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Though less known in the United States and hardly a household name outside the evangelical sphere, Mr. Stott, an author, preacher and theologian, was often compared to the Rev. Billy Graham, his American contemporary.

But while Mr. Graham’s influence is rooted in a rousing preaching style and a personal magnetism that has filled stadiums, Mr. Stott’s relied on a proliferation of books ”” grounded in learning but accessible to all ”” and the evangelical organization he founded, Langham Partnership International, named after its cradle, All Souls Church at Langham Place in London’s West End.

“We must be global Christians,” he once wrote, “with a global mission, because our God is a global God.”

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[Yesterday]…in England, at 3:15 pm Greenwich Mean Time, John R. W. Stott died and went to be with the Lord.

John will be remembered as one of the greatest preachers and Bible teachers of the twentieth century, even TIME magazine named him as such at one time. He will also be remembered as one of the great evangelists of the same century and one of the greatest contributors to the building up of the Christian community of faith around the world, especially in Africa and Asia where he was instrumental in aiding in the development of young clergy.

John was a primary force behind the resurgence of Anglican evangelicalism in the Church of England and elsewhere around the world, including the United States and the Episcopal Church. In regard to the former he was a strong supporter of Inter Varsity (ICCU in England) and of evangelical theological colleges in Britain, especially his own alma mater Ridley College, Cambridge. (John was a graduate of Trinity College, Cambridge, having earned academic firsts prior to enrollment at Ridley for theological study.) And, John was the long-serving pastor/rector of All Soul’s Church in the west end of London. He was responsible for the founding of numerous fellowships in the Church of England which contributed to the growth and positive influence of Anglican evangelical clergy and laity across the nation.
In the United States he was supportive of and instrumental in the founding of the Evangelical Fellowship of the Anglican Communion ”“ USA, a branch of the international organization he had served to found in England. EFAC-USA brought together evangelical clergy and laity of the Episcopal Church for mutual support and witness and out of EFAC-USA American evangelical Episcopalians, with the support and help of John and other Anglican evangelical leaders such as Jim Packer, founded the Trinity Episcopal School for Ministry, Ambridge, Pennsylvania, the authentic Anglican evangelical seminary in the American province.

In the United States John was a popular guest visitor at numerous evangelical and other institutions of learning including Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Deerfield, IL, Wheaton College, Illinois, and Fuller Theological Seminary, Pasadena, California. (I first heard John speak in Ann Arbor at the University of Michigan when I was a senior in high school where he spoke to a large gathering of academics and collegians.)

John was a prolific and gifted writer as well as an oral communicator. His books have served to deepen the faith of people around the globe and contributed to the spiritual development of countless generations of college students. Scholarly substantive and grounded, his writings are at the same time easily accessible and clear. His best known book, Basic Christianity has been especially formative of bringing many thousands of people to Jesus and Christian faith and discipleship.

Alongside the writings of C. S. Lewis, N. T. “Tom” Wright, J. B. Phillips, and William Temple, John Stott and his lectures, sermons, and writings have had the greatest influence in my own spiritual and intellectual development as an evangelical Christian, scholar, philosopher, and theologian. I have been privileged to know John personally since I was a college student at Trinity College, Deerfield, IL (now Trinity International University) and attended his lectures at TEDS. From that time forward we have regularly communicated via mail and our friendship was sustained by personal meetings when I had opportunity to be present at various of John’s presentations in our country or by visits to All Souls Church, London while I was a student at Trinity College, Bristol, England (a Church of England Anglican evangelical theological college).

I was first introduced to John’s writings while in high school, introduced to them by the man singularly responsible in being used by the Holy Spirit to introduce me to Jesus Christ and Christian discipleship, David Knapp. David was the same person that took me to hear John at U of M where John was giving a series of talks on the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). Little did I think at that time I would become personally acquainted and encouraged by John over the years in my Christian life and later in my professional ministry as an Anglican/Episcopal presbyter.

