Episcopal Church of the Redeemer

Worshiping God, living in community, reaching out to the world.

Category: The Diocese of Olympia

Habemos episcopam, the Rev. Philip N. LaBelle of Massachusetts
The convention of the Diocese of Olympia met to elect the 9th Bishop Diocesan on May 18, 2024. On the fourth ballot the Convention has elected the Rev. Philip N. LaBelle of Massachusetts. He has agreed to the election.

Assuming the necessary consents (approvals) are received from around the Episcopal Church, the consecration of the 9th Bishop of Olympia is scheduled for September 14, 2024. More details will follow as the become available.

The Reverend Phil LaBelle

The Reverend Phil LaBelle

The Rev. Philip N. LaBelle (he/him) serves as rector of St. Mark’s Church in Southborough, Massachusetts, arriving there in January 2011.

In the Diocese of Massachusetts, Phil has done the following:
- Co-led the Mission Strategy Committee
- Served on Executive Committee and Diocesan Council
- Directed the Fresh Start program
He co-founded Southborough Neighbors for Peace with Dr. Safdar Medina in their small town. The organization has hosted these activites:
- Hosted peace vigils
- Began a community-wide Iftar dinner during Ramadan
- Established an interfaith Thanksgiving service
- Sponsored other bridge-building events
Additionally, Phil served on the core team of Central Mass. Connections in Faith, an organization centered on fostering relationships and learning about other religious faiths through quarterly gatherings.

Education

In June, Phil will receive his Doctor of Ministry from Fuller Seminary focused on Christian Spirituality. His thesis work explores the theology and practice of zimzum and how to make space in our overly busy lives for God, others, and the natural world.

Phil received his MDiv from Yale University in 2004, along with a diploma in Anglican Studies from Berkeley Divinity School at Yale. He holds a Master’s degree in composition and rhetoric from Northeastern University and a Bachelor’s degree in English with an additional concentration in theological studies from Gordon College. In addition, Phil has also received certificates in congregational development and religious fundraising.

Previous activities

Phil has served in the Diocese of Colorado—where he was on the Commission on Ministry—and in the Diocese of Connecticut. Over his nearly 20 years of ordained ministry, he has co-led more than a dozen mission trips for youth and adults. Before seminary, he worked in marketing communications and web development at multiple internet startups.

With St. Mark’s, Phil received a Clergy Renewal Grant from the Lily Endowment in 2017. He explored wilderness spirituality, the beauty of the natural world, and the need for climate justice. Additionally, he and his family walked the Camino de Santiago in Spain, and he and Noah have summited Mt. Kilimanjaro.

Church of the Redeemer

Church of the Redeemer: Worshiping God, living in community, and reaching out to the world around us. We are an Episcopal Church serving north King County and south Snohomish County, Washington. As you travel your road, go with friends walking the way of Jesus at Redeemer.

Church of the Redeemer is at 6220 Northeast 181st Street in Kenmore, Washington. The campus is a short distance north of Bothell Way, near the Burke-Gilman Trail. The entrance looks like a gravel driveway. The campus is larger on the inside than it is on the outside. And we managed to hide a large building on the side of a hill that is not easily seen from the street.

The Episcopal Church welcomes you.
May 18, 2024
Camp Huston summer camps for 2024
Camp Huston’s summer 2024 registration is open. Bring a friend and join the fun at Camp Huston. These camps all have space available:
- Discovery Camps
- Mini Camp
- International Discovery Camp
- Horse Camps
Camp Huston has gender-affirming accommodations available. Request in advance.

Costs range from $498 for the Mini Camp to $795 for the Discovery Camps. The Horse Camps are $900. The camp has scholarships available.

See what camps are available and at what times by selecting the following link to register.

Select this to register for Camp Huston.

Camp Huston

Camp Huston is an Episcopal summer camp and conference center in the foothills of the Cascade mountain range, about an hour east of Seattle.

As well as a summer camp program, Camp Huston hosts family and adult programs year-round. The conference center facilities are available to rent for religious, nonprofit and educational groups for conferences, retreats and events.

The summer camp program is accredited by the American Camp Association. It is located at 14725 Ley Rd, Gold Bar, Washington, next to Wallace Falls State Park.

Church of the Redeemer

Church of the Redeemer: Worshiping God, living in community, and reaching out to the world around us. We are an Episcopal Church serving north King County and south Snohomish County, Washington. As you travel your road, go with friends walking the way of Jesus at Redeemer.

