John Stringer

I'm a mid-forties pastor living and working in Christchurch, New Zealand. I have five teenage to young adult children in New Zealand and the USA, aged 15 to 21. I'm recently re-married to an American from California after 20 years of happy marriage.

I'm involved in New Zealand politics (have stood for parliament more than once) and am active in the Christian church. My passions include writing, reading, fly fishing, ancient history, faith, jet boating, british bulldogs, and robust thought. I suppose you could describe me as a polymath.

I paint in oils, I'm a professional cartoonist, a preacher and teacher, writer, political activist, and film buff. I like jammin' country music and Bob Dylan and love to sing and play with my wife and sons. My step son Matt made the top hundreds of a recent American Idol season; I'm very proud of him.

I have degrees in art history and classical studies and a masters degree in classics focused on the biblical philistines. I'm also a graduate of the New York Film Academy.

I've written for a wide variety of magazines, periodals, newsletters and the media, as well as online. In the 1990s I was a parliamentary press secretary in the New Zealand parliament and I've published two books (Random House) and am currently working on a first novel but declined a recent offer from a U.S. publisher.