The Rev John Stott
The Reverend John Stott, who died on July 27 aged 90, was one of the most influential Anglican clergymen of the 20th century ; indeed, in 2005 Time magazine declared him to be one of the 100 most influential people in the world.
The Reverend John Stott Photo: KIERAN DODDS
When Stott was ordained at the end of the Second World War, the evangelical wing of the Church of England was small, introverted, backward-looking and divided. Fifty years later there was an evangelical Archbishop of Canterbury; several diocesan bishops of similar convictions; and in all parts of England a network of dynamic churches inspired by the evangelical spirit. Moreover, these churchmen and churches had a marked affinity with their early 19th-century forebears whose leaders had provided the driving force behind the anti-slavery movement.
The change came about largely through the inspired leadership of John Stott. He turned his own church, located just a few yards from the headquarters of the BBC, into a showplace for a renewed form of evangelicalism. Strong lay leadership at All Souls set him free to become the trainer of others — in particular a new breed of young clergymen who had been influenced by the Christian Unions in their universities and by the Billy Graham Crusades in the 1960s. In the end, Stott viewed the world as his parish.
Stott was in constant demand for the leading of missions and courses in most parts of the English-speaking world, and from 1975 devoted all his time to this. He was a compelling preacher and spoke in a distinctive style, modelled, it was said, on that of Charles Simeon, the great leader of the 18th-century evangelical revival.
Although a close friend of, and collaborator with, the American evangelist Billy Graham, he indulged in no histrionics; and the emotional content of his message was balanced by the intellectual demands he made on his (mainly middle-class) audiences.
Stott’s influence was greatly extended through his commitment to writing. He was the author of around 50 books, some of them Bible commentaries, others dealing with basic elements in Christianity, and all capable of being read with profit by both clergy and laity. These achieved enormous sales in paperback editions, and in some quarters were accorded an authority scarcely beneath that of the Bible. Virtually all of his considerable royalties went to charitable trusts.
The attribution of infallibility by some of his followers led those who were unsympathetic to his cause to describe him as the “Evangelical Pope”; but, while he was a man of the firmest convictions, he was imbued with deep humility and a strong pastoral sensitivity. Known to his flock as “Uncle John”, he adopted a simple lifestyle: the Pembrokeshire cottage in which he did most of his writing had, until 2001, no electricity, only oil lamps.
John Robert Walmsley Stott was born in West Kensington, London, on April 27 1921. His father, Sir Arnold Stott, a distinguished physician of secularist outlook, soon took his family to live in Harley Street. (Family lore had it that John’s first words were “coronary thrombosis”.)
John’s mother, who had been brought up a Lutheran, took her children to nearby All Souls church, where the future rector amused himself by dropping paper pellets from the gallery on to the heads of members of the respectable congregation below.
His leadership qualities were noted at Rugby, where he experienced an evangelical conversion, and he went as a scholar to Trinity College, Cambridge, to read Modern Languages with a view to entering the Diplomatic Service. By the time he had taken a First in French and a Second in German, however, he had come under stronger evangelical influences and stayed on to take a First in Theology.
Throughout his years at Cambridge, Stott was involved in an unhappy conflict with his father, who had served in the Great War and was now a major-general in the RAMC. Soon after the outbreak of war in 1939, John declared himself a pacifist, refusing to undertake any form of military service; his mortified father now strongly objected to his son’s new ambition to seek Holy Orders. In the end, John was granted occupational exemption and father and son were reconciled.
After a year at Ridley Hall, Cambridge, in 1945 Stott was ordained to a curacy at his home parish church (then out of action owing to wartime bombing, with the congregation meeting at nearby St Peter’s, Vere Street). He made an immediate impact with his preaching and pastoral work, and after four years he was given the choice of becoming a chaplain at Eton or taking on a parish in the East End.
In the event, he decided to stay on a little longer at All Souls, and in 1950, after the death of its much-loved rector, Harold Earnshaw Smith, the 29-year-old Stott was appointed his successor.
What Stott lacked in experience, he more than made up for in vision, dedication and skill. Soon the church — in need of major repairs and development — was being rebuilt. He believed that a local church should be a primary agency of evangelism, and that all its members should be involved.
Guest services were held for the uncommitted; overseas students were given special attention; there was a new ministry to professional groups such as doctors and lawyers; and chaplains were appointed to West End stores. The proximity of the BBC offered many broadcasting opportunities, which Stott enthusiastically took up.
