Encounter: John Stott (1921-2011)

Before his death, John Stott was the best known Evangelical in the Church of England. For many years, he was the Rector of the "BBC Church" (All Souls, Langham Place, London). I met John in 1940, when I attended the first of many church-related camps, where he was working as today what we would call a Counselor. He was athletic and enthusiastic, while still an undergraduate at Cambridge. On the last evening before we dispersed to our homes, we held a celebratory supper. One of the items of entertainment was a series of rhyming couplets. I only remember one of the specific couplets, which were in the pattern of "A is for angels, who live in the heaven/ I once met a few, but only eleven". The one I remember perfectly goes like this: "N is for November, whose days number thirty/ Like Lindsey-Renton they're short, dark, and dirty".