Who's who

John Stott maintains a strong link with All Souls Church, continuing to serve as Rector Emeritus, a post he has held for over 30 years.

To co-incide with his birthday in April 2007 a Press Announcement was released in which it was said, "John Stott would like his many friends around the world to know that, having reached the age of 86 in April, he has taken the decision finally to retire from public ministry after fulfilling one final speaking engagement at the  Keswick Convention in July."

John Stott has served the same church, All Souls Langham Place, ever since he was ordained into the ministry of the Church of England in 1945.  He was assistant pastor of All Souls for 5 years, the Rector for 25, and has been Rector Emeritus since 1975.  For over twenty five years of his public ministry, he was set free (under the auspices of the Langham Partnership) to travel the world, especially for ministry to pastors and students.  In HM the Queen's New Year Honours' List 2006, he was awarded the CBE 'for services to Christian Scholarship and the Christian world.' He has been a Chaplain to the Queen since 1959. He is President of the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity.

The son of Sir Arnold and Lady Stott, he was born in London in 1921, educated at Rugby School, where he was head boy, and Trinity College Cambridge, where he got a 1st class degree in French and Theology. He has been awarded a Lambeth DD, and has honorary doctorates from British, Canadian and American colleges. John Stott's biography has been written by Timothy Dudley-Smith. Volume 2 was published in 2001.

All his life he has been a keen bird watcher and bird photographer, taking his binoculars and camera with him on all his travels. He reckons he has seen about 2,500 of the world's 9000 species of birds. His book, The Birds our Teachers, lavishly illustrated with his own photographs, was published in 1999 in the UK by Candle Books, in the USA by Baker, and also in several other languages.

He has written 50 books - the most recent of which, 'The Living Church,' was published in May 2007. His best known, Basic Christianity, has been translated into more than 50 languages. Other titles include The Cross of Christ, The Contemporary Christian, Evangelical Truth and New Issues Facing Christians Today, and eight New Testament expositions (Acts, Romans etc.) in the 'Bible Speaks Today' series published by IVP.