David Jenkins

Who is David Jenkins?

David Edward Jenkins is a Church of England cleric and former Bishop of Durham, a position he held from 1984 until 1994. Since retirement, he has continued to serve as an honorary assistant bishop in the Diocese of Ripon and Leeds.

Jenkins was born in Bromley, Kent and educated at St Dunstan's College, Catford.

During the Second World War, he was called up in the autumn of 1943. He was commissioned in the Royal Artillery after officer training at Harrogate in April 1945. At the end of the war he was a staff officer at General Headquarters in India. In 1946 he was attached to the 10th Indian Field Regiment, Royal Indian Artillery before its disbandment. He demobilised as Captain in 1947.

Having attended a Church of England ordination conference at Bangalore during his service in India, he took up scholarship to enter Queen's College, Oxford where he graduated as MA in 1954. The same year he was ordained priest by the Bishop of Birmingham after training at Lincoln Theological College and serving as curate at St Philip's Cathedral, Birmingham.

At time of his consecration he had been a lecturer in theology at the University of Oxford, Chaplain and Fellow of Queen's College, Oxford and worked for the World Council of Churches and the William Temple Foundation before being appointed Professor of Theology at the University of Leeds in 1979. Jenkins left Leeds in 1984 with the title Emeritus Professor.