Welcome to Ray of Hope
Church Of Our Lord Jesus Christ
Southern Tier Extension

380 W. First Street in ELMIRA, NEW YORK

The Church in the Southern Tier where everyone is welcome, including persons of all social classes, any kind of family, all races, sexual orientations, and gender expressions.
God welcomes you and so do we.
CELEBRATING 20 YEARS OF MINISTRY IN CENTRAL NEW YORK

Celebrating Seven Years in the Southern Tier

We own our property at 380 W. First Street, Elmira, New York at the corner of W. 1st Street and Davis Street.


380 W. First St. in Elmira is the Parsonage/Rectory of the Southern Tier Extension. We have a beautiful chapel at the Rectory.


Everyone is welcome to come in and spend time praying in the chapel of the parsonage. There are booklets near the front entrance to help you with your prayer and meditation. You are welcome to bring a book or your Bible and sit and read and pray in the chapel. When the door is unlocked you may come in.

One reason we keep silence in the chapel is Jesus Christ is especially present in the Holy Eucharist, the Blessed Sacrament, Holy Communion reserved for prayer inside the Tabernacle. The Tabernacle is in the front left corner of the chapel under the picture of Jesus and the open Bible. The Tabernacle can be seen twenty-four hours a day from the street through our beautiful large windows across the front of the parsonage. Often times people who are passing by stop, face the Tabernacle, make the sign of the cross, or stand and close their eyes and pray. It is very moving to see people take a moment out of their day to acknowledge Christ present in our lives and in our world.

The Tabernacle is marked by the "PX" symbol. The "PX" symbol is a monogram of the Holy Name of Christ which is spelled xpistos in Greek, the original language of the Christian Testament. (spelled here with English letters that sound like the Greek letters).

A red candle burns next to the Tabernacle twenty-four hours a day to remind us of the constant presence of Christ who promised to be with us always, even to the end of the age.


The Bible is also on display at all times and lit with a light. The Bible can be clearly seen from the street. We display the Bible as our witness that we believe the Word Of God is one of God's greatest gifts to all people. It is only through the reading and meditation on Sacred Scriptures that we can be set free from the myths and lies of racism, sexism, homophobia, gender bias, ageism, misogny (silent prejudice against women), anti-semitism, and all forms of oppression. We love the Word Of God. Contrary to popular opionion the Bible does not condemn us, but it does set us free from denominational dogmas of those persons who do condemn us.


When you enter the chapel at the Parsonage you will see an artistic carving reminding us that Jesus was resurrected by God and is seated now at God's right hand making intercession for us. Jesus is now serving the Church as our one and only High Priest, the Chief Shepherd Of Souls. The carving shows him ascending to Paradise, but the Cross and the palms are right behind Him reminding us that our victory and our own resurrections are made possible only by the suffering Jesus endured for us.

The resurrection cross is standing above the holy water font. In this dish is kept holy water (water set apart) to remind us of our baptism. Some people like to touch their fingers into the water and make the sign of the cross to reaffirm their own baptismal promises to be faithful to God until we are all safely in God's Kingdom.

A lamp is often seen at night in our window. It lights up the street in front of the Parsonage. It reminds us to keep our hearts watching and wating for the return of Christ for His Church. Notice the beautiful rainbow cross colored glass art piece made for us. It often reflects a beautiful rainbow on the wall behind the cross.


One of the great advantages to having our own chapel at the Parsonage is we can hold special worship services and devotionals. We haven't been able to do this when renting space from other organizations. Here is a picture of the Blessed Sacrament the monstrance, a vessel designed to hold up the blessed Communion Bread, the Eucharist, to display it for private prayer. The word monstrance is from the Latin word monstra, meaning to show. We are able to display the Blessed Sacrament for long periods of time and open the chapel to the public. People from all walks of life take time to come in and sit quietly in the presence of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Sometimes we hold the worship service called Benediction of the Blessed Sacrament.



Soon we shall also hold devotionals such as The Stations Of The Cross, Morning or Evening Prayer (Divine Office), special music and worship nights, and much more as the Holy Spirit leads us.

