She was recognized for her outstanding contribution to Anglican-Old Catholic relations, and to the ecumenical movement more widely, as a theologian and historian.
Berlis, an Old Catholic priest and ecumenical theologian, was one of the first women ordained in the Old Catholic Churches of the Union of Utrecht, and has been central to Old Catholic ecumenism over the last 30 years, and especially to Anglican-Old Catholic relations.
After study at Bonn and Utrecht universities, Berlis worked as a scientific assistant at Bonn until 2000, and then as lecturer in Practical Theology at Utrecht, holding this position jointly for some years with a postdoctoral fellowship in modern Church History at the Roman Catholic Faculty of Theology at Tilburg University. From 2006-2009 she was endowed professor for ancient Catholic Church Structures, including the History and Doctrine of the Old Catholic Churches at Utrecht University.
In 2009 she was appointed to the chair in the History of Old Catholicism and General Church History at Bern University, also acting as vice dean and head of the Department for Old Catholic Theology until 2017. From 2018-2020 she was dean of the Faculty of Theology at Bern.
Berlis was president of the European Society of Women in Theological Research in 2007-11, and of the Swiss Society for Theology in 2014-17. She is editor-in-chief of the Old Catholic academic journal Internationale Kirchliche Zeitschrift. Her research and publications focus particularly on reform movements in the Western church, Ultramontanism, Old Catholic ecumenism, and theology and gender studies.
The Lambeth Cross is awarded to those who have made an outstanding contribution to ecumenical work in support of the Church of England or to those who have made exceptional contributions to relations between the faiths.