Our Church

Poems by Elise DiLisio

Our congregation is friendly
Our minister is great
Please come to visit
We can hardly wait

Please come to Prince of Peace
Visit us on Sunday
You’ll be glad you did
And you’ll have a fun day

We want you to come
Visit us today
You’ll love our sermon and music
We know you’ll want to stay

Young and old are welcome
We cater to all
Come pay us a visit
You’ll have a ball

Joy and Faith go hand in hand
As does Love and Peace
Come any Sunday, Pray with us
Your Joy and Faith will never cease.

Come, visit Prince of Peace
We can’t wait for you to call
Joy and Faith await you
So we invite you, One and All.

We bring you Love
We bring you Peace
We bring you Joys
That Never cease.

Prince of Peace
Is our name
Come, join us any Sunday
And you’ll be glad you came.

Come visit us some Sunday
We can hardly wait
Our people are so friendly
And our Minister is great

Come to Prince of Peace
We have everything you like
We are right on Jolly Road
North of Germantown Pike

We urge you to visit
Our church is really great
The people are so friendly
And the service is first rate

Come on, come all
And please stay a while
We know you’ll enjoy yourself
And you will leave with a smile

I am the newest member of the congregation at Prince of Peace.  I attended my first service on Easter Sunday, 2010.  It might seem odd for me to be the one to write this page, someone who supposedly knows the least about the church, but in a way it makes a lot of sense because I can offer an unbiased opinion about what lies within these small walls on Jolly Road. I met Pastor John in 2009 when I was working part time for a local company that involved community marketing.  I went to visit him one day at the church to talk about the services my company offered, and leave some brochures.  I visited approximately a dozen other businesses that day, spending about ten minutes or so with a receptionist at each one, but when I walked into Prince of Peace I did not leave for at least an hour. Let me back up a moment and mention that I have lived in Plymouth Meeting since 2003, and never gave Prince of Peace a second thought every time I drove in and out of the Community Center or cut through Jolly Road to get to the post office.  I once saw a van parked out front from a Korean church, and automatically assumed the church was, in fact, Korean-speaking.  Being an English-speaking American, and already part of another church, I dismissed Prince of Peace from my mind. The day I went in for my marketing visit, however, I was greeted by Pastor John in the lobby, who was decidedly not Korean, so that impression was found to be false and we went on to have a lively and thought-provoking conversation after I pitched my company to him.  [I found out later on that they rent space to the Korean congregation, who hold their services there on Sunday, hence the van. He seemed impressed with my dedication to my work and asked if I might be interested in applying my enthusiasm to some projects in the church.  I told him that I would like to be a part of it, and the rest was, as they say, history. I continued attending my Catholic church on Sundays while working with Pastor John but little by little I felt myself drawn to this smaller, more intimate community.  I liked the fact that everyone knew each others’ names.  I liked the fact that everyone gathered down the hall after services and sat around having coffee and breakfast together.  I liked the fact that the congregation was small enough that we could exchange a sign of peace with everyone, not just those immediately around our chairs. I spent more and more time with Pastor John, and then began working on some of the church’s projects at home as well.  It became an important part of my life and it was soon apparent that this was where I was meant to be, not only physically on Sunday mornings but in my heart as well. After attending my first service on Easter Sunday with my family, I knew I had found a new home in Prince of Peace Lutheran Church.  It was not easy to find a place of worship to comfortably call home; I was Catholic, my daughter is Catholic like me, and my husband is Jewish.  Our son together is being raised in an interfaith home and developing a spirituality and faith in God that I am extremely proud of.  All four of us are welcomed at Prince of Peace with open arms, whether we show up as a family unit or just a few at a time.  This church is nothing short of a hidden gem in Plymouth Meeting that everyone should visit at least once. To say that Prince of Peace is a tiny church is an understatement, and I am not solely referring to the size of the building.  Our congregation once numbered in the hundreds and has dwindled over the years for a variety of reasons, and it is time to rebuild from within the community. I have become actively involved in making this happen, tapping into marketing skills I never knew I had, to get the word out that this church does exist and has so much more to offer than anyone might think.  I can honestly say that, although I was fine before, I have become a different person as a result of joining this church. If you are reading this and perhaps have been feeling that something was missing from your life, or that things were just not quite what you would like them to be in the way of spirituality and faith, please consider stopping by on a Sunday at 10:30 and join us for services.  If you feel comfortable, stay a while afterward and have coffee with Pastor John (and me?) and tell us what brought you to our church that morning.  You will be amazed how much you can feel at home among complete strangers in a new place. That, in a nutshell, is what Prince of Peace has meant to me, and can mean to you as well.

~ Diane Squires