While I was a student at Seabury-Western Theological Seminary, Evanston, IL (where I earned my Masters of Divinity degree), I was successful in convincing the Dean, O. C. Edwards to permit John coming to SWTS and preaching in chapel and engaging students in an open forum. After his visit to SWTS John would go on to make another of his numerous appearances at Wheaton College. I was responsible for picking John up at O’Hare airport in Chicago, taking him to SWTS and then delivering him latter to Wheaton.

As it happens, Chicago was hit with one of the worse snow storms that particular winter on the day John’s flight landed at O’Hare. Despite the building snow, my little green Chevrolet Chevette and I were able to make it to O’Hare on time and meet John at the gate. Driving from O’Hare to Evanston and SWTS the snow continued to accumulate, such that at one point the car got stuck in the snow. I learned then how ordinary and normal a person John was as well as a remarkably saintly Christian as John got out and alongside the fellow student accompanying pushed the car out of the deep snow drift. John took it all in stride. We arrived in time at SWTS and had a successful forum and chapel experience as students and faculty with John. Fortunately, the snowing subsided and by the time had come to deliver John to Wheaton the roads had begun to be plowed. At Wheaton we helped John check in and then we had a memorable time of prayer with John in his room before I and my two fellow colleagues headed back to Evanston.

Another significant moment spent with John was during a visit Joann my spouse and I made to the IVCF Urbana Missionary Conference at the University of Illinois in December 1976. After hearing John’s presentation to the conference, John met with Joann and I in his room at the Illini Union and we talked at length about the possibility of ordained ministry, academic teaching, and other aspects of the life of discipleship we were feeling called to pursue. Joann and I came away from that meeting with John encouraged in our sense of discipleship and vocation and, like later at Wheaton, spent a meaningful time in prayer with John in communication with the Lord Jesus.

Another contribution John made to Joann’s and my life was his role, alongside that of Jim Packer and John Rodgers and O. C. Edwards, to arrange for the opportunity to live a year in Bristol, England and for me to study at Trinity College. As a result I was privileged to study with Alec Motyer, Joyce Baldwin, Peter Williams, Garvis Angel, Michael Wilcocks, Colin Brown, Jim Packer, and Philip Budd. Joann was able to attend Alec’s lectures on the Old Testament and Colin’s lectures on philosophy. In addition to the academic opportunities Trinity afforded us, one of the lasting fruits and joys of our life was the long-standing friendship with David and Eluned Bourne who went on to serve as presbyter and spouse in the C of E. (Sadly, Eluned preceded John in being called to return to the Lord a couple of years ago. David has since remarried, and to a remarkable Christian woman, a widow herself of a C of E presbyter and continues in ordained ministry as Rector of a C of E parish.)

It is with a certain amount of sadness to learn of John’s death today. It is a sadness tempered by the Christian hope to go and be with Christ and of the future resurrection of the dead when God will complete his work of new creation and we are set free to enjoy and do remarkable things in the new heaven and earth (ref: the writings of Tom Wright). My life and that of Joann will always remained marked by the presence and positive influence of John on our lives and for that we are grateful to God.

May John rest in peace and his witness here will continue to have impact for years to come in many, many lives and a variety of ways.

Into your hands, O merciful Savior, we commend your servant John. Acknowledge, we humbly beseech you, a sheep of your own fold, a lamb of your own flock, a sinner of your own redeeming. Receive John into the arms of your mercy, into the blessed rest of everlasting peace, and into the glorious company of the saints in light. Amen.

– Book of Common Prayer, p. 465

Lord Jesus Christ, by your death you took away the sting of death; Grant to us your servants so to follow in faith where you have led the way, that we may at length fall asleep peacefully in you and wake up in your likeness; for your tender mercies’ sake. Amen.

– Book of Common Prayer, p. 504

“We are deeply grateful for this long publishing partnership and friendship with one of the most influential and beloved evangelical leaders for the past half-century,” saidInterVarsity Press publisher Bob Fryling. “John Stott was not only revered; he was loved. He had a humble mind and a gracious spirit. He was a pastor-teacher whose books and preaching not only became the gold standard for expository teaching, but his Christian character was a model of truth and godliness. We will miss ”˜Uncle John’ but we celebrate his life and writings as an extraordinary testimony of one who was abundantly faithful to his Lord Jesus Christ.”

