Reverend Canon Dr Gregory Jenks to be awarded Doctor of Divinity

The University of Divinity awards highest academic honour to theologian and educator, the Reverend Canon Dr Gregory Jenks.

In March 2025, the Council of the University of Divinity resolved to award the degree of Doctor of Divinity (honoris causa) to the Reverend Canon Dr Gregory Jenks. The Chancellor of the University, Dr Graeme L Blackman AO, will confer the award on Dr Jenks at the University’s graduation ceremony in Brisbane on Friday 30 May 2025.

The Doctor of Divinity is the oldest award of the University, created in 1910 and first awarded in 1913. It is the highest academic honour that the University bestows. The award is made in recognition of Dr Jenks’ sustained and distinguished contribution to theological education in Australia.

About the honorary award, Dr Jenks said:

“As a Religion scholar I have had two primary audiences. The first is comprised of the students with whom I have explored faith and action during several decades; sometimes in the classroom and sometimes on location in the Middle East. My colleagues in the academy constitute the other primary audience and I have been blessed with courageous and visionary colleagues in Australia and around the world. This award of Doctor of Divinity reminds me of all those faithful scholars alongside whom I have been privileged to teach, research and write. Both these audiences have made me a better scholar than I would otherwise have been, and this award inspires me to renew my commitment to critical scholarship in the service of the common good.”

The Reverend Dr Ruth Mathieson, Principal of St Franics College said:

“It is fifty years since Greg Jenks first joined the St Francis College community, during which time he has shown leadership and wisdom in theological education at the College and with the learning institutions we have partnered: the ecumenical Brisbane College of Theology, Charles Sturt University and now the University of Divinity. He is deeply committed to justice, serving the church, and encouraging the scholarship and ministry of others. To be honoured with the University’s Doctor of Divinity (honoris causa) is a fitting way of recognising Greg’s sustained and distinguished contribution to theological education in Australia, theological scholarship internationally, and engagement with the wider community in areas of religion consistent with the University’s mission and vision.”

The citation for the award reads:

The Reverend Canon Dr Gregory Jenks has made a sustained and distinguished contribution to theological education in Australia. Greg has been involved in theological education for more than forty years, including full-time positions at St Barnabas College (Adelaide College of Divinity, Flinders University) and at St Francis College. He has provided leadership in theological education at St Francis College at significant times in the College’s history, notably his work as Academic Dean as St Francis College transitioned from membership of the Brisbane College of Theology (BCT) to enrolment with Charles Sturt University. Reverend Canon Dr Jenks has demonstrated leadership in various expressions of theological education, as the associate director of the Westar Institute (1999-2001), the Dean of St George’s College in Jerusalem (2013-2015) and Dean of Christ Church Cathedral, Diocese of Grafton (2017-2022). Since ‘retiring’, he has returned to St Francis College and has assisted with the preparation of new curriculum and delivery of units of study with the University of Divinity, alongside locum tenens work in parishes involved in transition processes. Greg is the Coin Curator for the Bethsaida Excavations Project, the archaeological work done at Et-Tell. As the Executive Director of the Centre for Coins, Culture and Religious History (CCCRH), he ensures that researchers can access online photographs of each item, that some items are on public display at St John’s Cathedral in Brisbane and that there are teacher resource packs for primary school classes. Greg engages with the wider community in areas of religion consistent with the University of Divinity’s mission and vision and has made a significant contribution to both formal and informal theological education in Australia and beyond.