Skelton was ordained deacon in 1991 and priest in 1993. She served as associate priest at
Trinity Church,
New York City from 1993 to 1994; associate priest at St Andrew's Church in
Trenton, New Jersey between 1994 and 1996; vice president for administration at the
General Theological Seminary from 1993 to 1997; vice president of Brand and Systems Development at
Tom's of Maine from 1997 until 2001; congregational development consultant for the Diocese of Maine between 2002 and 2004; and rector of Trinity Church in
Castine, Maine from 2002 to 2005. She then was rector at St. Paul's Episcopal Church,
Seattle, Washington from 2005 to 2014, and also canon for Congregational Development and Leadership – Diocese of Olympia, Seattle, Washington from 2008 to 2014. As canon, Skelton developed a congregational development program that adopts the gather–transform–send model, and this program was established as the core curriculum for the College for Congregational Development in the
Episcopal Diocese of Olympia, the college that she founded during her nine-year incumbency at St. Paul's. In mid-2016 the Episcopal Diocese of Chicago added the College for Congregational Development to its program roster. As of May 2018, the School was active in four Episcopal church dioceses in the United States and one other diocese in Canada, the Diocese of Ottawa.
Episcopal ministry On November 30, 2013, Skelton was elected the 9th Bishop of the
Anglican Diocese of New Westminster: it was on the third ballot and by a substantial majority at an electoral synod held at
Christ Church Cathedral, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. She was consecrated and installed in Vancouver on St. David's Day, March 1, 2014. The consecration event was a three-hour liturgy that took place in different locations, beginning at the Vancouver Convention Centre, followed by a procession through downtown Vancouver and then at the procession's destination, Christ Church Cathedral. Skelton was the first woman, the first American and the first person to have had a career outside of the church prior to ordination to be Bishop of the Diocese of New Westminster. April 27, 2018, Skelton was named episcopal visitor to the North American province of the
Society of Catholic Priests, which at the time was predominantly a group within the Episcopal Church in the United States. Skelton returned to the Diocese of Olympia as an assisting bishop and in 2023 began serving as bishop provisional following the resignation of
Gregory Rickel and until the installation of
Philip N. LaBelle. ==Personal life==