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John Stott died …[yesterday] at 3:15 London time (about 9:15 a.m. CST), according to John Stott Ministries President Benjamin Homan. Homan said that Stott’s death came after complications related to old age and that he has been in discomfort for the last several weeks. Family and close friends gathered with Stott today as they listened to Handel’s Messiah. Homan said that John Stott Ministries has been preparing for his death for the past 15 years. “I think he set an impeccable example for leaders of ministries of handing things over to other leaders,” Homan said. “He imparted to many a love for the global church and imparted a passion for biblical fidelity and a love for the Savior.” Billy Graham’s spokesperson released the following statement from the evangelist: “The evangelical world has lost one of its greatest spokesmen, and I have lost one of my close personal friends and advisors. I look forward to seeing him again when I go to Heaven.”

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Read it all and do pray for me I present tomorrow evening.

Update: I see the audio of the first presentation is up if you are interested.

Yet, as Michael Cromartie of the Ethics and Public Policy Center notes, if evangelicals could elect a pope, Stott is the person they would likely choose. He was the framer of the Lausanne Covenant, a crucial organizing document for modern evangelicalism. He is the author of more than 40 books, which have been translated into over 72 languages and have sold in the millions. Now rector emeritus at All Souls, Langham Place, in London, he has traveled the world preaching and teaching.

When you read Stott, you encounter first a tone of voice. Tom Wolfe once noticed that at a certain moment all airline pilots came to speak like Chuck Yeager. The parallel is inexact, but over the years I’ve heard hundreds of evangelicals who sound like Stott.

It is a voice that is friendly, courteous and natural. It is humble and self-critical, but also confident, joyful and optimistic….

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John Stott was a very remarkable Christian leader with an international reputation but his church home was here at All Souls for nearly all his life, so his death will be felt by us at a very personal level. John came to the church as a child and I can well remember him telling our family of his first visits to the Rectory as a member of the Sunday School. He was to spend more than 50 years as Curate, Rector and then Rector Emeritus in a remarkable ministry here. In every sense he was one of the church family so his death leaves us with a real sense of loss as well as the confidence that he is with his Lord and ours.

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His influence was simply titanic. I will always think of him as a Christian statesman and as a preacher above all–KSH.

A good picture may be found there.

One can certainly share the sense of frustration and, indeed, quite patent anger and irritation of the Irish Prime Minister, Enda Kenny, in his recent criticisms of the Vatican. In the face of overwhelming evidence of sexual and physical abuse by clergy, religious and Catholic institutions in Ireland, the Vatican seems reluctant to accept its share of responsibility. It also seems unwilling to co-operate without reservations with the Irish government’s proposals to prevent such abuse in future.

The most startling new measure in a system of mandatory reporting is the obligation for priests to violate the sanctity of the “sacramental seal” of Confession when a paedophile reveals that he or she has been involved in such activities. Senator Nick Xenophon has proposed a similar measure for Australia.

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The Vatican has recalled its ambassador to Ireland for “consultations” on the official church response to a government report that tallied how abuse cases were mishandled as recently as two years ago.

The extraordinary move to recall the papal nuncio, Monsignor Giuseppe Leanza, is also meant to show “a certain note of surprise and regret regarding some excessive reactions” to the report, Vatican spokesman Rev. Ciro Benedettini said on Monday

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Listen to it all if you so desire. Please note that in the second section of the sermon I give a description of the eruption of Mount Saint Helen’s in 1980 in Washington State but I slip up and described it as something else.

With 60 newly ordained clergy ready to start their Catholic ministry, morale is high in the Personal Ordinariate of our Lady of Walsingham. The launch of the Pope’s new ecclesial structure for ex-Anglicans has been less traumatic than anticipated ”“ though there is an urgent need for money: visit the website of the Friends of the Ordinariate to find out how to support this prophetic venture.