Another great feature of our Parsonage is our Library.

The Library is dedicated to St. Benedict of Nursia (480 - 542 A.D.). St. Benedict is known as the "Father of Western Monasticism" and "The Patron of the West." One of the great contributions St. Benedict made to Western Christianity is fervor for preservation of the record of God's work in this world through the preservation of materials in libraries. The St. Benedict Memorial Library has over 8,000 volumes at this time.

The library specializes in Premillennial theology, Western Theology, Church History, Gay - Lesbian - Bisexual - Multigender Theology - His/herstory - and culture.

Special collections include Biblical languages, worship materials from most denominations of the Western church.

While the St. Benedict Memorial Library is not a lending library it is available to the public for use when the Parsonage is open or by special appointment.

How did Ray Of Hope Church Of Our Lord Jesus Christ come to the Southern Tier? In July of 1996 a letter of interest was sent from the Council of Ray Of Hope Church to a group of persons in the Elmira, Horseheads, Corning, Beaver Dams, and Watkins Glen communities who had expressed interest in our ministry. The invitation was accepted in August 1996 and the first worship service was held on September 14, 1996, the Feast of the Triumph Of The Cross, also the anniversary of the day St. Francis of Assisi received the Stigmata.

The worship services and Bible studies have been held in private homes all throughout the Southern Tier as well as in two taverns - The David (now Angles) was one of them. Worship services have been held in the following homes: S.B., Elmira: M.D., Beaver Dams; B.G., Painted Post; M.C., Corning; J.M., Horseheads; S.H., Elmira; and now the Parsonage/Rectory/monastery , the home of our pastor Rev. Br. Shawn F. Benedict, O.S.B.

The parsonage at 380 W. 1st Street is the first property owned by an institution of the GLBTQS community in the Southern Tier. This beautiful place was given to us by the previous owner Mrs. Jeanne Frasier in December, 2001. Pictured here are Mr. Kenneth, and Mrs. Jeanne Frasier and their son David the evening the family gave the keys of the building to the worship community of Ray Of Hope Church Southern Tier Extension.

Pastor Benedict celebrates with the Frasier family.

A celebration of prayer and joy was held in the building the night the Frasier family gave us the keys.

Our congregation is eternally grateful to the Frasier family for their generous gift. This building was lovingly cared for by Mr. Kenneth Frasier. Mr. Frasier did beautiful work with all the interior decorations as he made this a beautiful dress shop for his wife, Mrs. Jeanne Frasier.

There were miracles associated with our receiving this building.
During the December 25 worship service in the year 2000 a beautiful cross appeared on our small table cloth that sits under the Chalice during the distribution of Holy Communion. Those who were present testify the cloth was perfectly clean, in fact brand new at the start of the worship service. Here is a picture taken one week after the worship service.

This was the worship service where we were celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ, the Incarnation of God into humanity as the Divine Son. At the time it seemed logical that God was giving us an actual manifestation of the Real Presence of Christ in the Holy Eucharist. The idea that a congregation founded and fostered by Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Heterosexual persons working together would receive a EUCHARISTIC MIRACLE seemed shocking when compared to the constant condemnations we hear from other denominations. We decided to stay quiet and humble about it, and not call the media and risk making a spectacle of this miracle. Here is a close up of that first Eucharistic Miracle from December 25, 2000.

Here is a picture of what it looked like in the summer of 2001.
The container holding the folded cloth that has the cross on it is also called a monstrance (from the Latin "monstra" to show).

October, 2001 we were celebrating the Feast Of St. Francis Of Assisi (October 4) on October 7, the closest Sunday to October 4. We were renting space from Trexx video and dance club in downtown Syracuse. Right there at the tavern dance floor we had a second EUCHARISTIC MIRACLE. This time two crosses appeared. One was larger than the other. Here is a picture of the second Eucharistic Miracle in a monstrance as it looked in July of 2003.