Church of the Redeemer is at 6220 Northeast 181st Street in Kenmore, Washington. The campus is a short distance north of Bothell Way, near the Burke-Gilman Trail. The entrance looks like a gravel driveway. The campus is larger on the inside than it is on the outside. And we managed to hide a large building on the side of a hill that is not easily seen from the street.

The Episcopal Church welcomes you.
April 25, 2024
Lent 2024: A Message from Bishop Skelton

Greetings, people of the Diocese of Olympia.

From John’s Gospel:

Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone, but if it dies, it produces much fruit.
John 12:24-26

You may notice that the visual we’re using for Lent is a picture of the Northwest woods with a large, really a huge fallen tree across whatever might be seen as a path, a fallen tree already in the process of becoming new life. For me, Lent is a lot like this image.

We ended Epiphany with the story of Jesus’s Transfiguration on the mountaintop, the Transfiguration in which the disciples for a moment glimpse Jesus’s full beauty and glory rising before them, like some magnificent cedar, if you will, complete with all the attendant awe and wonder we hear about from the disciples. But on Ash Wednesday and throughout Lent, we get to gaze at something else, the fallen tree becoming a new thing, the mystery of Jesus, and the mystery of our own lives that we call the Paschal mystery.

Roman Catholic writer Ron Rolheiser has described the Paschal mystery in this way. He says, “We must let go of current life and spirit to receive new life and spirit.” This is my way of describing it. Living out of the Paschal mystery is learning over and over again that God’s favorite way of creating a new thing is through things falling apart and our expectations being shattered.

And so I want to invite you into a holy Lent. By this, I mean into a Lent in which you reflect on and consider embracing the parts of your life that are falling apart, are falling down into the earth, or need to fall to the earth, all in order to wait for God’s own renewal, for new life in God.

From John’s Gospel:

Unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much fruit.”

My blessings to you for a holy Lent.

—The Most Rev. Mellissa Skelton
Bishop Provisional of the Diocese of Olympia

The Most Reverend Melissa Skelton

The Most Reverend Melissa Skelton is the Bishop Provisional in the Episcopal Diocese of Olympia. The diocese voted to place itself under the authority of Bishop Skelton at the Diocese of Olympia’s 2022 Diocesan Convention.

Bishop Skelton has deep ties to the Diocese of Olympia, previously serving as the rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Seattle and as the Canon for Congregational Development and Leadership for the Diocese of Olympia. During this time, she developed and launched the College for Congregational Development, which continues to this day and is currently hosted by eight dioceses across the Episcopal Church.

In 2013, Bishop Skelton was elected 9th Bishop of the Diocese of New Westminster [Vancouver], The Anglican Church of Canada. In 2018, she was elected Metropolitan of the Ecclesiastical Province of British Columbia and Yukon, making her the first woman in the Anglican Church of Canada to hold the position of Archbishop.

Before her time in the Diocese of Olympia, Bishop Skelton served as rector of Trinity Episcopal Church in Castine, Maine, while also serving as the Executive Director of a land trust. Prior to this, she was Vice President for Consumer Products and Community Engagement at Tom’s of Maine, Vice President for Administration at The General Theological Seminary, and Brand Manager at The Proctor & Gamble Company. While at General Seminary, she served as the Director of the College for Bishops.

Bishop Skelton holds a Master of Arts in English from the University of South Carolina, a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Chicago, and a Master if Divinity from Virginia Theological Seminary. Additionally, she completed a certificate in Organization Development at the NTL Institute for Applied Behavioral Science. After retiring from the Anglican Church of Canada, Bishop Skelton returned to the Diocese of Olympia to serve as a Bishop Assisting. She is married to the Rev. Eric Stroo, a mental health counselor and a deacon in the Episcopal Church. Between them they have three children and five grandchildren.

Church of the Redeemer

Church of the Redeemer: Worshiping God, living in community, and reaching out to the world around us. We are an Episcopal Church serving north King County and south Snohomish County, Washington. As you travel your road, go with friends walking the way of Jesus at Redeemer.

Church of the Redeemer is at 6220 Northeast 181st Street in Kenmore, Washington. The campus is a short distance north of Bothell Way, near the Burke-Gilman Trail. The entrance looks like a gravel driveway. The campus is larger on the inside than it is on the outside. And we managed to hide a large building on the side of a hill that is not easily seen from the street.

