To help us continue to shape meaningful connections for the many who are engaging with Fourth Church online, we would very much appreciate your responses to a brief survey about your online engagement with Fourth Church.

You can find the survey at www.bit.ly/fpconline2022

Joseph L. Morrow 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

Due to the COVID risk level in Chicago, and consistent with the advice of city health officials, we are recommending, though not requiring, that individuals wear masks during worship and elsewhere on the Fourth Church campus.

in Buchanan Chapel

Rocky Supinger preaching

The worship bulletin is available to download and print

This Sunday we will raise our voices in song as we proclaim “Lift Every Voice and Sing” as part of our Juneteenth commemoration and celebration. Recognized as the Black National Anthem, its text and tune have gained widespread devotion, not only within the African American community but also among all who seek liberation from oppression.

On this weekend we together recommit ourselves to racial equity, the purposeful inclusion of all people, the striving for radical hospitality, and the modeling of anti-racism, that we might help to bring about the Beloved Community we all seek to be.

This Sunday is the last day to submit names of those graduating from eighth grade, high school, college, or a graduate or professional program in 2022. Please email the names to Rocky Supinger no later than June 19.

Graduate names received by Sunday, June 19 will appear in the worship bulletin next Sunday, June 26, which is Baccalaureate Sunday at Fourth Church.

Fourth Church Meals Ministry is in need of volunteers to assist in preparing and serving meals for our neighbors who are hungry and food insecure. To learn more or explore the various Meals Ministry volunteer needs, see our Volunteer Ministry platform, VOMO (www.bit.ly/fpcvolunteers).

The Chicago Lights Social Service Center still needs several more volunteers to unload food trucks, which arrive on second and fourth Mondays of the month. Volunteers are needed from 8:00 to 10:00 a.m. to transfer food from the Greater Chicago Food Depository truck onto food pantry shelves. If you can lend a hand on one of these days, please sign up via Vomo or email Jill Keiser.

Fourth Church is partnering with Refugee One to resettle two refugee families. If you are interested in being a mentor to a family, contributing to furnishing their home, or if you are simply interested in learning more about this opportunity, contact refugeeproject@fourthchurch.org.

Women at Fourth is collecting donations for the annual School Supply Drive. The school supplies will be given to students connected with Chicago Lights Summer Day and Tutoring, Summer Dance Academy, and the Urban Farm.

For details about how to contribute or how to receive a list of items needed, contact Simon Crow.

The Chicago Lights Social Service Center relies on donated items from Fourth Church members and friends to support their work with guests of their program.

Here is their current wish list:

Donations can be dropped off at the church reception desk (enter via the Chestnut Street doors). For more information, email Lynn Milligan.

As we return to more on-site programming, Fourth Church and Chicago Lights have implemented a new safety and security practice.

Anyone present on the Fourth Church campus is required to wear a campus badge while on site, except on Sundays and for other worship opportunities, concerts, and Meals Ministry meals.

Anyone who does not already have a campus badge when they enter (except for those exceptions noted above) will be asked to pick up a single-day badge at the 126 E. Chestnut reception desk. Reusable badges are being issued by some programs with regular, ongoing weekly programming, such as Chancel Choir. These reusable badges are only available from the staff of those programs, not from the reception desk. Anyone who does not bring their reusable campus badge will be able to pick up a single-day badge.

To facilitate this process—as well as for safety and security reasons—all access to the building is through the 126 E. Chestnut entrance only, except on Sundays and for other worship opportunities, concerts, and Meals Ministry.

Our ongoing commitment to the safety and security of all on our campus undergirds this practice, which was been under discussion since prior to the pandemic. (Implementation was set aside while the campus was largely closed.)

The campus badges and single-entry access point were strongly encouraged by our safety and security consultants and advisors and are also consistent with practices at other large, spread-out, multi-use buildings with spaces and uses like ours. The badges enable us to know who is in the building throughout the day. (Previous unlimited access has at times resulted in unknown individuals hiding in corners of the campus.) The badges also ensure that should we ever have to evacuate the buildings, we will know who was on site and needs to be accounted for.

As a congregation, we value radical hospitality and welcome for all, and we believe an integral component of that is our care for the well-being of those who are present with us. This safety and security practice is but one expression of that. For those who will be joining us on site as programming on campus continues to expand, we look forward to seeing you!