Sing a New Song

I've been here over a year now, and people often ask me how I like Ithaca. I tell them that I really like it, and the biggest adjustment is the shift from city life to small town life. I have mostly lived in big cities - Houston, Boston, Dallas - and I really like the variety of food, culture, people, entertainment, and conveniences, as well as a degree of anonymity. I'm discovering, however, that bigger cities don't offer the opportunities for community connections that smaller towns like Ithaca do.

Because we are a smaller community, we are also affected in more immediate and intimate ways by tragic events in our community. And, we also have a desire to respond to those events in ways that bring the community together and facilitate peace and healing. 

Growing up in the South, I learned a great deal about racial tensions, and my friends helped me understand how their experiences differed from mine. And my dad told me about the blatant racism he witnessed in the Houston court systems. In college, my freshman-year roommate's parents forced her to transfer to another school because she, a white woman, was dating a black man.

Living in Boston and now in Ithaca, I've observed that racial tensions are just as present, but they are not often as visible as they are in the South. But they are very real, and our Ithaca community continues to struggle with race and class divides. Wendell Berry, a favorite author of mine, called racism a "hidden wound" - something we don't like to talk about but which is hurtful to all of us.

One reason I have come to love Ithaca is that we have so many people who are working for peace, healing, and justice in our community. I think many of you in our congregation know how powerful music can be in working toward healing. This Sunday, Temple Beth-El is hosting a musical feast that you won't want to miss. "Sing a New Song: Spiritual Voices of Ithaca" will feature local artists including the Dorothy Cotton Jubilee Singers, Voices: Multicultural Choir, the Ithaca Children's Choir, the Calvary Baptist Church Choir, the Jewish Community Choir, the Filipino String Ensemble, and several of our community’s choral groups (including members of  FCC’s and several congregations’ choirs).


I hope you will be there to represent our congregation at the State Theatre on Sunday at 3pm. Contact the church office for tickets - donations are welcome, but we have tickets for anyone who would like to go. Your presence will bless the community, and I believe you will walk away feeling richly blessed.


Have a wonderful week,
Manda