The Episcopal Church welcomes you.

February 14, 2024
Lenten Book Discussion for Young Adults
We’ll gather on Tuesday evenings in Lent from 7:00 – 8:00 pm to discuss this autobiographical narrative. It is about a Lutheran pastor’s journey to build an accepting community in New York City. Starting the church of St. Lydia’s, the author Emily Scott united neighbors and friends. She used an informal dinner church where all were welcome and affirmed. Since the publication of this book, the “dinner church” concept has spread across the U.S.

Discussion facilitator

The facilitator is Rachel Friedland, who grew up in the Episcopal Church. She has done Youth council in Seattle and Episcopal Service Corps in Minneapolis

Currently revisiting her roots in King County, Rachel, a historian, just submitted a book for publication on the history of the city of Kent.

Rachel is active in diocesan young adult events. And she is thrilled to be returning to the Diocese of Olympia to facilitate this book discussion.

Book discussion schedule

We’ll meet using Zoom on these Tuesdays:
- February 20
- February 27
- March 5
- March 12
- March 19
On the final Tuesday, March 26, during Holy Week, we will gather together for our own version of Dinner Church at the Office of the Bishop, 1551 10th Avenue E., Seattle, on Capitol Hill.

For more information

Contact Valerie Reinke at the Episcopal Diocese of Olympia, +1 (206) 325-4200. Her email address is vreinke@ecww.org.

Registration

A free copy of the book will be sent with your registration. Register here!

Register for the Lenten book discussion

Church of the Redeemer

Church of the Redeemer: Worshiping God, living in community, and reaching out to the world around us. We are an Episcopal Church serving north King County and south Snohomish County, Washington. As you travel your road, go with friends walking the way of Jesus at Redeemer.

Church of the Redeemer is at 6220 Northeast 181st Street in Kenmore, Washington. The campus is a short distance north of Bothell Way, near the Burke-Gilman Trail. The entrance looks like a gravel driveway. The campus is larger on the inside than it is on the outside. And we managed to hide a large building on the side of a hill that is not easily seen from the street.

The Episcopal Church welcomes you.
February 10, 2024
Epiphany 2024: A Message from Bishop Skelton

Bishop Skelton shares her reflections as we enter into the season of Epiphany.

If you look up the word epiphany in Wikipedia, one of the entries you’ll find is author James Joyce’s use of the term. This is how he defined it in terms of what he was doing in his stories. An epiphany, he said, is, and I’m quoting here,

…a sudden spiritual manifestation, whether from some object, some scene, some event, or some memorable phase of the mind, the manifestation of which is out of proportion to the significance of whatever produces it.
James Joyce

I love this idea when applied to our lives, that all the time life is presenting us with objects, with events, with people, with circumstances, that manifests something that resides deep down in the spiritual heart of things. For the three Magi, that event, that person was a little baby born to peasant parents in an animal stall that somehow allowed them to see or to sense the fundamental dignity and beauty, the image of God, that all human beings by God’s grace possess.

For you and for me, all this time later, on the Feast of the Epiphany, it’s the very same thing, but also for us as we live in the season of Epiphany. It’s other events, other people, and other circumstances. It’s the comradery of family and friends. It’s the freshness of nature even and especially when our weather is overcast and cold and even rainy. It’s encounters with people who are not like us, encounters that can surprise and delight us in ways we hadn’t imagined. It’s even strangely in some of the health challenges that we can face. It can even be the circumstance that no one wishes to experience, the death of someone we love. All of these things can disclose and reveal the graciousness that we believe that is of God.

Epiphany. May we be able to behold or sense the spiritual realities that live and burn deep down in the heart of things.

Church of the Redeemer

Church of the Redeemer: Worshiping God, living in community, and reaching out to the world around us. We are an Episcopal Church serving north King County and south Snohomish County, Washington. As you travel your road, go with friends walking the way of Jesus at Redeemer.

Church of the Redeemer is at 6220 Northeast 181st Street in Kenmore, Washington. The campus is a short distance north of Bothell Way, near the Burke-Gilman Trail. The entrance looks like a gravel driveway. The campus is larger on the inside than it is on the outside. And we managed to hide a large building on the side of a hill that is not easily seen from the street.

The Episcopal Church welcomes you.

