'May Peace Prevail On Earth': Presbyterian Church Remembers 2020

ORLAND PARK, IL — The Presbyterian Church of Orland Park on Sunday planted a Peace Pole on site for the community and beyond to come observe, pray and reflect on the past year.

A Peace Pole is an internationally recognized symbol of the hopes and dreams of the entire human family, standing vigil in silent prayer for peace on earth, according to worldpeace.org. Each Peace Pole bears the message, "May Peace Prevail on Earth," in different languages on each of its four or six sides.

The Orland Park church has had the 7.5-foot Peace Pole since November. Its message of peace is written in Mandarin, English, Spanish, German, Hebrew, Braille, Norwegian and Lakota.

Pastor Yvette Marie Eber told Patch that the church decided to purchase the peace symbol after the stressful year of 2020.

"It is the congregation's response to all the events in 2020. We had riots, violence and the pandemic, and we decided to make a fixture on the property where everybody could come, no matter what faith they are, and pray for peace," Eber said. "The pole will be permanently here, and we're going to surround it with hand painted rocks with peace symbols on them, so people can come pray for peace and take a rock with them if they'd like."

Eber said painting peace rocks will become a regular Sunday school activity to replenish the area surrounding the pole, as people from all around gather to collect the stones. The pastor said the pole was purposely stationed outside the church so that people of any faith, or even those who don't believe in God, can come and reflect without having to step inside if they don't want to.

"It is tangible, and it's individual, meaning everybody can come to us to pray," Eber said. "The basis of my faith and the basis of a lot of people's faith is that peace begins with each individual person. And if you contribute as an individual to peace in your own community, whether that be helping the elderly or mediating an argument between two parties, then you're building peace, micro brick by micro brick."

The Peace Pole is now planted and can be seen at 13401 Wolf Road, Orland Park. Learn more about the history of Peace Poles by checking out worldpeace.org.

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