Jean S. Willans

Jean Stone Willans passed away peacefully on April 1, 2020, with Richard Willans, her beloved husband of 54 years, by her side.

Jean was a primary catalyst of the Charismatic Renewal. After experiencing the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, she was a vital participant in the historic events at her home church, St. Mark’s Episcopal, Van Nuys, CA. Her subsequent pilgrimage contributed to the transformation of twentieth century Christianity. The Blessed Trinity Society was organized in 1960 to promote the renewal. It served as the supporting institution that brought Jean to hundreds of churches, colleges, universities, and auditoriums in the U.S.A., Canada, Mexico, and Great Britain.

From 1961-1965, she edited Trinity, an influential magazine "dedicated to maintaining the 'fullness of the faith.'" The magazine spurred the early growth of the movement. In 1963, in a Trinity article entitled “The Charismatic Renewal in the Historical Churches,” Jean and the Rev. Harald Bredesen, a Dutch Reformed Church minister, coined the term “charismatic renewal” to describe this movement of the Holy Spirit within the non-Pentecostal Churches. Soon charismatic renewal in the mainline Protestant churches was a worldwide phenomenon.

Called to Asia in 1967, the Willanses ministered in Indonesia and Taiwan before settling in Hong Kong (1968-1981). There they founded the Society of Stephen, which became a primary regional fountainhead of the Renewal, particularly among Roman Catholics. They pioneered, along with Jackie Pullinger, a ministry to drug addicts and gang members that drew international media attention due to the consistent pattern of painless withdrawal (without medication) through faith in Jesus and prayer in tongues. On returning to the United States, they continued their ministry, based in Altadena, California.

Jean was a true champion of the Christian faith and a key instrument whom God used over six decades to bring countless thousands to Christ and to receive the Baptism in the Holy Spirit, as evidenced by speaking in tongues. She wrote of her experiences in the Acts of the Green Apples  http://www.societyofstephen.org/.

Jean had a great zest for life, was generous, forthright and kind. She loved cooking, deep sea fishing, raising chickens, playing bridge, wearing elegant clothes, and generously entertaining in her home. She will be sorely missed by her darlings: Rick; Suzy, her treasured daughter, and Hugh Jagger, her son in law; and her grandchildren, James and his wife Helen, Jasmine and Justin; the church in Hong Kong and the church that met in the Willans’ Altadena home for 40 years. Jean has now entered the joy of the Lord Jesus Christ whom she so dearly loved and faithfully served.