January 6, 2024
Holiday Toy Drive for Refugee Children

The Refugee Resettlement Office of the Episcopal Diocese of Olympia asks the community for donations of new toys for kids who have arrived during the year. With everyone’s help, they spread holiday cheer and welcome kids into their new communities.

If you would like to participate and donate a gift for a child, please email donations@rroseattle.org. You can check out their Amazon wish list to have gifts mailed directly to their office.

The Refugee Resettlement Office also accepts new and lightly used winter jackets and rain coats, as space allows. Email donations@rroseattle.org to set up a drop off.

Donate your gifts by December 18, 2023.

Refugee Resettlement Office

Founded in 1978, Diocese of Olympia’s Refugee Resettlement Office (RRO), an affiliate of Episcopal Migration Ministries and the Episcopal Diocese of Olympia, serves refugees and asylees in the Seattle area. Our clients come to us from anywhere in the world seeking guidance and assistance in building a new life in America and achieving economic self-sufficiency. Our mission is accomplished through resettlement, job placement activities, and business development programs that promote self-employment.

Church of the Redeemer

Church of the Redeemer: Worshiping God, living in community, and reaching out to the world around us. We are an Episcopal Church serving north King County and south Snohomish County, Washington. As you travel your road, go with friends walking the way of Jesus at Redeemer.

Church of the Redeemer is at 6220 Northeast 181st Street in Kenmore, Washington. The campus is a short distance north of Bothell Way, near the Burke-Gilman Trail. The entrance looks like a gravel driveway. The campus is larger on the inside than it is on the outside. And we managed to hide a large building on the side of a hill that is not easily seen from the street.

The Episcopal Church welcomes you.

November 28, 2023
Thanksgiving 2023: A Message from Bishop Skelton

Greetings, everyone.

Praise God from whom all blessing flow
Praise God all creatures here below
Praise God above the heavenly host
Praise God and Word and Holy Ghost.
The Right Reverend Thomas Ken (1637-1711), alt.

You probably recognize these words in some form as what we call “the Doxology,” that is, words of thanks and praise to God for everything. Thanks and praise to God is, of course, on my mind as I think about the Thanksgiving holiday.

And in these times of ours, I can’t help but think of teacher and minister Fred Craddock’s sermon entitled “Doxology,” that was delivered on the Sunday following the death of his brother. And so, in what follows, I offer a condensed version of that sermon (told as a kind of story) to you today because it’s meant so much to me over the years as I’ve tried to stay in touch with thanksgiving and praise to the source of all in good times and in bad.

In his sermon, Craddock imagines a kind of companion he calls “Doxology” that tries to accompany him wherever he goes.

It starts with Craddock at his own dinner table with Doxology sitting there along with Craddock’s wife and children one night. Craddock asks his teenage children some of those typical questions that parents ask their teenagers, and the teenagers do whatever they can not to answer the questions. But after a while, everyone relaxes over the food and shares a little bit about their day. Everyone talks and gets reconnected. Based on this, the family agrees. Doxology belongs at their table.

Then, the next day, Craddock decides to take Doxology with him as he runs his errands around town. He notices that having Doxology with him changes how he sees the world around him. And he thinks to himself: “It’s good to have Doxology around when I’m out doing things.”

Craddock then goes to visit a woman who’s dying in the hospital. Because of the seriousness of the visit, Craddock decides to leave Doxology in the car. Once in the hospital room, though, he finds that the woman he’s visiting is, much to his surprise, filled with thanksgiving for the life she has led. In fact, she ends up praying for him at the end of the visit.

When Craddock goes back to the car, Doxology asks him: “Should I have been there?”

“Yes,” Craddock answers. “I’m sorry. I did not understand.”

Then Craddock takes Doxology on vacation with his family. Doxology is there at the adventures and the meals and the togetherness. After the vacation, the whole family concludes, “There’s no question about it. Doxology belongs on vacation.”

When it’s time to return to his job teaching classes to seminary students, Craddock wonders about whether to take Doxology into the class he’s teaching on the Book of Romans. After all, is Doxology even needed among people engaged in studying and talking about God?

It’s there in his class that Craddock notices something in Paul’s Letter to the Romans. Right in the middle of talking about something else, Paul just breaks off and starts to sing:

“Oh, the depths of the riches and wisdom of the knowledge of God,” Paul croons. “From God, and through God and in God are all things. To God be the glory forever.”

