Our History
We began in the 1890's with a group of young people from Sweden who found themselves far from home, living and working in Brockton. They wanted to get together to praise God, pass on their faith to their children, help each other out in hard times, extend a helping hand to others, and drink coffee. They called themselves, Svensk Evangelisk Kyrka Getsemane, which says a lot about w
ho they were. They were immigrants who felt connected to the Garden of Gethsemane where Jesus wept and struggled in prayer the night before he died on the cross. Their trust in God and care for each other got them through two World Wars and the Great Depression. No matter how difficult their own situations were, they reached out to people in need through the Lutheran Nursing Home built across the street from the church, and the Avon Children's Home, one town over. Sometimes they had money, sometimes they had only potatoes to offer, but they always found a way. In the 1960's new groups of young people formed congregations nearby, Christ the King in Stoughton and Hope in Braintree. In these churches people became family for each other uniting to praise God, to help each other out, and to extend a helping hand to others. By the 1990's things were changing and people from the three churches decided to look at the future together. In 1996 we united to become Prince of Peace Lutheran Church. Many things have changed since the 1890's, but not our purpose:
We are here to worship God and to make God's love concrete to one another and to those outside of our congregation. And we still like to drink coffee!
