Duke Divinity School’s Faith & Leadership interviews the Rt. Rev. Melissa Skelton, Bishop of New Westminster in the Anglican Church of Canada:
Q: You’re a boundary-crossing figure as an Anglican bishop who’s also taught in an evangelical seminary (Seattle School of Theology & Psychology). How can the church cross boundaries of evangelical/mainline/Catholic more readily and work together without surrendering our particular gifts?
By prayer, meeting people where they are, cultivating both a listening heart and an appreciative mindset, and being as candid as we can be about who we are and, out of this, what we have to offer.
I was lucky in that I was rector of a church that was clear about its love of mystery, beauty and awe in the presence of God. And so when evangelicals showed up in our church looking to find their way back to church, we could embrace them and invite them in out of that same mystery, beauty and awe for God.
Thus, what I experienced was a very organic process of crossing boundaries through getting to know people and sharing with them what we were about. Out of this came a deeper and deeper involvement in, for instance, The Seattle School, and my own increasing appreciation for the school and its many sincere evangelicals.