Before long, there were attempts to entice him to undertake other work. In 1955 he was pressed to become principal of the London College of Divinity, in succession to Donald Coggan; and a year later he was asked to go to Australia as a coadjutor bishop in the strongly puritan archdiocese of Sydney.
Both invitations were declined, for by this time Stott was spending much time leading missions in British and American universities — although some questioned the usefulness of the neo-fundamentalist message for university audiences.
During his first 10 years as rector, Stott published five books; became a chaplain to the Queen; and, as an acknowledged leader of the Church’s evangelical wing, was closely involved in the Scripture Union, the Inter-Varsity Fellowship and the Evangelical Alliance.
He was also chiefly responsible for the founding of the Church’s Evangelical Council in 1960 and the Evangelical Fellowship of the Anglican Communion in the following year. Both these were concerned that the various reforms then being proposed in the Church should not betray Biblical principles and Reformation doctrine.
More significant than any of these organisations, however, was the Eclectics’ Society — a group of young and able clergymen who were deeply influenced by Stott. By the mid-Sixties it had 17 linked groups in different parts of the country with a combined membership of more than 1,000.
They joined him in organising a National Evangelical Anglican Conference at Keele University in 1967, which was addressed by the Archbishop of Canterbury. It was repeated 10 years later at Nottingham University, drawing nearly 2,000 delegates.
It became apparent that the traditional fundamentalist approach to the Bible had been modified in the name of hermeneutics; there was a new concern for worship and the sacraments; and a radical approach to political and social questions. Most startling of all was the announcement by Stott that he and his colleagues no longer wished to be leaders of a sect but aimed to take evangelicalism into the mainstream of the Church of England, which is precisely what they did.
But Stott’s own future now became uncertain. There was talk of his becoming Bishop of Manchester, but the Dean and Chapter took fright and nothing came of it. On the other hand, 25 years at All Souls was quite long enough for a man who also had heavy national and international responsibilities; so a temporary solution was found by appointing Michael Baughen (later Bishop of Chester) as vicar of the parish, leaving the rector greater freedom to travel and to write more books.
For a time this arrangement worked well, but Stott was gradually drawn more and more into international evangelicalism. In 1974 he played a leading role in the Congress on World Evangelisation in Lausanne, which set out the movement’s beliefs and global aspirations in a famous “covenant”. The next year he handed over All Souls entirely to Baughen, himself becoming rector emeritus and an honorary curate of the parish.
During the next decade he wrote 11 books, continued his travels and in 1982 founded the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity.
Stott was never prepared to compromise on the priority of Biblical revelation, and it was this unwillingness that stood in the way of his appointment to an English bishopric. At one time he let it be known that he would like to become a bishop in order to increase his influence and “the opportunities for preaching and defending the Gospel”.
But when, in 1985, Archbishop Robert Runcie indicated privately his readiness to support Stott for the bishopric of Winchester, Stott begged to be excused, later saying: “I felt that I could not now change the whole direction of my ministry without acknowledging that I had made a mistake.”
John Stott, who held six honorary doctorates and was appointed CBE in 2006, was an acknowledged authority on ornithology and a gifted photographer. He did not marry, having felt called by God to remain single. He died listening to Handel’s Messiah.
The attribution of infallibility by some of his followers led those who were unsympathetic to his cause to describe him as the “Evangelical Pope”; but, while he was a man of the firmest convictions, he was imbued with deep humility and a strong pastoral sensitivity. Known to his flock as “Uncle John”, he adopted a simple lifestyle: the Pembrokeshire cottage in which he did most of his writing had, until 2001, no electricity, only oil lamps.
John Robert Walmsley Stott was born in West Kensington, London, on April 27 1921. His father, Sir Arnold Stott, a distinguished physician of secularist outlook, soon took his family to live in Harley Street. (Family lore had it that John’s first words were “coronary thrombosis”.)
John’s mother, who had been brought up a Lutheran, took her children to nearby All Souls church, where the future rector amused himself by dropping paper pellets from the gallery on to the heads of members of the respectable congregation below.
His leadership qualities were noted at Rugby, where he experienced an evangelical conversion, and he went as a scholar to Trinity College, Cambridge, to read Modern Languages with a view to entering the Diplomatic Service. By the time he had taken a First in French and a Second in German, however, he had come under stronger evangelical influences and stayed on to take a First in Theology.
