Biography

David Jenkins was born on January 26, 1925 in Bromley, Kent, England, UK. He was married to Mollie Peet. He died on September 4, 2016 in Barnard Castle, Teesdale, County Durham, England, UK.

He was the Bishop of Durham from 1984 until 1994. He served during the miners' strike in the 1980s and often joined the miners on their marches. He was called the "unbelieving bishop" after saying he did not believe God would have arranged a virgin birth and the resurrection. He was a professor of theology at the University of Leeds, and before that, a fellow and chaplain of Queen's College, Oxford.

He was one of the first clergymen to bless a civil ceremony between two gay men, one of whom was a Church of England priest.

He grew up in a Methodist family, and joined the Church of England as a teenager. In WWII, he was commissioned in the Royal Artillery, and ended the war in India.