I say “prophetic”, but we can’t take it for granted that the prophecy will be fulfilled. Every day brings fresh inquiries from Anglicans wanting to join the second wave of Ordinariate converts ”“ but some of them are worried that the independent structure envisaged by Benedict XVI is coming together rather slowly.

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Q: Under the new policies, can a Lutheran church refuse to hire a gay pastor?

A: Hiring works a little different in the church than it does in other places. We don’t apply for jobs. And when you’re talking about spirituality, and where people are in their lives, it really takes a connection, like on a relationship level, that doesn’t necessarily come out in a regular job interview. It becomes very complicated.

Myself, if I knew a congregation didn’t welcome everyone, I would just say no to the (position). If I knew they really didn’t like female ministers, OK, you know what? I know that that’s how this community is. And perhaps if I was at the right point in my life, I might go. I’ve been the first woman pastor in a parish before. And yes, you can change people’s minds and you can show a different way. But sometimes you can’t. And I think that’s more how it will play out: people will just kind of know pockets or where they should and shouldn’t go.
Q: Do you think there will be a further split over this that no one is foreseeing?

A: There has already been a split over the past decade. We have had some parishes leave. Some have gone to the (Lutheran Church-Canada) most recently. There’s a new group called the Canadian Association of Lutheran Churches who have stepped aside on this issue and said, ”˜We don’t want any part of a church that is blessing same-sex marriages or rostered clergy who are gay.’ So we’ve already lost some, and I think we’ll lose a few more. Some congregations, some pastors, and within each individual parish we’ll probably lose a few. But it’s a risk that the church is willing to take.

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Watch it all from Holy Trinity, Brompton.

I begin here, however, in order to point out that, with good leadership, it is possible even for the Church of England to get its priorities right. But the sad truth is that we have generally had bad leadership. And that is why we are here ”” to consider the future leadership of the Church.

Had things gone differently, of course, then evangelical Anglicans might have found themselves playing a lead rôle in the life of the Church. As it was, they found themselves as a minority within an organization whose outward style was predominantly Anglo-Catholic and whose underlying theology was increasingly liberal.

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Parry, 69, became a priest in the Episcopal Church in 2004 and until last month was the music director and assisting priest at All Saints Episcopal Church in Las Vegas. He told The Kansas City Star on Thursday that “my attorney has asked me not to say anything.”

Last month, Parry admitted to The Star that he had inappropriate sexual relations with several members of the Abbey Boy Choir from 1982 to 1987, when he directed the group.

The lawsuit, filed in Nodaway County Circuit Court under the name John Doe 48, seeks unspecified damages. It was announced Thursday at a news conference of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests.

Read it all and if you want the lawsuit document is and if you want you can see the key legal document there (20 pages).

Speaking to the Anglican Evangelical Junior Clergy Conference, at St Mark’s College, Audley End, last week, the Rev John Richardson said that the ”˜Decade of Evangelism’ died along with Archbishop William Temple in 1944, as the Church turned its attention to revising Canons and liturgy.

The result was an increasingly divided evangelical constituency, said Mr Richardson, who told the 25 junior clergy, ordinands, and others considering ordination that their focus should be: “To seek the conversion of England through the evangelical proclamation of the gospel and the transformation of the Church of England.

“With good leadership, it is possible even for the Church of England to get its priorities right. But the sad truth is that we have generally had bad leadership. And that is why we are here ”” to consider the future leadership of the Church….

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[The] Rev. Nicholas Holtam has smoothed over many conflicts in his long career as an Anglican vicar. Before he leaves his central London parish this month [to become the Bishop of Salisbury], he wants to bring peace to one more group of warring factions: the Pearly Kings and Queens.

The “Pearlies” are no street gang. They are groups of mainly aged “Cockney” Londoners who sew mother-of-pearl buttons on their clothes in lavish designs and sing sentimental pub songs. Begun in the 1870s by an orphan London street sweeper, the Pearlies are mostly known for raising money for charity.