Again, the Congregation wanted to know why this was happening to us. There seemed to be an immediate connection between the two Eucharistic Miracles. St. Francis is responsible for giving us the tradition of setting up the Manger scene in our homes during the season of the Nativity (Christmas). The first Eucharistic Miracle came on Christmas night 2000 and the second one on our celebration of the Feast Of St. Francis Of Assisi the following October, 2001. St. Francis loved the Holy Eucharist and often made better provisions for its care in the local churches he visited. Therefore, there seemed to be a "Franciscan" connection in what God was saying to us.

One Eucharistic Miracle in the life of any church is beyond words, and almost unheard of, but now we had two Eucharistic Miracles.

We tell you all this because it was between the night of the second Eucharistic Miracle, October 7, 2001, and the anniversary of the first one (December 25, 2000) that our Congregation received custody of our two buildings, the future homes of our worship centers and monasteries. It was December, 2001 when the Frasier family donated their property to Ray Of Hope. The Deed was signed in time for Gaudete Sunday, rejoice Sunday, the pink candle - the third Sunday - on the Advent Wreath. Then if all this wasn't more than enough, a second donation was received in Syracuse the same month and a mortgage enabled us to purchase our building at 748 N. Salina St. By the anniversary of the first Eucharistic Miracle, we had been led by the Holy Spirit to generous people who made it possible for Ray Of Hope Church to own property.

Now the meaning of the two crosses was very clear. We would be receiving two building between the Feast Of St. Francis (2nd Miralce) and Nativity (Christmas) night (anniversary of the 1st Miracle). Further, notice the larger cross is at the top and slightly to the right and the smaller cross lower and to the left just about where they would be for the cities of Syracuse and Elmira New York on a New York State map. Further, St. Francis had been quietly involved from the start of the Southern Tier Extension since the first worship service held in the Southern Tier Extension in 1996 was in fact on the anniversary of St. Francis of Assisi reveiving the Stigmata, the Feast of the Triumph Of The Cross. The date of that worship service was not intentionally planned for this Franciscan feast. In fact, it wasn't pointed out to us until we were reviewing the records in September, 2003 at the time of the anniversary. We had not even paid attention to the significance of the date in 1996. Now it was very significant.

So, it definitely seems St. Francis of Assisi has been praying for our Congregation and helping us along. It makes perfect sense because in his lifetime Francis learned to welcome all people and to see the living Christ in everyone. St. Francis loved all the people the society and the "Church" of his day rejected. This is the mission of Ray Of Hope Church Of Our Lord Jesus Christ as well, "to guide and welcome all people to the Free Gift of Salvation in Christ Jesus..." (Ray Of Hope Statement Of Purpose). We thank St. Francis for his prayers and his support, and we hope to learn from his example of total love for God and God's people.

Here is a picture of the Communion Table on Gaudete weekend, Rejoice weekend - December, 2001 shortly after the signing of the legal documents for the giving of the Elmira builiding to the Congregation. It shows the Property Deed, the keys, the second Eucharist Miracle and the Bible at the start of the worship service as we gave thanks to God Almighty. The monstrance is upside down in this picture mistakenly showing the larger cross on the bottom.


Once we received these two buildings we started the renovation process. We have done all the work ourselves, volunteering hundreds of hours. Most of the materials have been donated and recycled.
Here is a picture of what the Elmira building looked like before we painted the outside.

We attempted to paint the building ourselves in the summer of 2002.

Finally the way the Parsonage looks today.

We have received tens of thousands of dollars of donations for building materials, professional advice, legal fees, and other expenses. We are in constant need of donations as we move toward opening our buildings to the public.

The parsonage in Elmira has been open since May, 2003. Worship services are held in the pastor's parsonage chapel every Sunday morning at 10:30 AM.

It is our hope that many people will use our facility, especially other gay, lesbian, transgender, bisexual, and heterosexual organizations will use our buildings for their meetings. We openly invite organizations to use our buildings.

Come and worship with us on a Sunday and come study the Scriptures with us on Tuesdays. Pray for us and be sure to thank God for the generous gifts many people are making to help us get these two worship centers up and open to the public.

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