About this, Craddock concludes, “Paul is aware that Doxology is deeply appropriate to (his) task as a theologian. (For) theology begins with words not about God but to God.” And so, “breaking into a song of praise, in any circumstance, at any moment, inviting Doxology into our lives, in any circumstance, at any moment, is appropriate.”

Craddock then says:

“It was from (this very) class on Romans that I was called to the phone.

“My oldest brother had just died. Heart Attack.

“All night, we drove across two states, eyes pasted open against the windshield. Conversation was spasmodic, consisting of taking turns asking the same questions over and over. No one pretended to have answers. When we drew near the town and the house, I searched my mind for a word, a first word, to the widow. He was my brother. He was her husband. I was still searching (for a word) when we pulled up into the driveway. She came out to meet us, and as I opened the car door, still without having found a word, she broke the silence.

“‘I hope you brought Doxology,’ she said.

“Doxology?

“No, I had not. I had not even thought of Doxology since the phone call.

“But the truth is now clear: If we ever lose Doxology, if we ever lose thanksgiving and praise, we might as well be dead.

“For ‘from God, and through God and in God are all things. To God be the glory forever.’”

My best wishes to you, to your family and friends, and to your community on Thanksgiving.

—The Most Reverend Melissa Skelton, Bishop Provisional of the Diocese of Olympia

The Most Reverend Melissa Skelton

The Most Reverend Melissa Skelton is the Bishop Provisional in the Episcopal Diocese of Olympia. The diocese voted to place itself under the authority of Bishop Skelton at the Diocese of Olympia’s 2022 Diocesan Convention.

Read more about Bishop Skelton on the website of the Diocese of Olympia.

Church of the Redeemer

Church of the Redeemer: Worshiping God, living in community, and reaching out to the world around us. We are an Episcopal Church serving north King County and south Snohomish County, Washington. As you travel your road, go with friends walking the way of Jesus at Redeemer.

Church of the Redeemer is at 6220 Northeast 181st Street in Kenmore, Washington. The campus is a short distance north of Bothell Way, near the Burke-Gilman Trail. The entrance looks like a gravel driveway. The campus is larger on the inside than it is on the outside. And we managed to hide a large building on the side of a hill that is not easily seen from the street.

The Episcopal Church welcomes you.

November 23, 2023
Transition Committee being formed in the Diocese of Olympia
This information on the bishop transition is from the Diocese of Olympia.

The Joint Board for Bishop Transition is forming a Transition Committee of both clergy and lay people. They need to be the following:
- Team players
- Well-organized
- Able to make a significant time commitment
There will be monthly Zoom team meetings and Zoom subcommittee meetings, as needed.

The Transition Committee will do the following as we walk through this process together:
- Plan the meet-and-greets with bishop nominee candidates
- Plan the electing convention
- Assist in planning the consecration weekend, including the following:
  - Liturgy
  - Receptions
  - Other activities
- Support the candidates and eventual bishop-elect
Following the election, the Transition Committee will assist the bishop-elect and their family as they transition from their current ministry to the Diocese of Olympia.

Particular skills essential to the committee include these:
- Leadership
- Oral and written communications
- Proficiency with technology used in virtual meetings and document sharing
- Hospitality and spiritual care
- Liturgy planning
- Event planning
The Joint Board will be accepting nominations beginning October 20. Watch for the announcement on the diocesan website.

If you have any questions, please reach out to the Joint Board at jointboard@ecww.org.

Church of the Redeemer

Church of the Redeemer: Worshiping God, living in community, and reaching out to the world around us. We are an Episcopal Church serving north King County and south Snohomish County, Washington. As you travel your road, go with friends walking the way of Jesus at Redeemer.

Church of the Redeemer is at 6220 Northeast 181st Street in Kenmore, Washington. The campus is a short distance north of Bothell Way, near the Burke-Gilman Trail. The entrance looks like a gravel driveway. The campus is larger on the inside than it is on the outside. And we managed to hide a large building on the side of a hill that is not easily seen from the street.

The Episcopal Church welcomes you.
October 14, 2023
Easter 2023: A Message from Bishop Skelton

“…look for the resurrected Christ here in this place. Look for him now in this time. Look for him in the mud, the cold, the clouds, and the rain.” Bishop Skelton shares her reflections as we celebrate the resurrected Christ this Easter.

Bishop Skelton’s Easter message

Greetings people of the Diocese of Olympia. I speak to you today from the traditional and hereditary lands of the Duwamish people.

