This Sunday, April 6, we will remember John H. Boyle, who faithfully served this congregation as the founding director of the Lorene Replogle Counseling Center and as a member of the pastoral staff from 1976 until the time of his death in 2013.

In his honor we are dedicating, during the 11:00 a.m. service, a bench that will be placed in the Garth and are also renaming the Third Floor Conference Room the John H. Boyle Conference Room. An anthem commissioned by Dr. Boyle's wife, Kathye Boyle, will be sung during the 9:30 and 11:00 a.m. services. Composed by Aaron David Miller, former Associate Organist at Fourth Church, the anthem "Father in Heaven" is based on a text by S�ren Kierkegaard that was one of John Boyle's favorites.

Following the 11:00 a.m. service, all are invited to an open house in the Replogle Center for Counseling and Well-Being, on the third floor of Parish House, where the bench will be displayed in the Boyle Conference Room.

The Fourth Church theater group, Fourth Acts, will present a free dramatic reading of Ann Timmons' Becoming Calvin this Sunday, April 6 at 3:00 p.m., concluding the four-week Academy for Faith and Life class on the Protestant reformer.

The play was commissioned in 2009 by the Reformed Institute of Metropolitan Washington, D.C., to celebrate the 500th anniversary of the birth of John Calvin, a young scholar and a defining figure of the Protestant Reformation.

The playwright will be in attendance this Sunday, and a small reception will follow the reading. All are invited to attend.

Time:  

   Sunday, April 6, 3:00 p.m.

Place:  

   Buchanan Chapel

As we continue our journey through Lent and into Holy Week, we hope you'll join us for worship on Palm Sunday, April 13! Morning services will be held at 8:00 (with Communion), 9:30, and 11:00 a.m., with Joyce Shin preaching. Please note the third morning service is at the regular weekly time of 11:00.

One of Fourth Church's most beloved traditions will take place during 9:30 and 11:00 worship that day: the Palm Sunday processional of children entering the Sanctuary waving palms. Children will gather in their classrooms prior to each service; parents with infants and toddlers will meet in the Loggia at 9:15 and 10:45 a.m.

There will also be a 4:00 p.m. jazz service with Communion, with Adam Fronczek preaching. 

As we near the celebration of Easter, there will be a variety of opportunities to come together for worship during Holy Week. We hope you'll be with us for many of them!

On Maundy Thursday, April 17, there will be a 12:10 p.m. Communion service, led by Matt Helms, and a 7:30 p.m. Tenebrae service, both in the Sanctuary.

On Good Friday, April 18, there will be a 12:10 p.m. service, led by Judy Watt, in the Sanctuary. There will also be a 4:00 p.m. children's service in Buchanan Chapel and a 7:30 p.m. choral service in the Sanctuary.

An Easter Vigil will be held on Saturday, April 19 at 8:00 p.m. in the Sanctuary and will be led by John Vest.

On Easter Sunday, April 20, opportunities to worship will include a 6:30 a.m. sunrise service at Oak Street Beach, with Hardy Kim preaching; 8:00, 9:30, and 11:30 a.m. services in the Sanctuary, with Joyce Shin preaching; and a 4:00 p.m. jazz service in the Sanctuary, with Adam Fronczek preaching. A children's Easter service will be held at 9:30 a.m., starting on the fourth floor of the Gratz Center. Please note that the last morning service on Easter Sunday will begin at 11:30 a.m.

This Monday is the last day to enter the Bank of America Chicago Marathon lottery and win big with Chicago Lights!

If you place your name in the hat for the 2014 Chicago Marathon by this Monday, April 7 and choose to raise funds for Chicago Lights, then thanks to the generosity of an anonymous donor, Chicago Lights can cover your registration fee if you are accepted!

For more information about the 2014 Bank of America Chicago Marathon, Team Chicago Lights, and having your registration fee covered upon acceptance into the marathon, please contact Kate Solis (312.981.3564).

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As part of our congregation's commitment to provide ministries of healing and our desire to be a place where hurting people can receive compassionate care and Christ's healing love, Stephen Ministry provides one-to-one caring relationships to support those who are experiencing challenging times, such as loneliness, unemployment, hospitalization, or loss. For those facing life's struggles or major changes, it provides someone who cares, who listens, who accompanies, and who supports.

Do you know someone who could benefit from the caring presence of a Stephen Minister? Information about Stephen Ministry is available online, in the literature racks, and by leaving a confidential message at 312.573.3365.

Fourth Church member Jeanne Bishop and Mark Osler, both criminal lawyers, will examine later this month some of the hottest topics being debated in the U.S. criminal justice system.

Adults sixty and more are invited to join the Center for Life and Learning for "An Inside Look at Criminal Law," which will meet on Thursdays, April 17-May 1 at 4:00 p.m. in the Gratz Center. In this three-part discussion series, participants will explore prisoner confinement, the death penalty, and the treatment of prisoners viewed through the lens of Jesus' admonition.

Register with Julia Bergen (312.981.3386).

Time:

   Thursday, April 17-May 1, 4:00 p.m.

Place:  

   Gratz Center

Sermons

from previous weeks are posted online at www.fourthchurch.org/sermons 

Friday, April 11, 2014
12:10 p.m. in Buchanan Chapel
Lisa Rogers Lee, soprano

Friday, April 11, 2014
8:00 p.m. in the Sanctuary
Lakeside Singers: "Connections to Royalty"
Tickets available at www.lakesidesingers.com

Friday, April 18, 2014
Good Friday: No Concert

Friday, April 25, 2014
12:10 p.m. in the Sanctuary
Paul Carr, organist

Dishwashers for Sunday Night Supper from 5:00 to 6:30 p.m., on rotation