are accepted, known, and loved for who they are, relies heavily on the generosity of adult volunteer leaders. Applications are currently being received for leaders to serve in one of three volunteer roles during the 2021–2022 program year: Sunday Morning Leader, Zoom Small Group Leader, and Committee Member.

Interested church members are asked to sign up here for one of three informational sessions that will be held online in April. For more information email Katie Patterson, Youth Ministry Program Manager.
Births
We give thanks to God for the gift of new life.

Graeme William Stewart
Child of Robert and Kristi Stewart

Vivian Rose Gambell
Child of Tony and Karin Gambell
In recent days we have shared the second in our series of monthly historical accounts, “Back and Fourth: 150 Seconds of History” as well as a video of greetings and congratulations from Brian Ellison, Executive Director of the Covenant Network of Presbyterians. If you missed either, you can find them online.

And be sure to follow us on Facebook and Instagram as well to see, throughout the year, photos from our history.
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
Fourth Presbyterian Church | 312.787.4570 | www.fourthchurch.org