Men in White

Minister Robert William awaits friends before church services on Father’s Day June 21, 2015 at Corinthian Temple Church of God in Christ in the west side of Chicago. | WILLIAM CAMARGO/Staff Photographer

Fathers in the west side of Chicago, were blessed and given prayers to during services on Father’s Day on June 21, 2015 at Corinthian Temple Church of God in Christ. | WILLIAM CAMARGO/Staff Photographer

Fathers in the west side of Chicago, were blessed and given prayers to during services on Father’s Day on June 21, 2015 at Corinthian Temple Church of God in Christ. | WILLIAM CAMARGO/Staff Photographer

Fathers in the west side of Chicago, were blessed and given prayers to during services on Father’s Day on June 21, 2015 at Corinthian Temple Church of God in Christ. | WILLIAM CAMARGO/Staff Photographer

Fathers in the west side of Chicago, were blessed and given prayers to during services on Father’s Day on June 21, 2015 at Corinthian Temple Church of God in Christ. | WILLIAM CAMARGO/Staff Photographer

Fathers in the west side of Chicago, were blessed and given prayers to during services on Father’s Day on June 21, 2015 at Corinthian Temple Church of God in Christ. | WILLIAM CAMARGO/Staff Photographer

Fathers in the west side of Chicago, were blessed and given prayers to during services on Father’s Day on June 21, 2015 at Corinthian Temple Church of God in Christ. | WILLIAM CAMARGO/Staff Photographer

Fathers dressed in white sit at Corinthian Temple Church of God in Christ in the west side of Chicago on Father’s Day June 21, 2015. | WILLIAM CAMARGO/Staff Photographer

Fathers dressed in white sit at Corinthian Temple Church of God in Christ in the west side of Chicago on Father’s Day June 21, 2015. | WILLIAM CAMARGO/Staff Photographer

On Sun., June 21, dozens of men clad in suits the color of doves queued translucently outside of the Corinthian Temple Church of God in Christ (COGIC), 4520 W. Washington Blvd. It was Father’s Day at the church. The men gathered in front of the stone cross embedded in the church’s brick facade, stood like sentinels for a photo and marched back inside the storied West Side sanctuary for 11 a.m. service. 

Lee Hoover, 66, a retired security guard who now serves as the church’s chief of security, was in the rearguard. He is the father of three. They range in age from 29 to 42 years old.

“Yesterday, they threw a pizza party for me with ice cream to celebrate Father’s Day,” Hoover said. “Very seldom nowadays do you see children take the time out to do that.”

“You’ve got to bring your kids up and have them respect you, because if they don’t they’re going to walk around out there with their pants hanging down and what not,” he said. “All of my kids have been brought up in church.”