CONTENTS
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Last Call for Officer Recommendations
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We Need Your Nominations!
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Today is the deadline for 2016 officer recommendations--and we are hoping to add still more names to the list of those being considered to serve as Elder, Deacon, Trustee, or member of the Chicago Lights Board!
If you haven't done so already, please take a moment today to fill out a nominating form. You can easily submit your suggestions online.
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World Communion Sunday
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A Worldwide Gathering for the Lord's Supper
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We join worshipers around the world this weekend for World Communion Sunday as we gather for the Lord's Supper, enacting the words of the hymn "Come, Risen Lord": "One church united in communion blest; one name we bear, one bread of life we break."
Reminding us of this unity in the global family, the colorful cloth on the Communion Table and the stoles worn by the pastors will be from Guatemala, where several Fourth Church mission groups have traveled and where we will be returning in summer 2017.
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Learn about Upcoming Mission Opportunities
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Havana, Cuba. Guatemala. Northern Ireland.
All are locations for 2017 mission experiences!
Come learn about these life-enriching opportunities this Sunday during Coffee Hour. Members of the World Mission and Social Justice Committee will be on hand between services to answer questions about these trips. They will also have information available about the mission partners Fourth Church supports.
As a special treat, at 12:30 p.m. a musical trio from Northern Ireland will perform some great traditional Irish music in Buchanan Chapel. There will also be opportunity to hear reflections from Young Adults who participated in the mission-study trip to Northern Ireland this past summer--and to learn more about next summer's music mission trip to that country (applications for which are due October 15!).
Details about and online application forms for each trip are also available online.
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Supporting Efforts for Peace and Reconciliation
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This Sunday Fourth Church will receive a Peace and Global Witness Offering, which is historically received on World Communion Sunday. Gifts to the offering will support the work of CureViolence in Chicago and the PCUSA as it addresses issues of racism as well as violence here and in places such as the Congo.
Reflecting on this Sunday, the Presbyterian Church (USA) Mission Agency has highlighted a few examples of Christ's peace at work:
From 1994-2010, approximately 40 percent of women in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) reported sexual violence, with 74 percent identifying their experience as war-related. With the support of Presbyterian mission co-workers, women in the DRC invited the notorious warlord, Cobra Matata, to lay down arms and join them at the table of justice to begin healing in their country.
Closer to home, on average, 297 people in America are injured or killed in gun-related incidents every day. Congregations in Decatur, Georgia, gather around God's table of transformation, collecting and melting down guns to make parts for life-giving water pumps.
Despite much social progress, a recent national poll found a majority of Americans still exhibit racial prejudice. Two congregations in Denver, one predominately African American, the other white, gather together around God's table of understanding for "Soulful Sundays" to sing, break bread, and witness to the peace of Christ.
In all cultures of violence, God spreads a table of peace, justice, and reconciliation--and your support of this Sunday's Peace and Global Witness Offering helps bring more people to that table. World Communion Sunday reminds us that God's love can heal our deepest divisions.
Gifts to the Peace and Global Witness Offering can be made using the envelopes available in the pew racks or by writing "Peacemaking" on the memo line of a check payable to Fourth Presbyterian Church.
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We wish our Jewish brothers and sisters a good year! We are honored to host Chicago Sinai Congregation this Sunday evening and Monday, as they hold their community Rosh Hashanah services at Fourth Church as they have done for several years. High Holy Day observances continue the following week, when Chicago Sinai will return for their community Yom Kippur services.
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Chicago Lights Program Kicks Off on Monday
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This Monday night 400 students will return to Fourth Church as the Chicago Lights Tutoring program begins its fifty-second year! Students in grades one through twelve from under-resourced neighborhoods will meet once a week with their tutors and focus on improving academic performance, preparing for higher education and meaningful careers, and expanding leadership and social skills.
More information about the Tutoring program is available online.
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A special exhibit that pays tribute to the 400th year of Shakespeare's death in 1616 was installed in the Loggia yesterday. This exhibit contains works by more than 40 established artists who reside in or near Chicago, and
a considerable variety of media and styles are represented--including watercolor, acrylic, oil, printmaking, ceramics, and mixed-media.
The show illustrates how the poetry and magic of Shakespeare's great works continue to remain relevant to artists of today. In this exhibition, Chicago artists take their inspiration from Shakespeare's most noted plays and poetry and add their own personal creativity to give the Bard's work new life.
