Category: Announcements

Giving to St. John’s

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Thank you for thinking about St. John’s during this difficult time. We are planning to continue to pay our employees and our bills so we appreciate all donations. There are four ways to give to St. John’s while we are quarantined.

This fun video shows all the ways you can give to St. John’s! Or read the details below:

  1. You can write a check and mail it to the office: 3857 N Kostner Ave. Chicago, IL 60641. The cost to you is the envelope and the stamp about $.51!
  2. If your bank offers on-line bill payment you can schedule a reoccurring payment. You just need the name and address of the church. If you have a pledge number please add it to the memo line. The bank will generate and send the checks to St. John’s. There is no fee for this.
  3. If you use Zelle or Quick Pay you can schedule a donation to St. John’s by using the email treasurer@stjohnschicago.com There is no fee for this.
  4. You can donate on our website. Click on the red “donate” button at the top of the screen and enter in your debit or credit card number. The fee is 3.95%. For example, if you donate $100 it will charge you $103.95.

If you have questions contact Lisa at parishoffice@stjohnschicago.com or call her at 773.725.9026. Thank you!

Christmas Worship at St. John’s

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Please observe these COVID protocols
Please do not come in person if you are an unvaccinated adult or have a compromised immune system. Please join us online instead!

For those worshipping in person:
Please sign in with your phone number at the front door.
Everyone aged 2 and under will wear a mask covering their nose and mouth.
NEW: Readers and speakers will leave their masks on when reading or speaking.
NEW: We will not be serving food or drink after services.

Please remember!
You can bring a small cup or shot glass to receive wine at communion (we have plastic available if you forget). Please return to your seat before consuming the bread and wine.

You are welcome to bring a votive candle if you wish to take the Peace Light from Bethlehem with you. We will also be providing hand-held candles – please don’t blow them out until you are outside after the service!

Christmas Eve, Friday, December 24 at 4:00 p.m.
In person or via Zoom (Meeting ID: 870 9818 4807 Passcode: merry)
or Facebook Live.
Download bulletin for Christmas Eve, 4:00 p.m.

Christmas Eve, Friday, December 24 at 10:00 p.m.
In person or via Zoom (Meeting ID: 881 3377 0145 Passcode: merry)
or Facebook Live.
Download bulletin for Christmas Eve, 10:00 p.m.
Christmas Day, Saturday, December 25 at 10:00 a.m.
In person or via Zoom (Meeting ID: 834 6758 7771 Passcode: merry)
or Facebook Live.
Download bulletin for Christmas Day, 10:00 a.m.

Rooted in Love

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St. John’s Annual Stewardship Campaign

They shall be like a tree planed by water, sending out its roots by the stream. It shall not fear when heat comes, and its leaves shall stay green; in the year of drought it is not anxious, and it does not cease to bear fruit. – Jeremiah 17:8

Every year the members, and some friends of St. John’s, make a pledge to support our shared mission and ministry. Every year those commitments root us in love and generosity, making possible every Sunday morning worship service, every encounter with a member, newcomer, or visitor, and help us serve as a base camp for outreach to the wider community. Your generosity made it possible for us to keep and pay all our employees during the 2020 pandemic; paying and retaining our excellent staff supports our worship and care for each other. The care and maintenance of our buildings and grounds are one of our largest expenses and one of our best tools of evangelism, making possible the beauty of our worship, the hospitality of the garden, and the support of community groups.

Rooted in love for this community, I hope you will prayerfully consider continuing your generous pledge to the mission and ministry of St. John’s in 2022.

You can pledge on line by filling out this confidential annual stewardship pledge form.

Thank you!

Critical Race Theory Conversation Follow up

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Dear Friends:

Dr. Cooke (on-line), Dr. Westbrook, Ms. Yutzy, Mr. Moore

Thank you for attending our event held on Tuesday November 9th, titled “Critical Race Theory: How it Affects Me and Why it Matters. A conversation with three educators”.  