Throughout his years at Cambridge, Stott was involved in an unhappy conflict with his father, who had served in the Great War and was now a major-general in the RAMC. Soon after the outbreak of war in 1939, John declared himself a pacifist, refusing to undertake any form of military service; his mortified father now strongly objected to his son’s new ambition to seek Holy Orders. In the end, John was granted occupational exemption and father and son were reconciled.
After a year at Ridley Hall, Cambridge, in 1945 Stott was ordained to a curacy at his home parish church (then out of action owing to wartime bombing, with the congregation meeting at nearby St Peter’s, Vere Street). He made an immediate impact with his preaching and pastoral work, and after four years he was given the choice of becoming a chaplain at Eton or taking on a parish in the East End.
In the event, he decided to stay on a little longer at All Souls, and in 1950, after the death of its much-loved rector, Harold Earnshaw Smith, the 29-year-old Stott was appointed his successor.
What Stott lacked in experience, he more than made up for in vision, dedication and skill. Soon the church — in need of major repairs and development — was being rebuilt. He believed that a local church should be a primary agency of evangelism, and that all its members should be involved.
Guest services were held for the uncommitted; overseas students were given special attention; there was a new ministry to professional groups such as doctors and lawyers; and chaplains were appointed to West End stores. The proximity of the BBC offered many broadcasting opportunities, which Stott enthusiastically took up.
Before long, there were attempts to entice him to undertake other work. In 1955 he was pressed to become principal of the London College of Divinity, in succession to Donald Coggan; and a year later he was asked to go to Australia as a coadjutor bishop in the strongly puritan archdiocese of Sydney.
Both invitations were declined, for by this time Stott was spending much time leading missions in British and American universities — although some questioned the usefulness of the neo-fundamentalist message for university audiences.
During his first 10 years as rector, Stott published five books; became a chaplain to the Queen; and, as an acknowledged leader of the Church’s evangelical wing, was closely involved in the Scripture Union, the Inter-Varsity Fellowship and the Evangelical Alliance.
He was also chiefly responsible for the founding of the Church’s Evangelical Council in 1960 and the Evangelical Fellowship of the Anglican Communion in the following year. Both these were concerned that the various reforms then being proposed in the Church should not betray Biblical principles and Reformation doctrine.
More significant than any of these organisations, however, was the Eclectics’ Society — a group of young and able clergymen who were deeply influenced by Stott. By the mid-Sixties it had 17 linked groups in different parts of the country with a combined membership of more than 1,000.
They joined him in organising a National Evangelical Anglican Conference at Keele University in 1967, which was addressed by the Archbishop of Canterbury. It was repeated 10 years later at Nottingham University, drawing nearly 2,000 delegates.
It became apparent that the traditional fundamentalist approach to the Bible had been modified in the name of hermeneutics; there was a new concern for worship and the sacraments; and a radical approach to political and social questions. Most startling of all was the announcement by Stott that he and his colleagues no longer wished to be leaders of a sect but aimed to take evangelicalism into the mainstream of the Church of England, which is precisely what they did.
But Stott’s own future now became uncertain. There was talk of his becoming Bishop of Manchester, but the Dean and Chapter took fright and nothing came of it. On the other hand, 25 years at All Souls was quite long enough for a man who also had heavy national and international responsibilities; so a temporary solution was found by appointing Michael Baughen (later Bishop of Chester) as vicar of the parish, leaving the rector greater freedom to travel and to write more books.
For a time this arrangement worked well, but Stott was gradually drawn more and more into international evangelicalism. In 1974 he played a leading role in the Congress on World Evangelisation in Lausanne, which set out the movement’s beliefs and global aspirations in a famous “covenant”. The next year he handed over All Souls entirely to Baughen, himself becoming rector emeritus and an honorary curate of the parish.
During the next decade he wrote 11 books, continued his travels and in 1982 founded the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity.
Stott was never prepared to compromise on the priority of Biblical revelation, and it was this unwillingness that stood in the way of his appointment to an English bishopric. At one time he let it be known that he would like to become a bishop in order to increase his influence and “the opportunities for preaching and defending the Gospel”.
But when, in 1985, Archbishop Robert Runcie indicated privately his readiness to support Stott for the bishopric of Winchester, Stott begged to be excused, later saying: “I felt that I could not now change the whole direction of my ministry without acknowledging that I had made a mistake.”
John Stott, who held six honorary doctorates and was appointed CBE in 2006, was an acknowledged authority on ornithology and a gifted photographer. He did not marry, having felt called by God to remain single. He died listening to Handel’s Messiah.
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