The exhibit will be on display in the Loggia until November 30, and an opening reception for the artists will be held next Friday, October 7 at 6:30 p.m. in Anderson Hall. All are invited, so we hope you'll stop by to greet the artists and to see their amazing work!
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Academy for Faith and Life, Books by Women, and CLL
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Want to curl up with a good book in the cooler fall temperatures? Academy for Faith and Life, Books by Women, and the Center for Life and Learning (CLL) have you covered!
This Thursday, October 6 at 6:30 p.m. in the Page Smith Room, the Academy for Faith and Life will turn to the next book in its series of book studies, this time on The Righteous Mind: Why People Are Divided by Religion and Politics by Jonathan Haidt. Nanette Sawyer, Minister for Congregational Life, will lead the two-week discussion on this work, in which author and social psychologist Haidt explores the origins of the divisions in our society and points the way forward toward mutual understanding.
Then on Tuesday, October 11, Books by Women meets at 6:00 p.m. in the Bumpus Room for discussion of the book The House Girl by Tara Conklin. The novel is set in 1852 Virginia and modern-day New York. The author weaves together the story of an escaped slave, Josephine, in the pre-Civil War South and a determined junior lawyer, Lina Sparrow, living in New York in 2004.
If you're 60 and over and want to join a monthly book club, why not start with this month's CLL pick--The Secret Chord by Geraldine Brooks. This member-led group will meet Tuesday, October 25 at 11:30 a.m. in Room 5B to discuss this rich fictional account of the life of King David.
Grab a great read and stop by one--or any--of these enriching discussions this month!
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Have you seen the photos of our Youth and Children and Family Ministry staff falling into a dunk tank or members of the congregation exploring ways to connect with one another and Fourth Church? These and other pictures from our Kickoff and Get Connected Sunday events can be viewed online at
www.facebook.com/fourthchurch
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Worship This Week
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8:00 a.m. with Communion
Judith L. Watt, Associate Pastor, preaching
Scripture texts:
Psalm 130
9:30 and 11:00 a.m.
with Communion
Shannon J. Kershner, Pastor, preaching
Scripture texts:
4:00 p.m. Jazz Service with Communion
Nanette Sawyer, Minister for Congregational Life, preaching
"How Long, O Lord?"
Scripture texts:
Worship bulletins
for this coming Sunday are available online Friday afternoon at
www.fourthchurch.org/worship/this-week.html
"News and Opportunities"
is the weekly printed newsletter distributed with the Sunday bulletin and is available online Friday afternoon at
www.fourthchurch.org/news/2016/100216no.pdf
Sermons
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Passages
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Wedding
We give thanks to God for the gift of life together.
Amy Elizabeth George and Kenneth Warner Aldridge,
September 24, 2016
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Concerts at Fourth Church
Friday Noonday concerts are free.
Friday, October 7, 2016
Rachel Blumenthal, flutist
Beilin Han, pianist
12:10 p.m. in Buchanan Chapel
Cosponsored by the Musicians Club of Women
Friday, October 14, 2016
Edward and Junghwa Moon Auer, pianists
12:10 p.m. in the Sanctuary
Friday, October 21, 2016
Roosevelt University Choirs
12:10 p.m. in Buchanan Chapel
Friday, October 28, 2016
John W. W. Sherer, organist
(Organist and Director of Music at Fourth Church)
12:10 p.m. in the Sanctuary
A complete concert schedule is available online.
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Volunteer at Fourth Church
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There are several ways to get involved in the mission and ministry of Fourth Church. See below for details!
Current Volunteer Needs
Cooks for Sunday Night Supper on October 9 and 30, 2:00-6:15 p.m.
In2It Café instructors to teach thirty-minute enrichment classes--from yoga to chess to dance to creative writing--to Chicago Lights Tutoring students on Mondays, Tuesdays, Wednesdays, or Thursdays, the first week of October through mid-December, from 5:25 to 5:55 p.m.
Nursery caregivers on Sundays at 9:30 or 11:00 a.m. in the Nursery
Tutors for the Chicago Lights Tutoring program
To sign up for any of these volunteer opportunities or to learn more about them, stop by Coffee Hour on Sunday morning or email [email protected].
A complete list of volunteer needs is available
online.
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