I don’t know if you’ve noticed it or not, but the visuals that Greg Hester here on the staff has been coming up with for the different moments of the liturgical year are different than they’ve been in the past. This has been at my request, and I thank Greg for accommodating me on this, for you see, I want visuals that reflect our particular Pacific Northwest context. And so for Easter, Greg and I had to say no to a visual of an empty cross rising up against what was clearly not for me, a Pacific Northwest sky. Likewise, we had to reject a visual of a large bunch of white hothouse lilies that did not reflect vegetation in this part of the world.

What we finally settled on was a tulip field, the kind you would see in the Skagit Valley in April, purple tulips, royal tulips, bursting out of dark mounds of earth next to the rain-filled troughs. All of this, of course, not under pink candy-colored heavens, but under a cloudy, probably cold Pacific Northwest sky. And so Easter and the new life it brings come to us not looking like hothouse lilies. No, instead, it comes to us in a preposterous burst of life from something seemingly inert under the real cloudy cold sky that we all know so well.

In Matthew’s Gospel of the Resurrection, after the women are told that Jesus has risen, Jesus appears to them himself and tells them to go tell the disciples that he will go ahead of them to Galilee. I take this to mean that he will go ahead of them and meet them in the real joys and challenges, and places of their lives.

And so people of the Diocese of Olympia, look for the resurrected Christ here in this place. Look for him now in this time. Look for him in the mud, the cold, the clouds, and the rain. Look for him in the astonishing beauty of sun and in the ice cold ocean lake and river waters. Look for him in majestic mountains, which are in fact volcanoes. Look for him in this place where many areas and towns have First Nations names. Look for him in Pacific Northwest reticence, and in Pacific Northwest ambivalence about church itself, and look for him in the reality of your lives. All the beauty, and joy, and boredom, and terror of it.

For the resurrected Christ goes before us, the resurrected Christ goes before us and meets us in the real world and in the real times we live in.

My very best wishes to you for a blessed and glorious Easter.

—The Most Rev. Mellissa Skelton

The Most Reverend Melissa Skelton

The Most Reverend Melissa Skelton is the Bishop Provisional in the Episcopal Diocese of Olympia. The diocese voted to place itself under the authority of Bishop Skelton at the Diocese of Olympia’s 2022 Diocesan Convention.

Bishop Skelton has deep ties to the Diocese of Olympia, previously serving as the rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Seattle and as the Canon for Congregational Development and Leadership for the Diocese of Olympia. During this time, she developed and launched the College for Congregational Development, which continues to this day and is currently hosted by eight dioceses across the Episcopal Church.

In 2013, Bishop Skelton was elected 9th Bishop of the Diocese of New Westminster [Vancouver], The Anglican Church of Canada. In 2018, she was elected Metropolitan of the Ecclesiastical Province of British Columbia and Yukon, making her the first woman in the Anglican Church of Canada to hold the position of Archbishop.

Before her time in the Diocese of Olympia, Bishop Skelton served as rector of Trinity Episcopal Church in Castine, Maine, while also serving as the Executive Director of a land trust. Prior to this, she was Vice President for Consumer Products and Community Engagement at Tom’s of Maine, Vice President for Administration at The General Theological Seminary, and Brand Manager at The Proctor & Gamble Company. While at General Seminary, she served as the Director of the College for Bishops.

Bishop Skelton holds a Master of Arts in English from the University of South Carolina, a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Chicago, and a Master if Divinity from Virginia Theological Seminary. Additionally, she completed a certificate in Organization Development at the NTL Institute for Applied Behavioral Science. After retiring from the Anglican Church of Canada, Bishop Skelton returned to the Diocese of Olympia to serve as a Bishop Assisting. She is married to the Rev. Eric Stroo, a mental health counselor and a deacon in the Episcopal Church. Between them they have three children and five grandchildren.

Church of the Redeemer

Church of the Redeemer: Worshiping God, living in community, and reaching out to the world around us. We are an Episcopal Church serving north King County and south Snohomish County. We welcome you be with us as we walk the way of Jesus.

Church of the Redeemer is at 6220 Northeast 181st Street in Kenmore, Washington. We are a short distance north of Bothell Way, near the Burke-Gilman Trail. The entrance looks like a gravel driveway. The campus is larger on the inside than it is on the outside. And we managed to hide a large building on the side of a hill that is not easily seen from the street.

