'Unbelieving bishop' title 'unfair' says former dean

The former Bishop of Durham Right Reverend Dr David Jenkins has died aged 91, his family said.

Dr Jenkins died in Barnard Castle, County Durham, on Sunday morning. He had been living with Alzheimer's disease for many years.
The cleric and theologian was Bishop of Durham from 1984 until 1994 when he retired and took on the post of honorary assistant bishop in Ripon and Leeds.
Before becoming a bishop, Dr Jenkins was a Professor of Theology at the University of Leeds, and spent 15 years prior to that as a fellow and chaplain of Queen's College, Oxford.
York Minister was struck by lightning and burst into flames just days after his consecration in 1984. The events led some to believe that the fire was a sign of divine wrath at his appointment as bishop.
He was dubbed by some as the "unbelieving bishop" after doubting that God would have arranged a virgin birth and the resurrection, however Very Rev Michael Sadgrove, the former Dean of Durham says that the name is unfair.
Very Rev Michael Sadgrove, former Dean of Durham Cathedral paid tribute piece to Dr David.
He told Premier's News Hour the name is not appropriate.
He said: "You only had to have half an hours conversation with him to realise that he was a man of passionate Christian belief and conviction and what is more he believed entirely in the incarnation, that God comes among us fully in the person of Jesus, and he believed entirely in the resurrection."
Commenting on criticism surround the Virgin Birth, Very Rev Michael Sadgrove said: "He wasn't deconstructing the meaning of the Gospel, he wasn't in any way devaluing what the tradition has to say about faith.
"He was simply asking the question 'how do we express ourselves in the 20th century in ways that communicate with people living in the modern world, and a very secular world?' "
Dr Jenkins was satirised in television puppet Spitting Image and was depicted in one episode persuading God to become an atheist.
He served in Durham during the miners' strike in the 1980s and often joined them on marches. He was an open critic of the then prime minister Margaret Thatcher's policies.
The bishop, who was born in Bromley, Kent, went on to write Market Whys And Human Wherefores: Thinking Again About Markets, Politics, And People about the deficiencies of economic theory.
He leaves behind four children. A funeral will be held at Durham Cathedral at a later date, his family said.
The Venerable Stuart Bain, Archdeacon of Sunderland, said: "David was a master of the one liners: “God is as he is in Jesus”, “You can’t keep a good God down” and even his oft misquoted comment about the resurrection “The resurrection is more than just a conjuring trick with bones”.
"I found myself remembering his sermons and being inspired by them."