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John Stott’s Right Hand
The untold story
of Frances Whitehead
julia cameron
Copyright © JEM Cameron 2014
The right of JEM Cameron to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published in Great Britain by Piquant in 2014.
PO Box 83, Carlisle, CA3 9GR, UK
www.piquanteditions.com
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher or a licence permitting restricted copying. In the UK such licences are issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency Ltd. www.cla.co.uk
ISBN: 978-1-909281-28-8
Related ISBN for Epub: 978-1-909281-29-5
Related ISBN for Mobi/Kindle: 978-1-909281-30-1
British Library Cataloguing Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Cover by Luz Design: www.projectluz.com
Cover image copyright © Kieran Dodds 2007, www.kierandodds.com All rights reserved. Frances Whitehead with John Stott in his sitting room cum study.
All photographs used with kind permission of the copyright holders.
‘John Stott was preaching the night I was converted and he has been my teacher ever since, not only by word but by example. He has obviously been the greatest influence in my life. Those who have influenced me most have always borne the hallmark of authenticity, that is of Christlikeness ... So much of Christian truth is summed up in the amazing condescension of John 14:21.’
Frances Whitehead, January 2014
‘Successive Study Assistants have basically fallen in love with Frances, and have realized that Uncle John could never have done what he did without her. It has been one of the greatest Christian partnerships of the twentieth century.’
Roy McCloughry, First Study Assistant 1977–78; National Disability Adviser to the Church of England; Tutor in Ethics, St John’s College, Nottingham
‘Frances Whitehead is as remarkable in her way as John Stott was in his way. John was the gold standard and Frances matched it again and again. I love Frances’s personal spiritual life, her prayerfulness, her devotion to knowing and loving Christ, her hunger for biblical teaching, her desire for Christian community.’
Mark Labberton, Study Assistant 1980–81; President, Fuller Seminary, Pasadena, California
‘I have thought that Frances’s loyalty to John is the best human example of agape that I have ever witnessed. And of course her example of ‘omnicompetence’ shall never be excelled. However her prior vocation has been to serve Christ and his Church, and this she has done with self-sacrificial devotion, boundless energy and unequalled efficiency.’
Stephen Andrews, Study Assistant 1984–86; Bishop of Algoma, Province of Ontario, Canada
‘Frances and Uncle John shared a wonderful partnership – platonic and professional, caring, deep and affectionate. Their 55-year relationship started formally, with Frances referring only to ‘Mr Stott’, but became much less formal, with their embracing on occasion with a warm hug and kiss on the cheek.’
Matthew Smith, Study Assistant 2002–05; a principal advisor at KPMG
In gratitude for my parents,
Cam and Valerie
“Whoever has my commands and obeys them,
he is the one who loves me.
He who loves me will be loved by my Father,
and I too will love him and show myself to him.”
John 14:21 (niv 1984)
Timeline
| 1925 | Born 27 March at Bovey Tracey, Devon |
| 1932 | Older sister Pamela dies of leukaemia |
| 1936 | Leaves home for boarding school |
| 1938 | Begins at Malvern Girls’ College |
| 1943 | Joins the staff at Radar Research and Development Establishment (RRDE) |
| 1944 | Father dies unexpectedly |
| 1945 | Moves to London after war ends |
| 1947 | Leaves UK for Switzerland |
| 1949 | Moves to Cape Town |
| 1951 | Returns to England; settles in London and starts work at the BBC |
| 1953 | Professes faith in Christ, 1 January, at All Souls watch-night service |
| 1954 | Counsellor and supervisor in Billy Graham’s Harringay Crusade |
| 1956 | Joins the staff of All Souls Church |
| 1958 | All Souls Clubhouse opens; Basic Christianity published (the first book Frances typed) |
| 1960 | Administrator for Church of England Evangelical Council (CEEC), constituted as first member of Evangelical Fellowship in the Anglican Communion (EFAC) |
| 1970 | Moves into downstairs office as Michael Baughen becomes Vicar of All Souls; Administrator for new Langham Trust |
| 1971 | Administrator of new Evangelical Literature Trust (ELT); and appointed to new committee to oversee Langham Scholars programme |
| 1973 | Mother moves back to UK permanently. Purchase of home in Bourne End |
| 1978 | Happy Triumvirate is established |
| 1982 | London Institute for Contemporary Christianity (LICC) opens |
| 1996 | Appointed to new group of John Stott’s Literary Executors |
| 2001 | Awarded Lambeth MA. Late that year Langham Partnership is founded, embracing ELT, Langham Scholars and Langham Preaching |
| 2002 | Evelyn Whitehead dies, aged 104 |
| 2004 | Participates in BBC Radio 4 Sunday Worship broadcast from The Hookses |
| 2006 | Celebratory lunch to mark 50 years of service as John Stott’s Secretary |
| 2007 | Takes John Stott to College of St Barnabas |
| 2011 | Formal retirement from Langham Partnership (but not as John Stott’s secretary); and from John Stott’s Literary Executors (remaining as a Consultant); John Stott dies; participates in BBC Radio 4 Sunday Worship (broadcast 1 January 2012) |
| 2012 | Gives opening tribute at Memorial Service in St Paul’s Cathedral; places archives in Lambeth Palace; finally retires to Bourne End |
Foreword
Frances must have known about me for quite some time before I got to know her. Having heard John Stott often as a student in the late 1960s, I first met him in person in 1978 at the National Evangelical Conference on Social Ethics. With my newly-minted doctorate in the economic ethics of the Old Testament, I had been asked to give one of the Bible expositions. From then on, John Stott (the convenor of the conference) took an interest in the career that my wife Liz and I were embarking on, in ordained pastoral ministry, theological teaching and international mission. That involved a measure of correspondence between John and us over the ensuing years – correspondence which, from John’s end, Frances must have typed. Doubtless I was one among several hundred names in her address book and filing cabinet… In those days ‘Frances Whitehead’ was a phenomenon one heard about but never saw, but whose existence was manifestly evident in John Stott’s phenomenal output.
When Liz and I returned from five years in India in 1988, John invited me to be a trustee of the Evangelical Literature Trust. That meant regular board meetings in the basement of 12 Weymouth Street, entrance to which was by way of Frances’s office. And Frances herself was one of the trustees and the secretary. So I got to meet this ‘phenomenon’ more regularly. There was always a lovely warmth of welcome for all of us at those meetings. But I recall how over the decade or so that followed, the welcomes became more demonstrative