Our Town: Christmas spirit at Beacon Church

Dr Tom Ferraro

It’s Christmas time and my thoughts turn to Santa Claus and what he may be bringing me. After all I have been a pretty good boy and therefore deserving of a nice cashmere sweater or some nice leather loafers from Brooks Brothers.  Also I could use a new leather briefcase as well. Okay let’s start over. This seems to be heading in the wrong direction. 

It’s Christmas time and my thoughts turn to the true meaning of this special holiday. I may be lacking in spiritual insight so I thought I might interview a priest or someone in the clergy. 

I have interviewed Monsignor James McDonald at St. Aidans already so he was out. My longtime friends Virginia and Jack Hynes live locally and she has been raving about a new church in East Williston called Beacon.  

So after a few phone calls there I sat in Sangria 71 with Virginia Hynes, Rev. Robert Kelly and his beautiful wife Cheryl at his side. 

As we talked I could see that Robert has all the characteristics of a good pastor. He was kind, generous, funny, warm, bright and loved to talk, a little like Monsignor McDonald but without the white collar. 

Robert was originally from New Jersey and studied architecture at the California Polytechnic State University where he met and fell in love with his wife. 

She was studying culinary art and looks like super model Carol Alt so I can see why he fell for her.  

He then went on to study at the Trinity evangelical Divinity School and returned to New York. 

He was pastor at the Shelter Rock Church for a while but began to see that church membership across Long Island was falling and the churches were failing the parishioners.  

I count as one of the fallen. I was raised Catholic but soon after high school my church days were over. 

During lunch Robert talked a lot about God being able to bring the magic back into people’s lives and that we all have what he called a God Spot where God seeks to enter. 

Recently I was asked a question by a mother. She had a daughter who was 12 years old and still believed in Santa. Should she try to remove this childish belief? 

I did not know what to say but after chatting with Robert Kelly this is what I would tell her now.  

Whether we are kids or adults we all need to believe in something transcendent, magical, benevolent and supernatural. This transcendence can come in many forms. Maybe it will be Santa Claus, the love of a beautiful wife or maybe through Jesus Christ.   

What matters, what gives hope and what gives meaning is that one holds love and hope within ones heart. Robert Kelly calls this the God Spot. I like the term.

After we said our goodbyes I thought that may be the last I saw of Robert Kelly.  

But the very next day I was driving back for my Bikram Yoga Roslyn class at about 10 a.m. and passed right by Robert Kelly’s Beacon Church on the corner of Roslyn Road and Hillside Ave.  

Why not stop in to get more background information. So in I go and there was Jack and Virginia Hynes with Robert Kelly right at the front door almost as if they were waiting for me. 

The church was filled with attractive people of all ethnicities. Some were Irish, some Italian, but also some Spanish, Korean, Chinese, Indian and African Americans.  

This was surely God’s chosen spot. 

We were offered coffee, cupcakes, bagels and donuts and soft comfortable chairs. My kind of church for sure. 

So what did I learn about the true meaning of this our most special holiday? 

Well I still want Santa to give me my cashmere sweater and my nice new leather briefcase. But I will try to remember that there are some very brave warriors fighting the good fight for us. 

These are the guys who are carrying the torch on these cold winter nights. They are leading the way for us through the snowy mountain pass to a better place, a place of warmth.  Call him Santa Claus or Jesus or even Robert Kelly and his wife Cheryl. 

God’s spot right here in Williston Park.

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