After 29 years on Willoughby Beach Road, an Edgewood church has officially shut its doors. Prince of Peace Catholic Church celebrated its final Mass on the last weekend in June, and merged with St. Francis de Sales Church of Abingdon, about 5 miles away.
The two parishes had been working together since 2020, including sharing a pastor, and talks about the merger began in 2023.
The newly merged parish will continue to be called St. Francis de Sales, “because of its historical value to our community,” according to its website.
Church leaders cited “a significant decline in the attendance, ministries and finances at Prince of Peace over the past few years.” Prince of Peace was formed in 1977.
The merger prompted the relocation of The Sharing Table, a food pantry supported by 13 local churches that has been hosted by Prince of Peace for 22 years. The Sharing Table will reopen Aug. 2 at The American Legion on Edgewood Road at Willoughby Beach.
The pantry launched a GoFundMe campaign in hopes of raising $42,000, noting the Legion building “cannot meet all our cooking and storage needs, and much of our equipment — like the convection oven, refrigerator, freezer, and storage — is property of the church and will remain behind.”
Sharing Table President Wendy Weyant said in an email: “We are immensely grateful to the Prince of Peace community for hosting The Sharing Table for 22 years. Though our relocation was obviously an unexpected logistical and financial hurdle, we’ve been blessed by support from our GoFundMe page and other community assistance.”
Sam Meros, who now works for Aberdeen’s St. Joan of Arc Catholic Church, was among the musicians at the final Mass in the Prince of Peace building. Now 20 years old, he started playing piano and the organ at Prince of Peace when he was 14.
Meros described Prince of Peace as “a community-based church” that was willing to give him a chance as a young musician.
“That church was the start of my music career, and not many places would take me,” said Meros, an Edgewood High graduate. “Saying goodbye to people was not easy. It was just the community and the love that I got.”
The last Mass in the building was “very emotional, but very uplifting. It was very sad. But, that will be a memory.”
This is the latest church merger for the Archdiocese of Baltimore, which is shutting down more than half of its worship sites with the “Seek the City to Come” initiative announced last year. Five of the shuttered church buildings, all in Baltimore City, were put up for sale in May, including some that were landmarks for generations, such as The Shrine of the Little Flower on Belair Road.
The Prince of Peace building was “secured after June 30, 2025, and will be monitored weekly for an invasion or property issues,” the pastorate said on its website. “The utilities will be reduced to maintain the integrity of the property.”
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