The Archbishop’s Commission on Racial Healing will hold its inaugural concert, We Find Hope in You: A Concert for Racial Healing.
The concert aims to put a spotlight on the racial and ethnic diversity present throughout the five-county Archdiocese of Philadelphia. It will also offer those in attendance an opportunity to encounter cross-cultural relationships, which are at the heart of the Commission’s work.
Archbishop Nelson J. Pérez will offer words of hope and inspiration during the concert.
Sunday, May 15, 2022
3:00 p.m.
The Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter & Paul and the Shrine of Saint Katharine Drexel
18th Street and the Benjamin Franklin Parkway
Philadelphia, PA 19103
The concert, which will be streamed live to https://vimeo.com/event/17522, will feature over 100 singers from throughout the region. They will perform pieces in several languages including Igbo, Spanish, and English. Music from the Gospel and Filipino choral traditions will also be performed.
The concert is being led by an all-woman team of conductors: Charlene Angelini from the Archdiocesan Choir of Philadelphia; Constance Orji of the Nigerian Igbo Catholic Youth Choir; Tonya Taylor-Dorsey of the Philadelphia Catholic Gospel Mass Choir; Damaris Thillet of Coro Hispano; and Nkeiruka Uduma of the Nigerian Igbo Catholic Adult Choir.
Ms. Angelini, Ms. Taylor-Dorsey, and Ms. Thillet have been commissioned to compose a new piece of music together, especially for this event, to honor the unity their communities find in their Catholic faith and to celebrate the diversity with which they express that faith.
The planning committee for We Find Hope in You: A Concert for Racial Healing includes Reverend Stephen D. Thorne, Chair of the Archbishop’s Commission on Racial Healing and Marcelle McGuirk, Member of the Archbishop’s Commission on Racial Healing.
Background on the Archbishop’s Commission on Racial Healing
Archbishop Nelson J. Perez launched the Archbishop’s Commission on Racial Healing in 2021. The Commission is composed of 18 people and represents the diversity of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia by race, age, gender, and language. The Commission is mostly lay faithful from city and suburban parishes. To read CatholicPhilly.com’s coverage of the Commission for Racial Healing, please click here. For more information about the Archbishop’s Commission on Racial Healing, please contact Reverend Stephen D. Thorne by email at [email protected] or by telephone at (215) 815-9337