We are tremendously grateful to our panelists for sharing their expertise, passion, and experiences. They exceeded our expectations and provided us all a truly educational and enlightening 90 minutes. We have compiled a list of resources provided from the panelists and moderator to deepen our understanding of the topic Critical Race Theory.  Those resources are listed below and can also easily be accessed on our webpage: St. John’s Anti-racism Resource .

Thank you to our co-sponsors for their collaboration and commitment to learning.

All Saints: http://allsaintschicago.org, Church of the Ascension: http://ascensionchicago.org, and Church of the Atonement: http://atonementchicago.org

Blessings,

–The St. John’s Antiracism Team

Co-Chairs: Anna Ware AnnawareSLP@gmail.com and Laura Singer laura.t.singer@gmail.com 

The Rev. Kara Wagner Sherer, Rector rector@stjohnschicago.com

Resources for further reading and discovery

Recommendations from Blanche B. Cook:

CAUGHT: Calculating the Moves of Power in our Midst, A TEDx talk at Wayne State University

Critical Race Theory: An Introduction, Second Edition by: Richard Delgado and Jean Stefancic (2012)

Forward: The Jurisprudence of Reconstruction (California Law Review, Vol 82, No. 4 July 1994), by Angela Harris

Looking to the Bottom: Critical Legal Studies and Reparations, by Mari J. Matsuda

Handbook of Critical Race Theory in Education, by Marvin Lynn and Adrienne D. Dixson (2021)Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of Color, by Kimberle Crenshaw

Recommendations from Kyle Westbrook:

Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own, by Eddie S. Glaude Jr. (2020)

No Name in the Street, by James Baldwin

The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America, by Richard Rothstein

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, by Michelle Alexander

A Nation by Design: Immigration Policy in the Fashioning of America, by Aristide Zolberg

Ghosts in the Schoolyard: Racism and School Closings on Chicago’s South Side, by Eve L. Ewing

Stony the Road: Reconstruction, White Supremacy, and the Rise of Jim Crow, by Henry Louis Gates Jr.

Black Reconstruction in America 1860-1880, by W.E.B. Du Bois

Making the Second Ghetto: Race and Housing in Chicago 1940-1960, by Arnold R. Hirsch

A Political Education: Black Politics and Education Reform in Chicago Since the 1960s, by Elizabeth Todd-Breland

Recommendations from Heather Yutzy:

White Fragility: Why It’s So Hard for White People to Talk About Racism, by Robin DiAngelo (2018)

Caste, by Isabel Wilkerson  (2020)

You Are Your Best Thing: Vulnerability, Shame Resilience, and the Black Experience, by Tarana Burke and Brene Brown (2021)

The Cross and the Lynching Tree, by James H. Cone (2011)

Jesus and John Wayne: How White Evangelicals Corrupted a Faith and Fractured a Nation, by Kristin Kobes Du Mez  (2020) 

Code Switch Podcast From NPR

Recommendations from Duncan Moore:

The Warmth of Other Suns, by Isabel Wilkerson (2010)

Between the World and Me, by Ta-Nehisi Coates (2015)

How to Be an Antiracist, by Ibram X. Kendi (2019)

Recommendations from St. John’s members

An article from the New Republic about the November 2021 Virginia governor race

From the New Yorker The Void that Critical Race Theory was Created to Fill

From the New Yorker podcast The New Culture Wars over American History

An article about the slave auction controversy in Traverse City, Michigan

An article about the founder of Critical Race Theory, Derrick Bell

An article about how CRT became weaponized as a public issue

From The Episcopal Church Office of Racial Reconciliation

Let’s Talk CRT: Christian Race Theory By Stephanie Spellers

From the Chicago Public Library:

A reading list from Ibram X. Kendi from the Chicago Public Library

From the St. John’s Antiracism Team:

A video on why we do antiracism work: Can I get a Witness?

Our Antiracism Team Page:   https://www.stjohnschicago.com/?page_id=5268

A reading list of books by African-American writers: Reading to End Racism

A reading list of books on white supremacy:  Wrestling with White Supremacy

A reading list of books by Hispanic and Latinx authors:  Latinx Book Group