Welcome to Ray of Hope
Church Of Our Lord Jesus Christ

CELEBRATING 25 YEARS OF MINISTRY

***March 21, 2008 ***


*** attend Sunday morning worship ON LINE through a Yahoo Conference. Click here for easy to follow instructions to view and participate on line. ***



Visit our new page dedicated to the ELMIRA EXTENSION and our new Parsonage/Rectory/Monastery. Find out how St. Francis of Assisi was involved in helping us acquire our building, and read about our Eucharistic Miracles. Pictures of our newly painted and refinished chapel floor will be available on this page. Click here!

LOCATIONS AND MEETING TIMES click here

The truth is, Ray Of Hope Church Of Our Lord Jesus Christ is the only Christian Church in Central New York State founded, fostered, and supported by the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Enlightened Heterosexual Communities.

To be perfectly clear, we are not an "open and affirming" or "accepting" or "reconcilling" congregation, etc. of this denomination or that one.... We are the Church Of Our Lord Jesus Christ and THEREFORE,

ALL PEOPLE ARE WELCOME TO CELEBRATE LIFE IN CHRIST with us.

We openly celebrate ALL sexual orientations, ALL lifestyles, as pure gifts from God.

You may be a white collar conservative, a blue collar worker, "goth", "punk", a mom with her children, husband and wife, "skater", "intellectual", doctor, lawyer, teacher, unemployed and you have found your church.

We have been serving Central New York since 1983. Founded in Syracuse New York. Now serving Syracuse, Elmira, Cortland, and Ithaca, New York


Our website has grown into a very large, multi-paged document. The Index page has been divided into three pages to facilitate faster loading of the site on your computer. You will want to return here often to read all the information and the updates. It is our hope to especially reach out to those of you who must participate in our ministry from a closeted position.

You are welcome here, and we hope you feel safe in Christ.



HELP US BUILD OUR NEW WORSHIP CENTERS
Now you can make a direct tax deductable donation to Ray Of Hope Church Of Our Lord Jesus Christ, Inc. by using PAYPAL, the Internet's safe and secure electronic financial transfer service. Click on the DONATE BUTTON to make your tax deductable donation to our Building Fund. We are currently rennovating two buildings for our Congregation to use for worship and we would appreciate any donation you could make. Funds are needed now to complete necessary rennovations and open our worship centers to the public. Volunteer help in all areas of construction/electric/etc. would be GREATLY appreciated. Tax deductable receipts available for all labor and materials donated. Our Federal Tax Identification Number is 16-1294176. A letter for receipt of your donation will follow if you email us and request it.
COME OUT AND BE PART OF THIS GREAT WORK GOD IS DOING FOR ALL PEOPLE. LEAVE A SOLID FOUNDATION IN CENTRAL NEW YORK FOR THE NEXT GENERATION OF GLBTQS YOUTH AND FAMILIES!
Thank you for your generous support. God bless you.

CLICK on theand the underlined titles below to read these listed pages:

LOCATIONS AND MEETING TIMES


Statement of Faith


Statement of Purpose


Sermons


Homosexuality, Bisexuality, Transgender and the Bible - NOT CONDEMNED IN SCRIPTURE! CLICK HERE.
** Scroll to the bottom of this INDEX page to read about a new book on this topic we recommend.

TWO pages of resources for GLBTQ and kewl STR8 youth support organizations, magazine links, etc. See the new list of famous Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual/Queer/Transgender/and Open Minded Straight People!!


GLBTQ Community NEWS in Central NY.


Christian Resources: Bibles on line, Interlinear Study Bibles, The Revised Common Lectionary, Church History sites, etc.


Meet the Pastor


Our worship style!


CALENDAR for Ray Of Hope Church Of Our Lord Jesus Christ

Read our by-laws.

On October 27 and 28 We we are celebrating the 20th anniversary of the founding of Ray Of Hope Church Of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

Read some of the story of our Congregation (SHORT VERSION)
CLICK HERE FOR LONG VERSION of our story


Policy Of Ethics

Ray Of Hope Church Of Our Lord Jesus Christ offers a complete Vocational Ministry Training Program leading to full licensure and ordination of persons of all genders, and sexual orientations who are called by God! There are four pages of information. Click here to go to page one.

Listed on pages three and four is the Reading Seminar required reading list for our home-based seminary program. Click here to go directly to the Seminary book list.

We can tell you why people do not understand that Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Multi-gender, and Heterosexuals are in God's Eternal Grace and Security. Only people who are truly born again with the power of the Holy Spirit can understand that all people are saved by faith, not by behavior, not by sexual orientation. While many of the so-called "churches" make so much noise to tell us we are not saved, we continue doing God's Will, quietly and faithfully. The Word of God is crystal clear on this one. Here is why those "Christians" who continue to hold angry, antagonistic, homophobic views and agendas cannot understand we are saved in Christ and God:

.

Unspiritual people cannot understand spiritual matters. Holy Scripture is crystal clear on this: 1 Corinthians 2:13-16
13These things we also speak, not in words which man's wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. 14But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one. 16For "who has known the mind of the LORD that he may instruct Him?" But we have the mind of Christ.

We have the mind of Christ! What is the mind of Christ in this case? Welcome all people as Christ himself. Direct all people to the coming glories of the Kingdom of God.

"For whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved."
Romans 10:13

We have discovered an excellent book that takes apart each of the verses that are supposed to be indicators that the Bible and God is sending all people other than heterosexals to Hell and shows using the LITERAL method of interpretation this is not what God says. As you know, Ray Of Hope Church Of Our Lord Jesus Christ uses the same exact resources as every fundamentalist and conservative pastor. We use their own resources to show the Bible does not judge us as the pastors say it does. The shocking truth is they have to know the Bible does not cast this on us and that of course means they are not telling the truth. The book is "Openly Gay Openly Christian: How the Bible Really is Gay Friendly" by Rev. Samuel Kader. The book is published by Leyland Publications - San Francisco, 1999. We do have copies available for sale if you email or call us.


Rev. Kader does an outstanding job of showing the verses in their original languages of Greek and Hebrew using the Strong's Concordance, and all the other conservative resources. This book supports what all the other study sources we use show, namely that the conservative Christians are not telling the truth. Conservative pastors and theologians know beyond a doubt that there is a tradition of human opinion that has enslaved the true study of the Word Of God when it comes to sexuality. Human tradition attempts to rewrite the Bible and say that any sexual orientation other than Heterosexuality is condemned in the Scripture. This is not true when you study the verses in Hebrew and Greek. We highly recommend Rev. Kader's book as well as the other resources listed on our pages on Homosexuality and the Bible. Visit our pages on this subject by clicking here: Homosexuality, Bisexuality, Transgender and the Bible - NOT CONDEMNED IN SCRIPTURE! CLICK HERE.

CLICK HERE TO GO TO PAGE TWO OF THE INTRODUCTION TO THIS PAGE.

Email:
Brother Shawn F. Benedict, Appointed Pastor of
Ray Of Hope
Church Of Our Lord Jesus Christ

CLICK HERE FOR LOCATIONS AND TIMES OF RAY OF HOPE
CHURCH OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST
MEETINGS

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