A common saying around Fourth Presbyterian Church was that the Rev. John Buchanan would preach with the Bible in one hand and a newspaper in the other.
“He really saw and insisted on the connection between the stories that are in the Bible and the mission of Jesus, but that that be applied to what is going on in your world around you today,” said his son, Andy Buchanan.
As moderator of the Presbyterian Church USA in the 1990s, he was a strong advocate for the transition in the Presbyterian Church to acknowledge gay marriage and allowing gay people to be ordained as ministers.
“He was so committed to the church being open to all and accessible to everybody,” Andy Buchanan said.
Mr. Buchanan died Monday at age 87. He pastored at Fourth Presbyterian Church, 126 E. Chestnut St., along the Magnificent Mile, from 1985 to 2012.
Throughout those years, he and his wife, Susan, traveled the world. They met the Pope, they went to Korea and “all over the place,” but at heart, he was a Chicago guy who had season tickets to Cubs games and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.
“Growing up, friends of mine would often say, ‘It must be weird or different to have a minister as a father.’ And it really wasn’t at all,” Andy Buchanan said, recalling that his father was “incredibly engaged” in his and his four siblings’ lives, coaching Little League and always making time to attend their concerts or school events.
“He was very much kind of this regular guy who loves sports and music and all aspects of life.”
Mr. Buchanan was born Jan. 30, 1938, in Altoona, Pennsylvania, where he also met his wife. He earned a degree in divinity from the University of Chicago and from there, he and his wife moved to Dyer, Indiana, where he began preaching.
He moved to other churches in Lafayette, Indiana, and Columbus, Ohio, raising a family along the way. They settled in Chicago when he joined Fourth Presbyterian Church in 1985.
Around that time, Jeanne Bishop moved from Oklahoma City to Chicago to pursue a law degree. She decided to attend Fourth Presbyterian Church, where she joined the choir that she still sings with to this day.
“I just lucked out when, not only was there this beautiful church and this glorious music, but this amazing pastor who brought such intelligence and empathy, insights, poetry, really, to his preaching,” Bishop said.
Mr. Buchanan had a profound impact on Bishop’s life after her sister, brother-in-law and their unborn child were murdered in their Winnetka home in 1990. Bishop was devastated by grief and couldn’t escape the thought of her loved ones dying in such a horrific manner.
The first person she turned to was Mr. Buchanan, whom she met in his office at Fourth Presbyterian.
“He said, ‘Make a fist. You’re carrying this thing around with you and it’s weighing you down. It’s too much for you, you can’t bear up under it. Open your hands, lift them up to God and say take this, this is too much for me. Please do something with that,’” Bishop said, quoting Mr. Buchanan.
That conversation moved Bishop to eventually forgive the man who was arrested in her family members’ deaths, and it led her to write her book, “Change of Heart” about her journey.
“He wasn’t afraid to be vulnerable, as well as strong in the words that he was imparting to us,” Bishop said. “He was so inspiring in that way.”
Mr. Buchanan would conclude every service by telling the congregation to love and serve their neighbor, and with the words, “Hold to the good.”
Mr. Buchanan is survived by his brother, Bill, five children, 13 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. His wife preceded him in death.
Services will be held March 8 at Fourth Presbyterian Church in Streeterville.