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Profile of an Editor:
 Canon
David Jenkins has a long history of media
involvement, beginning from schooldays when
in1944 he edited the St John's College school
magazine, became News Editor of Wits University
student Newspaper and was given a typewriter for
his 21st birthday. In his first parish a
parishioner with a hand-fed Cropper printer
press introduced him to the old-fashioned art of
hand-compositing, layout and letter-press
printing . Thirty five years later he learnt how
to achieve a similar result more easily by
computer, so that today this whole newspaper is
produced on his office desk. Entering the
broadcasting medium while a parish priest in
Rhodesia he began regular radio broadcasting in
1953, and broke into the Television medium in
1960 when he presented his own weekly programme
and was appointed Director of Religious
Television In 1961 he founded a Public Relations
consultancy company and was also appointed as
liaison Executive Officer to facilitate
communication in the Province of Central Africa,
and while on holiday overseas held the fort as
Press Officer in Church House Westminister at
the heart of the Anglican Communion to enable
the Director of the Church of England
Information Office to go on leave. In 1963 he
was elected to the Central Committee of the
World Association of Christian Communicators at
its inaugurating assembly in Nairobi, and the
same year was made an honorary lifetime Canon
"in recognition of services to the church in the
field of communications and public relations”.
During this time he published three books, wrote
and produced two sets of language teaching
records and conducted broadcasting training
seminars in Rhodesia, Zambia, Malawi and for the
SABC in South Africa. The collapse of the
Federation of Central Africa in 1965 brought his
cross-border provincial activities to an abrupt
end, and when he took up a parish in Somerset
West the SABC offered him a slot for his own
weekly church music programme "Lift up your
hearts” which ran for four years. A year later
he became a columnist for The Cape Times with
his "Saturday Talk", which continued without a
break for twenty years and was later syndicated
to The Natal Witness where he was already a
Leader Writer and ran a chat column under the
name of Pilgrim while he was rector of
Scottsville. From 1968 right up until now he has
also contributed a daily Thought for the Day in
the Cape Argus. In his retirement from parish
work in Howick he became Manager of CPSANET, the
Church's Internet communications network and
then took on Anglican News as editor, producer
and manager five years ago – all this with
technical assistance of two young graphic
artists and the encouragement, help and support
of his wife Elizabeth as his honorary news-hound
and proof reader, and while sharing
responsibility for Sunday services in his local
parish church. He has been a member of the CPSA
Media Committee for forty years.
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