Prince of Peace Lutheran Church (New Orleans, Louisiana) Records

Prince of Peace Lutheran Church was founded on December 31, 1958. The congregation was started by Lutherans who worked at the NASA facility building the Saturn V rocket for the Apollo program. The first building was dedicated on August 21, 1960. A Lutheran School was started and by 1989, the congregation built a new sanctuary. The older building that had been completed in 1960 was then used as a school gymnasium. The congregation continued through the housing boom on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain in the late 1990s, though its membership started to decline. Just before Katrina in August 2005, the congregation had 210 members and the school had 180 students. After Katrina, many members left the area. The church did not hold services for one year after the hurricane. However, due to the work of Laborers for Christ, RAI Ministries (Camp Restore), and many other volunteers, the facility was repurposed and continues to serve the community in a different way. Prince of Peace is host to RAI Ministries and Camp Restore, which hosts thousands of volunteers serving in community service to the greater New Orleans area. Though the remaining members voted to dissolve the congregation as of August 4, 2019, the ministry of this congregation continues through the work at Camp Restore and the generosity of its founders by enabling a variety of ministries to make use of the sanctuary and other facilities. The pipe organ in the sanctuary was initially obtained from Redeemer Lutheran Church in New Orleans. It was dismantled in 1997, brought to Prince of Peace, and installation began in April 1998. The installation was completed on August 28, 2005 - the day before Katrina made landfall. Flooding severely damaged the instrument. However, due to the hard work and commitment of the remaining Prince of Peace members, it was fully restored and remains one of the largest pipe organs in the city.