Church guide

Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed! You are warmly invited to come celebrate with us at our 9:30am worship service today.

Siberian squill Photo credit: Nancy Miner

With ages bridging five decades and voices together spanning over five octaves, Nothing But Treble is a group of female singers ages 18 and up. Four Highland Avenue members sing in the chorus: Peg Lehman, Nancy Miner, Anna Speicher, and PennyLou Walbridge. Their mission is to promote outstanding repertoire for women’s voices of every genre with a strong nod to female composers and music from around the world. This Spring concert will feature songs ranging from Shenandoah and How Can I Keep from Singing to Aaron Copland’s Zion’s Walls to Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy and salute to Aretha Franklin.

Please join us at 9:30am for the fifth Sunday in our Lenten series Roll Down, Justice. Jim Weaver will be our preacher, and the Adult Choir will sing three anthems--two during gathering music. May God's peace, justice, healing, and wholeness roll down! Photo credit: Robert Lukeman via unsplash.com

Come meet and listen to the candidates for Elgin City Council tonight as they each have opportunity to speak about their platform, followed by an informal "meet and greet." On the ground level in Fellowship Hall; enter from the parking lot.

Join us this Sunday at 9:30am for the third week of our "Roll Down, Justice" worship series. Pastor Katie will preach on Matthew 25: 31-40, the choir will sing, and we will create our own rain storm as we pray for God's holy, healing waters of justice to roll down like a mighty stream.

Watch this video for a preview of tonight's "Let's Talk: White Privilege" session 3.

Stand for love. Stand against hate. Stand together. Thanks to the National Council of Churches for the message below.

Please welcome denominational Director of Ministry Nancy Sollenberger Heishman to the pulpit this Sunday for the second in our Roll Down, Justice series as she brings a message reflecting on Psalm 13, Exodus 2: 11-25, and the experiences of her multi-cultural and multi-lingual congregation in Ohio.

Do you ever worry you're not "good enough?" Maybe you can relate to last week's sermon from Pastor Katie. You can read and listen to it at the church's website: http://www.hacob.org/worship/sermons.php. Join us each week in Lent to sing and pray for God's healing justice to "roll down!"

Thanks to member Wendy McFadden for penning these wise words on the season of Lent in her professional role with Messenger magazine.

Our Lenten worship theme "Roll Down, Justice" begins this Sunday. May justice indeed "roll down like waters and righteousness like an ever-flowing stream (Amos 5: 24)." On this Ash Wednesday, we offer the following prayer from Marcia McFee, author of many of the prayers we will use throughout this season: Holy God, There are days when it is harder to pray than others; days when the disappointments of yesterday still linger in the memory as the weight of the day ahead feels too heavy to bear. And yet, these are the days we need prayer the most. There are seasons in a relationship where it is harder to love than others; seasons where the unbridled joy and endless hope have been harnessed by the realities of careers, parenting, debt, aging, disappointments,and growing apart. And yet, these are the seasons we need to love one another the most. There are times in our lives of faith when it is harder to remain faith-filled than others; times when the dark night of the soul remains through sunrises too numerous to count, and the hope of relief seems afar off. And yet, these are the times when we need our faith the most. Speak to us anew in days, seasons, and times that are parched and passionless, and refresh the dry places in our lives. Speak to us in the deep, secret places where others cannot enter and your voice reverberates our entire being. Speak to us anew, Holy God. Amen.

Check out this Emmett Witkovsky-Eldred hosted and Elizabeth Ullery Swenson produced Dunker Punks Podcast with Pastor Katie Shaw Thompson joining the conversation with other moms and ministers about how those two sacred and messy jobs meet. With love to all the little "dunker punk-ins" out there.

Church Library

Thank you to the many members of our congregation who showed up Wednesday to support this affordable housing development coming to the site of the old Larkin Center. Thanks especially to the small group of folks from the community engagement team who have put in so many hours of effort to increase access to affordable housing in Elgin.

Read member Ellen Smith's touching story from the front cover of the Chicago Tribune this week.

Winter scenes

It's me, it's me, O Lord, standing in the need of prayer. It's me, it's me, O Lord, standing in the need of prayer.

Inspiring songs and witness from the ZME Women's Fellowship Choir visiting from Nigeria. We were deeply moved and grateful for their visit.

NYC Sunday