But all is not well in their world. Their ever-dwindling ranks have splintered into three factions. Years ago, a feud over finances caused several Pearly “families” to split off from the Original Pearly Kings and Queens Association to form a new group, the London Pearly Kings and Queens Society.

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It is Monday morning (or Tuesday, if your pastor takes Monday off), and your pastor is wondering where to begin. There are sermons to write, committee meetings to plan, visits to make, and things left over from last week’s list that he was never able to get to. He may already feel overwhelmed, and the week has not yet even begun.

Where should he begin? What should he be doing? Most Orthodox Presbyterian churches do not have a written job description for their pastor. We expect them to know what to do. But with the lack of a clear job description comes the problem of our expectations””unwritten, but as firm as if written in stone””of what our pastor ought to do. Pastors face the same problem: what should their priorities be?

In this article, I want to suggest that the pastor’s job description can best be defined by aligning it with the job description of Christ as our mediator. The Shorter Catechism reminds us that Christ, as our mediator, executes the offices of prophet, priest, and king (SC 23). Since pastors are Christ’s representatives, serving as undershepherds of their flock, it is helpful to think of their calling in terms of the same three categories. I have found that I cannot be a faithful pastor if I am not actively involved in all three areas.

Interesting reflections from another tradition–read it all.

Religious history has been made with the first ordination of a former Anglican clergyman in Scotland into the Catholic priesthood.

Father Len Black, 61 and a grandfather of two, was ordained into the priesthood this weekend, at a ceremony at St Mary’s Church in Greenock performed by Bishop Philip Tartaglia of Paisley.

Father Black was an Episcopal minister for 30 years before converting to Catholicism. Until recently he was the minister at St Michael and All Angels in Inverness and was also the regional dean of Forward in Faith, the leading group of traditionalist Anglicans.

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The current crisis at News International and deep within the British establishment is much more than the presenting issue of phone hacking. I almost want to say that it’s become a theological issue in so far as it’s become a properly basic question about who gets to wield judgment within our society.

Last Friday the Times headline referred to Rupert Murdoch’s apology as constituting a Day of Atonement. But those who know the Jewish calendar will know that Rosh Hashanah, the Day of Judgment, comes before Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. In other words, judgment comes first, then atonement. And so it is that those media titans who have wielded so much judgment in our society are now to present themselves to the scrutiny of the House of Commons later on today. Those who have judged others will now themselves be subject to judgment.

Read it all or you may find the audio there.

A cathedral dean rarely chooses to return to a former parish as priest-in-charge, but for the Very Rev. Samuel T. Lloyd III that transition was an answer to prayer. Lloyd, dean of Washington National Cathedral since 2005, will return in October to Trinity Church, Boston, where he was rector from 1993 to 2005.

“My fundamental calling is as a priest ”” a preacher and teacher and pastor,” he said. “And the decision for me was to let go of this large, complex, exciting place” and to focus on a pastoral ministry. While he said that returning to his former parish “was a surprise” and “not part of the plan,” the possibility began to emerge as he thought about and prayed about his perceived calling to return to parish ministry.

“I’m not in this business to step up,” he said. “Every step has been to ask what with my gifts I’m being called to do.”

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Check it out.

Some will cite the 2003 General Convention, which approved the Episcopal Church’s first openly gay bishop, as the turning point, and The Episcopal Church Annual again shows an important decline (see p. 21): we have lost more than 250,000 baptized members (from 2,284,233 to 2,006,343) and 325 parishes and missions (from 7,220 to 6,895). “Episcopal Congregations Overview” records that 89 percent of Episcopal congregations reported conflicts or disagreements in the last five years, and adds: “The ordination of gay priests or bishops was the most frequently mentioned source of conflict” (p. 3).

