Church Has Left the Building : Faith, Parish, and Ministry in the Twenty-First Century

The origin of the phrase "the church has left the building" lies with Elvis. In order to clear halls of his riotous fans after concerts, it was announced that "Elvis has left the building" Here, the expression highlights intense change within the church. Not only does the church change for its own existence, it also does so for the life of the world. The church cannot avoid the many past and future changes of our constantly transforming society, demographic changes long in process. What you have before you is a gathering of first-hand reflections--stories really--from a diverse group of Christians, lay as well as ordained. While each has a distinctive experience of the church in our time, all of them have something to say about the many changes in our society and how these are affecting our faith, the parish, and pastoral work.

Michael Plekon (Yonkers born April 3, 1948) is an American priest, professor, author, sociologist and theologian. He has published more than a dozen books, as well as hundreds of journal papers, book chapters and reviews on faith and holiness. His works include religious social history, social theory and its connections with theology, the works of Søren Kierkegaard, contemporary Eastern Orthodox theology and theologians of the Russian emigration and saints. Living Icons, (UNDP, 2002) was one look at persons of faith in the Eastern Church. His research and publications have continued to explore persons of faith, seeking identity and God in their spiritual journeys. These volumes include Hidden Holiness (UNDP, 2009), Saints as They Really Are (UNDP, 2012), and The World as Sacrament (Liturgical Press, 2017) These studies examine persons of faith struggling for social justice and for ways of rediscovering holiness in ordinary life. He is especially interested in the encounter with God in the everyday.

Plekon's efforts to describe what holiness looks like in our time, the distinctive characteristics of women and men of faith, have been praised by colleagues. They see this work as an important "new hagiography" or writing about saints who are our contemporaries, like Dorothy Day, Mother Teresa, Thomas Merton or Daniel Berrigan.

Plekon has had a long career as an academic, theologian and clergy member. Since 1977, Plekon taught at Baruch College, first as an Assistant Professor, and eventually as a Professor within the Weissman School of Arts and Sciences since 1998. He retired in 2017 and is an Emeritus Professor. In addition to his academic work, he has served as an associate priest at several parishes since being ordained in 1983. He has been a priest in both the Western and Eastern Churches, serving parishes alongside teaching, research and writing. He continues writing about his pastoral experiences and is examining the importance of community, not only for church but for meaning in one's life in The Church Has Left the Building (Cascade, 2017) and Community as Church, Church as Community (Cascade, 2021). This work also deals with our need, in a diverse and conflicted America, to encounter other cultures and religious traditions with respect, learning from them and becoming deeper persons of faith from such experiences. This was something he experienced in his own family's ecumenical sensitivity.

Plekon's book, Uncommon Prayer: Prayer in Everyday Experience, was named by Spirituality and Practice as one of the best spiritual books of 2016 and was the Gold Winner of the 2016 Foreword INDIES book of the Year Award in the Adult Nonfiction, Religion category. In 2024 his book Ministry Matters: Pastors, Their Life and Work Today will be published.

Biography

Plekon's interest in studying religion began early on when he chose to pursue a bachelor's degree in Sociology and Philosophy from the Catholic University in Washington, D.C. in 1970. He later obtained a master's degree and a doctorate in Sociology and Religion from Rutgers University in New Jersey. Plekon's doctoral advisor was the late renowned sociologist of religion and theologian Peter L. Berger, who mentions Plekon in his memoir among his students of interest as an "expert in the Orthodox (Christian) diaspora in the West.". Under several fellowships, including from the NEH, Lutheran World Federation, Fulbright and ACLS, he did advanced research in the Theology Faculty of the University of Copenhagen, focusing on Kierkegaard's social criticism and theology.

Plekon met his wife Jeanne through a long-time friend while she was pursuing a master's in art history and museum studies at The Clark Institute, Williams College. They have been married since 1976 and have two children, Paul and Hannah, and several grandchildren.

Maria Gwyn McDowell is a postulant for the priesthood in the Episcopal Church and a feminist theological ethicist.

Elizabeth Schroeder is a homebirth midwife and editor in Portland, Oregon.

John Anthony McGuckin is an Archpriest of the Romanian Orthodox Church. He is the Nielsen Professor of Early Church History at Union Theological Seminary and the Professor of Byzantine Christian Studies at Columbia University in New York. He is a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society and author of many books of Early and Byzantine Christian culture, as well as several volumes of translations of ancient Christian poetry as well as one book of his own poetry.