March 20, 2020
With in-person worship suspended indefinitely, we hope you will join us online for our March 22 service, which will be livestreamed at 11:00 a.m. If that time does not fit your schedule, the service will also be available for viewing throughout the week.



Fourth Sunday in Lent, March 22

This week our livestreamed worship will continue our Lenten sermon series on “Questions Jesus Asked ” by considering a “Question about the Reach of Love,” specifically “If you love those who love you, what reward do you have?” (Matthew 5:43–48)

11:00 a.m. online
Shannon J. Kershner preaching
You can also download and print in advance the worship bulletin

Livestreamed at www.bit.ly/FPCworship

Our offering will be received online or via Venmo (@Fourth-Church). Our stewardship continues to be an important expression of who and whose we are. 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.
“One of the things we know we can do together, even if we are not in the same physical space together, is to pray. We pray because prayer changes things. It changes us.

“So wherever we are this day, let us join our hearts together as we pray for our world, our nation, our churches, and our lives...”

While we are not able to gather in person for our weekly concert, we hope you will join us online for some wonderful music this Friday, March 20 at 12:10 p.m.

The program will feature pianist Christopher Johnson performing works by Chopin, Liszt, and Gershwin on the Sanctuary piano.

You can invite others to join in this online concert by directing them to our website or by sharing the link www.bit.ly/fpcprograms.

You can also download and print in advance the concert program here.
In this time of social distancing and our closed campus, we remain firmly committed to caring for the most vulnerable among us.

Fourth Church Meals Ministry 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.

The Chicago Lights Social Service Center has transitioned to offering “curbside” emergency services on weekday mornings from 9:00 a.m. to 12:00 pm., providing
  • Essential emergency clothing (underwear, socks, T-shirts, gloves, hats)
  • Hygiene, incontinence, and menstruation items
  • Inclement weather gear (ponchos, handwarmers, coats)
  • Pre-assembled bags of food for those who have scheduled Food Pantry appointments

How can you help? While we can no longer receive individual donations of canned goods, clothing, or hygiene items direct from households, you can order and have shipped to the church the items on our emergency distribution list.

In the days ahead we will also be making available a list of needed food items that can be shipped for delivery to Meals Ministry.
We are 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 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 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 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.

  • 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 would like to be in phone contact with a Stephen Minister. Please leave a confidential message at 312.573.3365 or contact Dave Handley.
In this time while we are apart, Youth Ministry has created several opportunities for our youth to be together online.

Starting this Sunday, Senior High leader Gretchen Wahl will be hosting a Sermon Talk-Back Session for youth following the 11:00 a.m. livestream of worship. The parents of confirmands will be participating in a webinar that day as well.

We will also be hosting online weekly Junior High Family Gatherings, Senior High Gatherings, and “Suddenly-Home-from-College” Gatherings.

For more information contact Rocky Supinger or Katie Patterson
Youth Ministry programming is but one example of the new ways in which we are being community and church together.

This week the Board of Deacons, the Board of Trustees, and Session are all meeting online via Zoom, videoconferencing software that allows all participants to see and hear each other wherever their location.

Instructors in our Center for Life and Learning program for adults sixty and over have sent out links to exercise and music, emailed assignments and offers for conversation, and even taught yoga via Zoom!

Chicago Lights Tutoring staff are facilitating virtual relationships between mentors and students, supplying educational and engagement tools, and creating content for e-learning.

Children and Family Ministry has Sunday School lessons and crafts available online as well as an archive of their past TED Talks for Parents discussion guides, with links to the talks.

What are other new opportunities we are exploring? Watch your email, our website, and Facebook for updates!

Also, 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
A recent Religion News Service story—“What if Easter, Passover, and Ramadan Get Canceled?”—shares reflections by religious leaders from across the country, including Shannon Kershner, who said,

“I will admit that we are in the very beginning of brainstorming about how to celebrate Easter when we are unable to physically gather together. And yet it feels like we have an opportunity to really focus on what Easter is all about—life coming out of death; God’s best work being done in the dark when no one knows it is happening. We will certainly miss all of the celebration, the trumpets, the energy in the sanctuary, etc. But regardless of whether we are together in person or not, Easter happens.

“No matter what, Easter always rises. And so we will celebrate God’s ability to make a way out of no way and hold on to that promise with our fingernails. We are Easter people and a pandemic does not change that truth.”

Fourth Presbyterian Church | 312.787.4570 | www.fourthchurch.org