Welcome to Immaculate Conception Parish!

Thank you to all who came down to support the NCYC pancake breakfast fundraiser. We raised about $550 (after expenses) to offset the cost for our journey. NCYC is often a life-changing experience. An update on our experience is coming soon.

WINTER WEATHER GUIDELINES

 If there is a Winter Weather Warning, or the Ithaca City Schools close, the office will be CLOSED. 7:30am Masses will be cancelled, but 12:10pm Masses will still be held. Check the MyParish app as all updates will be listed. You can download the parish app by going to the app store on your cell phone and search for MyParish App. Once it is loaded, search for Immaculate Conception Church, Ithaca. Click on the parish and you are all set.

We know you love to provide gifts at Christmas! The Service Team is once again working with Birth Right to provide baby items for their outreach and partnering with Tompkins County Department of Social Services. As you know, Birth Right offers love, hope, support, and resources for women who are pregnant or think they might be pregnant. Each year they give us a list of items they need to support these women.

We started partnering with DSS in 2019. The children we serve are in residential facilities with no family support, those who live independently with little or no parental support because their home situation is detrimental to their health and safety, and families where the children are being cared for by family members other than their parents (aunts/ uncles, grandparents, great-grandparents) who are often retired and living on fixed incomes. Be assured that DSS screens the families and only gives us those with legitimate needs. Because of their diligent vetting process, it is unlikely that these families will receive services from other community programs at Christmas time.

Tags are up on the Christmas Giving Tree, set up near the baptismal font, and all gifts should be returned unwrapped by November 30th. We feel blessed to be part of this Parish where your generosity makes it possible to brighten the holidays for those less fortunate. Anyone wishing to join our team or participate in one of our programs in our mission of outreach, please contact Margaret Rolfe [email protected] or the parish office.

Looking for a quiet time to pray during Advent? Time available for Adoration without Benediction, just Exposition and quiet prayer on Thursdays of Advent, beginning December 4, 2025 from 11am to 12pm, followed by the 12:10pm Mass.

Recent contributor reports for our parish indicate 62 households out of the 900 registered have pledged or donated to this year’s Catholic Ministries Appeal. Father wants to thank those donors who have so generously contributed toward our goal and let them know how much their support is appreciated. Full participation is key to reaching our required goal. It is not just reaching our monetary goal that is important. Reaching a full participation rate is also an important measure of the health and growth of our parish and its long-term viability. There are numerous ways of contributing that make it easy for all of us to join in. There are plenty of envelopes at the entrances of church with information on how to make a donation. Modest contributions by many households add up. See these options:

Visit the Secured Donation Portal at www.dor.org/cmagive or scan the QR code on the envelopes. Text GIVECMA to 585-502-9124 to donate from your phone or just call the number and select ext. 1298. Send a check made payable to CMA using the available envelopes.

 If you prefer to make an anonymous donation, make your checks payable to Immaculate Conception, designate it for the CMA and the funds will be forwarded to the CMA as anonymous. Consider using part of any mandatory distributions from retirement funds to support the CMA for a tax benefit.

Please consider all the ways God has blessed you and your family and how the church has brought goodness into the lives of many. Pray for the success of and join our appeal to give back what you can so that we remain strong and able to do God’s work.

The 2025/26 Catholic Ministries Appeal (CMA) theme is “Together We Bring Hope and Hope does not Disappoint!” Last year, Immaculate Conception’s 215 donors made it possible to exceed our goal and receive $1,273.25 back for use by the parish. Fr. Chumo is so grateful for the generosity of our parishioners for meeting the needs of the parish, the cemetery and the CMA.

This year our goal is $68,000. One of the most important aspects is participation. If we can increase the number of participants, we can easily reach our goal. Our hope is that we can do this by Christmas. If we can increase participation by 10% or 22 people/families we can earn a $1,000 bonus. Plus, the parish receives half of the donations that exceed our goal. The funds raised by the CMA are used to fund specific programs, services, and ministries that meet the real needs of the Diocese: serving people through Catholic Charities, supporting seminarian, deacon, and pastoral leader education.  In addition, their outreach assisted development and education for our youth and more.

 If you did not get a pledge card in the mail, there are extra forms available at the entrances to church. Watch our charts and the bulletin to track our progress and hear more about how the CMA benefits the parish. Please pray for another successful year.    

