Glenn Jenks

Four years after high school I graduated from Muskingum College in New Concord, Ohio with a B.A. majoring in Sociology and minors in History, Philosophy and Psychology.

In June of 1966 I married Nancy Ann Scott (“Scottie”) with whom I had gone to school from Jr. High all the way through college. She too was born on Thanksgiving Day in 1942. We were married for over 41 years. Scottie died in November 2007 after a four year battle with colon cancer. We have two children: Christie Schwalbe and Michael Jenks, 40 and 28 years old respectively.

I received my Master of Divinity with honors from the Philadelphia Divinity School and was ordained an Episcopal Priest in 1969. I served as Rector of All Saints Parish in Aliquippa, PA from 1969 until 1974. In 1974 we moved to Tucson AZ where I was the Assistant to the Rector at Grace Church doing primarily youth and college ministry. In 1979 I left Grace Church to develop and direct an Hispanic ministry as Vicar of the Chapel of the Resurrection on the South side of Tucson. While I was Vicar of the Chapel of the Resurrection I enrolled in the Law School at the University of Arizona. I graduated from the Law School in 1985 with a Juris Doctorate with distinction.

We moved to Phoenix in 1985 and from then until 2005 I made my living practicing law, principally in the area of criminal defense and personal injury while also serving a number of parishes and missions as a supply priest or part-time interim-rector or interim-vicar. In 2005 I closed my law practice and gave up my license to practice law in order to become the Rector of Good Shepherd of the Hills, Cave Creek. I served in that position until my retirement at the end of January, 2009

In retirement I now pursue my passion for photography and serve the Diocese of Arizona doing part-time ministries in local congregations as needed. You can visit my photography web site at www.glennphotostudios.com to see some of my photos. I love to travel and have made two mission trips to Africa and I spent two months living in Ecuador while on sabbatical in 2008.

I have worked with, and been an advocate for undocumented immigrants since 1979, both as a priest and a public defender. As Rector of Good Shepherd in Cave Creek I supervised their controversial Day Worker Ministry until it was targeted and shut down by the Sheriff of Maricopa County, Joe Arpaio, in 2008 as a part of the Sheriff’s anti-immigrant campaign. I now work with the Valley Interfaith Project, and the Arizona Interfaith Network engaging congregations in taking responsibility for the issues that affect our families and neighborhoods: jobs, home foreclosures, workforce training, education, health care and immigration reform.