Loren Mead, founder of the Alban Institute, dies at age 88
The author of The Once and Future Church was part of the shift to looking at congregations in their contexts—not just the church in general.
Loren Mead, an author and educator who founded the Alban Institute, died at age 88 on May 5. His family wrote that he “died peacefully under hospice care at his home” in Falls Church, Virginia.
He authored articles and books, most notably The Once and Future Church (1991). In that book, as a Christian Century editorial described it, he “declared that the era of ‘Christendom’ was over for mainline Protestants. Mead launched a discussion—which has only expanded since—about an emerging new paradigm of church life defined by local context and intentional, grassroots mission.”
Mead, an Episcopal priest, began career in parish ministry. After receiving his M.Div. degree from Virginia Theological Seminary in 1955, he served churches in North Carolina, South Carolina, and the United Kingdom.
