The Archbishops of Armagh and Dublin and the Bishop of Down and Dromore have paid tribute to the life and witness of Rev. John Stott. See also earlier report and tribute on this site.
The Most Revd Alan Harper, Archbishop of Armagh and
The Most Revd Dr Michael Jackson, Archbishop of Dublin in a statement said:
On the news of the death of the Revd Dr John Stott, Rector Emeritus of All Souls Church, Langham Place, London, we wish to pay tribute to him, and to acknowledge his great contribution over many years to the life of the Anglican Communion – indeed the whole Church – across the world.
Dr Stott spoke in Ireland on a number of occasions, particularly through his work with Langham Partnership International. His talks, his witness in ordained ministry for over sixty years, and, perhaps most significantly, his numerous publications were highly influential to the formation of many clergy and made a notable and valued impact on the lives and faith of lay people alike. Gracious to all who knew him, his loss will be felt widely while his writings will remain a fitting legacy to his life of Christian service.
The Rt Revd Harold Miller, Bishop of Down and Dromore paid this tribute:
John Stott, after Billy Graham, is probably the most famous evangelical of my lifetime. His death is both a cause of great sadness at the passing of such a wonderful man of God, and the cause of great rejoicing for one whose whole life was devoted to his Saviour, and who now enters into the joy of the Lord. The very first booklet I was ever given to help me on the Christian road, literally days after my conversion, was Being a Christian by John Stott.
His entire ministry was in and around All Souls’ Church, Langham Place, in Central London, from which he influenced generations with his preaching and teaching. Strangely enough, just last week I worshipped at All Souls, still thriving and packed, because John Stott knew how to grow, and pass on the baton to, other younger ministers of the Gospel. I also visited a friend last week at St Barnabas’ Lingfield where John had spent his last years being cared for, and was probably known as ‘Father Stott‘!
For young evangelicals, and especially Anglican evangelicals, in their early years of discipleship and ministry, John Stott was a great encouragement. Here was a man who had devoted his entire life to ministry within the Church of England, but whose ministry was never to be contained in one denomination or country, because it was essentially Gospel ministry with a worldwide vision. His thinking was clear, his writings articulate and his judgements balanced. And, thank God, he has left a heritage in his writings, from solid Biblical commentary to deep theology and practical outworking of issues. He was a person of kindness, mannerliness and carefulness, not someone who was easy to get to know, but someone who, perhaps because of a degree of privacy and distance, was able to hold together and influence vast numbers of disparate evangelicals, and gain the respect of many beyond the evangelical fold.
John Stott was never to receive, or perhaps, never to accept, any church honours, apart from being a chaplain to the Queen. But he was one of those rare people whose overseeing was wider than any bishop, whose outreach was greater than most evangelists (How many copies of Basic Christianity have been published, and in how many languages?), and whose teaching reached wider than any professor. He was the key person in the growing evangelicalism in the Church of England in the second half of the last century and, please God, his influence will continue on beyond the grave.