Racial-Equity Council Resources

REC Recommended Films

Fourth Presbyterian Church is committed to breaking down barriers and becoming a more racially inclusive community. One of our five strategic directives is “Embrace Racial Equity: Fourth Church will purposely include all people, striving for radical hospitality and modeling an antiracist approach in all areas.”

Our Racial Equity Council serves as a catalyst in this intentional pursuit of racial equity. As part of their work, the council facilitates training opportunities and plans insight trips.

The Racial Equity Council: Niccole Alexander, Alan Bath, Kay Brungs Laud, Regan Burke, Eva Chess, Sam Evans, Angela Giles, Irma Olmedo, Leila Shin, Kevin Williams, Eric Wu, Nanette Sawyer (Associate Pastor), Robert Crouch (Director of Volunteer Ministry)

Racial Equity Council Statement on Juneteenth

A brief statement from the Racial Equity Council on the commemoration and celebration of Juneteenth

“The Ascension” by Gerald Griffin

A church’s artwork reflects who we value and honor, what history we want to lift up, and what vision and identity we are claiming for who God calls us to be.

For the thousands of congregants, guests, and visitors who enter our space on North Michigan Avenue, it is important for Fourth Church to give clear public witness that people of all races are made in the image of God and celebrated in God’s multicultural, multiracial Beloved Community.

The Fourth Church Racial Equity Council commissioned the painting “The Ascension” by Gerald Griffin to proclaim our vision to be a church family in whom persons of color are valued and fully engaged, whose gifts and leadership strongly shape our ministry.

That painting hangs in the Gignilliat Commons and was dedicated on September 22, 2019.

More about the painting “The Ascension”

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Embracing Racial Equity

“The power and principality of racism that manifests itself all over the place in American culture, including the church, is why your Session adopted the following commitment as one of our Strategic Directions: ‘Embrace Racial Equity: Fourth Church will purposely include all people, striving for radical hospitality and modeling an antiracist approach in all areas.’

The power and principality of racism is why we established the Racial Equity Council in 2018, a stated council of the Session just like Worship, Music, and Arts or the Joint Finance Committee. We are working to do whatever we can to eliminate the myriad of ways we continue to center “whiteness” as the norm, as what is most valuable. ...

Black lives do matter — they matter to God and they sure need to matter more to us as an institution, a part of the body of Christ. They need to matter more to us as a society, all of us, children of God.”

—Shannon Kershner | Read the full letter to the congregation

For more about the Racial Equity Council, contact Nanette Sawyer or Robert Crouch

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