City launches emergency training series for houses of worship — 'You don't want to be a statistic'

Liz Nickerson, an associate pastor at St. Paul's United Church in Lincoln Park, recalls a congregant asking her if the church had plans were someone to come in with a weapon.

She realized she did not have an answer but should have.

“That's not traditionally something that we’ve ever had to worry [about],” Nickerson told the Sun-Times. “Church doors used to be open, sanctuaries used to be open, for people to just come in. But that's something that's really changed, unfortunately.”

With that in mind, Nickerson joined a handful of faith leaders attending a new training series to help houses of worship prepare for emergencies — from natural disasters to active shooter situations.

“With the rise in incidents and people coming into houses of worship … it's really prudent and important for us to be able to keep all of our congregants safe [and] keep our neighborhoods safe,” Nickerson said.

The Office of Emergency Management hosted its second of five trainings Thursday morning at Park Community Church on the Near North Side. By Oct. 10, they will have held training at churches in each of the city’s five police districts. All have been open to any house of worship in that district.

“We want to ensure people know what to do in an emergency,” senior OEMC emergency management coordinator Beverly Carrington said to participants. “If it happens during service, everyone needs to know what to do and where to go.”

Carrington attended a similar program a year ago for Cook County. She decided “this would be awesome for Chicago.”

She began working with Chicago police and their faith liaisons to develop a program for those who deal with facilities and security.

Thursday’s session featured presentations on responding to public health emergencies, natural disasters and an active shooting, acknowledging the unique role houses of worship play as a hub for the community after a tragedy has occurred.

Ryan Hutton, director of facilities at Park Community Church, has engaged his congregation in similar trainings to ensure everyone knows their role in case of an emergency.

“You don't want to be a statistic,” Hutton said. “Both spiritual wisdom and practical worldly wisdom would say it's better to be proactive than to even have the chance of an incident.”

Hutton said congregants have used skills they learned to deescalate situations at his church, like when someone entered to intentionally make people uncomfortable.

“Learning from others that have gone through terrible incidents, but also our own experience, we've been able to be proactive with either a mental health incident or someone who was upset and maybe had bad intentions,” Hutton said. “Find out if they have needs that we can meet so that we can serve them, love them well, but also protect everyone else.”

William Townsell, from the Office of Community Policing, walked faith leaders through the possible warning signs for an active shooter and behaviors they should report to authorities.

“If someone is going through a bad relationship, know who that person is,” Townsell said.

Townsell also encouraged leaders to be aware of violent anniversaries, such as Oct. 7, when Hamas attacked Israel. Nearly 1,200 people were killed in the 2023 attack, and another 250 were taken hostage. Since then, Israeli airstrikes have killed more than 40,000 Palestinian people.

Ahead of the one-year anniversary, Chicago police will pay special attention to places of worship.

“While there is no actionable intelligence at this time, we will have an increased police presence to ensure the city’s faith communities are not only safe, but feel safe,” Chicago police wrote in a statement.

Participants in Thursday’s session also underwent Safe Chicago’s Stop the Bleed Program, teaching them how to respond if someone were wounded and bleeding out. Everyone who attended the session received a Bleeding Control Kit to mount in their house of worship.

OEMC hopes these training sessions can become an annual occurrence, keeping faith leaders up to date on the latest guidance and resources available to them.