But the essential elements of decline began in the mid-1970s. In 1970, TEC had an all-time high of 3,475,164 members. Within five years, it had lost nearly half a million, down to 3,039,136 (Episcopal Church Annual, p. 21). In the four decades since then, we bled out more than one-third of our members. Some will blame this drastic period of anemia on divisions over women’s ordination, prayer book revision and even fallout from the civil rights movements of the 1960s, but it is probably not that simple either. A massive loss between 1970 and 1975 occurred before the height of divisions over women’s ordination and prayer book revision….

Our many-faceted attempts to scramble for some method that will recharge, reawaken and revitalize the church are simply not working. What are we to do?…

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The Venerable Julian Hubbard, Archdeacon of Oxford and Canon of Christ Church, Oxford since 2005, is to be the Archbishops’ Council’s new Director of Ministry. He succeeds the Ven Christopher Lowson, who will become Bishop of Lincoln in September 2011.

Julian Hubbard’s responsibilities will include acting as the principal adviser to the Archbishops’ Council, the House of Bishops and the Ministry Council on all ordained and licensed lay ministry issues. He will also help shape ministry for the needs of the Church in the 21st century, including by promoting more vocations – particularly of younger people to full-time ordained ministry – and by seeking to ensure that a mission focus is at the heart of the Church’s approach to ministry.

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The former rector of All Saints Church in Las Vegas, Fr. Eldwin Lovelady told CEN that during the five years Fr. [Bede] Parry was his assistant “I found him to be faithful to his priestly ministry, a wonderful pastoral presence to me and to members of the parish, and a friend.”

In an apparent contradiction to the bishop’s claim that restrictions were placed on Fr. Parry’s ministry and the “reasons for it conveyed” by Bishop Jefferts Schori to his supervisors, Fr. Lovelady said he “never had even the smallest hint of any kind of inappropriate behavior, or any inclination to such. I was not aware of anything in his past and now that I’ve been made aware of these allegations, I have not changed my opinion about Bede in any way and if I were still in the diocese of Nevada, I would be supporting him.”

Bishop Edwards’ claim the diocese did not receive the 2000 psychological profile of Fr. Parry is at odds, as he notes, with the claim made in a lawsuit filed last month in Missouri, which stated the Episcopal Diocese was given a copy of the report. However, the bishop’s further contention that any psychological profile conducted in 2000 that indicated a predilection for abuse would be “dubious” as such tests would not be developed until “20 years later” appears to be a misstatement.

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Here is a little of my personal history and reflections. I am at a point in my own journey where I find myself reflecting deeply on how God is calling us to be church. When I went to Divinity School or seminary, the model was to have a seminary trained priest for each congregation. Even in those days, there were congregations who had to share in yoked ministries or in clusters. When the Bishop of North Dakota asked me in the mid-80’s, to work with him in ministry development, a new vision opened for me. Now I believe what we are doing is part of a larger thing that God is doing. In the last few years there has been considerable talk about emergent church, sometimes called emerging church, as well as talk about the Missional Church. As I read and talk with people, my sense is that all of this is part of a broader movement led by the Spirit that is affecting Christian churches. Changes are occurring in the Anglican Communion, as well as in other branches of the Christian Church. I believe what we are doing in Total or Shared Ministry is part of this broader movement.

I believe that this is all about transformation initiated by God and led by the Holy Spirit.

First, I want to mention the terms we use in Minnesota. We use the terms “Total Ministry” and “Shared Ministry,” and while they are very similar, there is a little difference in connotation. When all this was getting started in Minnesota back in the ”˜90’s, the term Total Ministry was used. When Total Ministry got started, it was in small congregations who no longer had a vicar or rector. Then several years ago, St. Luke’s in Hastings came along as a new variation. They had had a full time rector but because of economic factors, they could not afford that model any more. Their rector agreed to go to half time and they called a ministry team to work with her. They decided the term Shared Ministry worked better for them because it indicated that they had a half time rector who shared the ministry with the team, and then by extension, all the baptized in the congregation. Whether we call it Total Ministry or Shared Ministry, most of what I have to say today applies equally to both. The process of how it works is pretty much the same either way.

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