The congregation is organized into a Servant Leadership Board, with three Committees:
1. Congregational Life,
2. Mission and Outreach.
3. Administration and Finance.
Co-chairs provide overall leadership to the Board.
The congregation also has appointed three Deacons, who provide Spiritual Leadership.
Chicago First Church of the Brethren has three partners who share our building space. We engage one another in our diverse missions and our common community.
Chicago Community Mennonite Church. a welcoming congregation that shares an Anabaptist faith and seeks to witness through word and deed to the truth revealed in Jesus' life and teaching.
Wellington UCC, describes itself as "We’re passionate, quirky, and super inclusive. Really, we are – it’s not just a tagline here." The lively congregation meets in-person for worship the first and third Sundays at First Church and worships on Zoom the second and fourth.
Honey Pot Performance, is a "creative collaborative chronicling Afro-feminist and Black diasporic subjectivities amidst the pressures of contemporary global life." Honey Pot Performance has made 425 S Central Park their home and is filling the church building with creativity and vitality.
Our Denomination: Church of the Brethren http://www.brethren.org/
District of Illinois & Wisconsin http://www.iwdcob.org/
Bethany Theological Seminary https://bethanyseminary.edu/
Camp Emmaus www.campemmaus.org/
On Earth Peace http://onearthpeace.org/
Community Peacemaker Teams (CPT) www.cpt.org/
Chicago Community Renewal Society www.communityrenewalsociety.org/
Markers for members and friends of First Church. See the list
Mary Scott Boria, long-time member of First Church describes her congregation this way:
Lots of folks ask me about my religion/church. We are the FIRST CHURCH OF THE BRETHREN, part of a small Christian denomination. We are one of the 4 historic peace churches in the US (along with Mennonites, Quaker and some Baptist). We are not a cult, a sect or a brotherhood. We are of Christian faith and non-violent peace persuasion. Brethren does not mean men only, or men in leadership. We have been a multi-racial church in East Garfield Park for almost 100 years.
We are an activist church, having hosted Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. while he lived and worked in Chicago and we have been involved in many anti-war and social justice campaigns, probably most notable is the Chicago Anti-Apartheid movement, and support for Christian Peacemaker Teams (CPT).
When you come you will participate in a wonderful and spiritual experience of creating something beautiful. All faiths and no faiths are welcome. We will not throw Christianity (and we don’t anyway) in your face. However what we will do is open our hearts and welcome you in the spirit of love, peace, fellowship.
Please join us. Good things do happen in East Garfield Park.
Copyright © 2025 Chicago First Church of the Brethren - All Rights Reserved.