CMA Goal:  $68,000
Current Status: Donors – 62
Percentage: 31.11%
$21,153.00

The 2025/26 Catholic Ministries Appeal (CMA) is offering a participation challenge, featuring three ways for parishes to earn financial rewards:

Grand Prize $5,000

 For the parish with the greatest percentage increase in number of donors over CMA 24-25

$2,500

For 4 parishes with the greatest percentage increase in number of donors over CMA 24-25-in their size category. – Size categories are: – Up to 450 households – 451-750 households – 751 to 1,500 households – 1,501+ households

 $1,000

 For every parish that increases the number of donors by 10% over CMA 24-25 Every donor family counts! If you did not participate in last year’s CMA, please consider doing so this year, which will help our parish in possibly more than one way.

The Catholic Ministries Appeal does important work in our diocese. Remember we are part of a bigger church and that we are citizens of the kingdom of God and what it means to practice Catholic stewardship. What benefits the greater church benefits us individually and as a parish. The budget allocations for the 2025/26 campaign are as follows: 9%. Serving the needy through Catholic Chari es which helps people meet basic needs, advance economic security, and strengthen their families. Our local Catholic Charities office helps the needy in many ways some of which are the free clothing closet, providing personal care items and emergency financial assistance.

32% Providing diocesan wide services to our parishes and related institutions through liturgical, urban, rural, and multicultural programs and ministries; hospital, nursing home and jail chaplaincies, and pro-life ministries to name a few.

6%. Support training of seminarians, deacons, and pastoral leaders. Rick Burgess one of our parishioners, was ordained a deacon in June of this year. He is now serving in Ithaca.

35%. Fund the operation, maintenance and capital improvements associated with the Pastoral Center which houses diocesan offices and ministries and computer support services.

 4%. Educating our youth to fulfilling and faith centered lives through Catholic schools, campus ministries, sacramental preparation, and other programs. In the last few years two of our Cornell grad students who were active parishioners are now Brother Cassian (Dante Iozzo) and Brother Paul (Zack Huber) and are studying for the priesthood.

 4%. Administration of the CMA campaign including professional expertise, gift and data processing, promotional materials, and postage.

Immaculate Conception Church has its own app for iPhone and Android smart phones. The My Parish App allows us to better communicate with you throughout the week and bring you relevant parish news and updates. The app is very well designed and very intuitive. It is a great resource for parishioners by providing daily Mass readings, Catholic news and prayers, convenient prayer and Confession reminders, our bulletins and more. Download the app from your app store on your cell phone.

We do have Low-Gluten Hosts available for anyone needing them during Mass. Please come to the ciborium which has a drop-down handle as this contains the low gluten hosts. If unsure, just ask the Communion Minister to point you in the right direction. Just note that these are low gluten, not non-gluten.

Kindly visit the lost and found basket in the northern corner of the front entrance of the church and check it out. Items not removed will be donated to the Samaritan Center.

The Care and Concern Committee of the Church sends cards to church members in nursing homes. However, often people in our congregation are in the hospital, healing at home or are at rehabilitation centers to gain strength. We want to be sure that our church family knows that we’re thinking of them and praying for them. If someone you know would be blessed by receiving a card, please send the contact information (name and address) to [email protected]…so the Holy Spirit can touch lives one card at a time.

Is there someone you know who could use a warm, cozy shawl that comes with a prayer to help brighten their day? We have Prayer Shawls available for people to hand out. These shawls have been knitted by members of the parish with love and hope that they can help make a difference in someone’s life. Please contact the Caring Team or Parish Office  607/273-6121 if you would like one.

Your voice matters. If you have a suggestion, good idea around the pastoral goals of the parish; spiritual opportunities, outreach/community building, youth and family, buildings/grounds, cemetery and financial matters, kindly stop by the pastoral council meetings that occur every first Thursday of each month. You will be listened to because you love your parish.

Confessions are heard every Saturday from 2:00pm-3:30pm in the Church.

Call 273-6121 to receive this Sacrament or if your loved one is in the hospital.

For Baptism, First Reconciliation, First Eucharist, and Confirmation email Rich at [email protected] for information or to register.

Call 607-273-6121 at least 6 months in advance of your wedding date.