Centennial Celebration

After a devastating fire in 1916 destroyed the church, the congregation rebuilt and dedicated a new building in 1918. First United decided to commemorate the 100th anniversary of our building throughout 2018 with a year-long celebration.

 

The Walls Tell Our Story

To launch our four-part Centennial Celebration, our church archives revealed the story of how our sanctuary rose from the ashes of the devastating fire in 1916 and emerged 18 months later with increased strength and dedication. In a reception following worship, members viewed historical photos, artwork, scrapbooks, and documents that illustrated the courage and foresight of past generations. A special “Towers and Tunnels Tour” uncovered building history and legendary stories.

We published two booklets, “The Walls Tell Our Story,” and “Memorial Chapel Windows,” to further explain the rich history of First United Church. The booklets describe much of the history of the church in two ways.

The first booklet shows, through images and photographs of some of the paintings on our church walls and of old photos that are kept in our church archives, how the church was rebuilt after the 1916 fire and how the building and the church’s mission grew. It also includes a handy timeline of church history, starting from the 1860s, when the first church in Oak Park, then called the Oak Ridge Church of Harlem, grew and branched off into other denominations. The Oak Ridge Church became the First Congregational Church, which stood on the site of the current church today. It merged with First Presbyterian Church in 1975 to become First United Church.

The chapel booklet describes the symbolism and Bible stories behind the artwork in the chapel windows. The text and explanations came from the book, Symbolism and Art in the Memorial Chapel of First Congregational Church Oak Park, Illinois, written by an unknown author.

Both booklets are available to read online through these links: The Walls Tell Our Story. Memorial Chapel Windows.

Our Leadership Role on Fair and Open Housing

In June, the church sponsored a four-person panel of long-time Oak Parkers who told the history of the fight in the 1960s and 1970s for open and integrated housing in the village. This was before the merger of the two churches, but members of both congregations were heavily involved and had leadership roles in making sure housing in Oak Park was open to all, regardless of race. In 1968, Oak Park became the first community in the country to pass a Fair Housing Ordinance. The church also became the first home for the Oak Park Regional Housing Center, which still focuses on fighting segregation by offering renters and owners free services throughout the village, directing renters of all races to all areas.

Our speakers on the panel included Mac Robinet, whose family was among the first African-American families in Oak Park; Bobbie Raymond, who led the effort to start the Oak Park Regional Housing Center and was its first director; Sherlynn Reid, who promoted racial diversity as manager of the Village of Oak Park Community Relations Department; and Lois Merrill, who at the time was a local Realtor and trained other real estate agents in how to make sure housing stock in the village was open to all.

An audio version of that panel discussion can be heard at this online link.

Old-Fashioned Picnic

Centennial Celebrations call for fellowship, fun and games. In September, the church held an old-fashioned picnic featuring a fried chicken lunch, music, and games on the church lawn. The bluegrass band that usually plays at the Oak Park Farmers Market entertained the crowd. The church supplied chicken, lemonade, and the fixins’ for ice cream sundaes. Church members supplied side dishes and other desserts.

With the assistance of Cub Scout Pack 16, children and adults alike took part in some old-fashioned games on a sunny Sunday afternoon.

Raise the Roof Talent Showcase

The capstone of the Centennial Celebration shined a spotlight on First United’s exceptional talent with a one-of-a-kind talent showcase. A new sound system purchased for the event added to the sound quality and is being used each week to enhance worship services. Upgrades that were added to our lighting system can be used in future sanctuary performances.

The show was directed by Steve Pedersen and produced by Marcia Ashton. More than 100 church members contributed in a variety of ways, in performing, running things backstage as crew members, helping with publicity, and serving as ushers.

The show opened with “Good Clean Fun,” a musical theater number featuring our choir ensemble that entertained us with a 100-year span of ministers and members dedication to hard work mixed with fun times.

The audience delighted in the wide-ranging talent, including several classic comedy skits, our own First United Woodwind Ensemble, a bluegrass band, a Sam Cooke soul music rendition, and a talented young flutist, all stitched together with music provided by the Julian Chin Jazz Trio.

The topper of the evening was a high-energy number by the FUSH Show Stoppers (members of our high school youth group, pictured above) dancing to “Take On Me” by Pentatonix.

That’s a lot of talent in one church. Many are asking for an encore! A slide show of more photos from the performance and a recording of the show will be available soon on Vimeo with a link on this page.

Centennial Poetry

Also as part of the Centennial Celebration, church members wrote poetry to express their thoughts and feelings about the church and about each other. All of the submitted poems, along with photographic illustrations, were compiled into a booklet, available online: A Collection of Centennial Poetry.

One of those poems took the form of a new hymn, written by church member Phil Gehring, a retired music professor and composer.