The Episcopal Church welcomes you.

April 9, 2023
Holy Week message from Bishop Skelton

This Holy Week message for 2023 comes from the Bishop Provisional of the Episcopal Diocese of Olympia, the Most Rev. Mellissa Skelton.

A Holy Week message

Greetings people of the Diocese of Olympia. I speak to you today from the traditional and hereditary lands of the Duwamish people.

I don’t enjoy the world of punning, making puns very much. But while I was out for a walk the other day, I thought of a pun on Holy Week that I thought was good that I want to tell you about. Holy Week is also wholly week. Holy Week is also wholly week.

What do I mean by this? During Holy Week, you and I get to walk in the path of the one sent by God to live our lives wholly. That is, completely, fully, all in all, the heights, the depths, the strange in between times, everything.

On Palm Sunday, part of what we get to do is to walk in the steps of Jesus’ triumphal entry into Jerusalem with a kind of giddiness.

On Maundy Thursday, we get to sit at table with Jesus and his friends in an intimate meal and engage in an equally intimate foot washing. That same night, we get to watch in fear and helplessness as Jesus is arrested as a part of a betrayal by one of his own.

On Good Friday, we get to witness Jesus’ public execution on a cross and, as a part of this, face our own mortality.

Then finally, on Holy Saturday, we get to wait quietly in between times, not knowing or understanding what’s about to happen next.

Holy Week is our way of experiencing a God whose humanity is wholly reflective of our humanity. It’s also a chance for us to visit and better understand some painful moments in our own lives, past, present, and yet to come. Painful moments that we often just put to the side.

I invite you, I urge you, to walk with Jesus completely, wholly during Holy Week. For His path is the path of our own humanity. His path is the path of life.

—The Most Rev. Mellissa Skelton

The Most Reverend Melissa Skelton

The Most Reverend Melissa Skelton is the Bishop Provisional in the Episcopal Diocese of Olympia. The diocese voted to place itself under the authority of Bishop Skelton at the Diocese of Olympia’s 2022 Diocesan Convention.

Bishop Skelton has deep ties to the Diocese of Olympia, previously serving as the rector of St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in Seattle and as the Canon for Congregational Development and Leadership for the Diocese of Olympia. During this time, she developed and launched the College for Congregational Development, which continues to this day and is currently hosted by eight dioceses across the Episcopal Church.

In 2013, Bishop Skelton was elected 9th Bishop of the Diocese of New Westminster [Vancouver], The Anglican Church of Canada. In 2018, she was elected Metropolitan of the Ecclesiastical Province of British Columbia and Yukon, making her the first woman in the Anglican Church of Canada to hold the position of Archbishop.

Before her time in the Diocese of Olympia, Bishop Skelton served as rector of Trinity Episcopal Church in Castine, Maine, while also serving as the Executive Director of a land trust. Prior to this, she was Vice President for Consumer Products and Community Engagement at Tom’s of Maine, Vice President for Administration at The General Theological Seminary, and Brand Manager at The Proctor & Gamble Company. While at General Seminary, she served as the Director of the College for Bishops.

Bishop Skelton holds a Master of Arts in English from the University of South Carolina, a Masters of Business Administration from the University of Chicago, and a Master if Divinity from Virginia Theological Seminary. Additionally, she completed a certificate in Organization Development at the NTL Institute for Applied Behavioral Science. After retiring from the Anglican Church of Canada, Bishop Skelton returned to the Diocese of Olympia to serve as a Bishop Assisting. She is married to the Rev. Eric Stroo, a mental health counselor and a deacon in the Episcopal Church. Between them they have three children and five grandchildren.

Church of the Redeemer

Church of the Redeemer: Worshiping God, living in community, and reaching out to the world around us. We are an Episcopal Church serving north King County and south Snohomish County. We welcome you be with us as we walk the way of Jesus.

Church of the Redeemer is at 6220 Northeast 181st Street in Kenmore, Washington. We are a short distance north of Bothell Way, near the Burke-Gilman Trail. The entrance looks like a gravel driveway. The campus is larger on the inside than it is on the outside. And we managed to hide a large building on the side of a hill that is not easily seen from the street.

The Episcopal Church welcomes you.

April 4, 2023

The 2nd Sunday after Pentecost (Year A), June 7, 2026. Services at 8:00 am (no music) and 10:30 (music).