Church Tomorrow?: What Nones and Dones Teach Us About the Future of Faith
The Reverend Canon Stephanie Spellers, Assisting Priest, draws on the experiences of those at the Church’s periphery in her effort to chart a future for faith itself.
Every Sunday at 10 am
Each week, guest speakers from a variety of backgrounds and disciplines join the Reverend Peter Thompson and other St. Bart's clergy for deep and insightful conversations about topics that matter to our lives as responsible citizens and people of faith. Speakers in recent years have included winners of the Tony Award, the Emmy Award, the MacArthur Fellowship, and the Pulitzer Prize, professors from prominent universities like Yale, Harvard, Princeton, and Columbia, and journalists from New York, The New Yorker, and The Atlantic.
Sunday, June 1, 2025
The Renewal of the Church for the Healing of the World: Why the Story of Church Decline is Wrong
The Right Reverend Matthew F. Heyd, Bishop of New York, offers his thoughts on the renewal that is already happening within the Church.
Upcoming Speakers at The Forum
June 8
A Personal Story of Palestine
The Reverend Canon Leyla King, a Palestinian American priest and the author of the forthcoming memoir Daughters of Palestine, provides a way in to the conversation about the current realities in the Holy Land through the lens of her family’s experiences as Palestinian Christians.
June 15 Jon Key, author of Black, Queer & Untold, on art, sexuality, and race
June 22 Jacqueline Goldsby, Professor of African-American Studies and English at Yale University, and Charles Cuykendall Carter, Assistant Curator at New York Public Library, on James Baldwin
June 29 The Reverend Mihee Kim-Kort, co-pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Annapolis, Maryland, on queerness and faith
Watch or listen to The Forum from previous weeks below.
Featured
Jesus’ Ministry and the Early Church - Dean Wolfe
08.11.19 | Articles | The Forum
Luke-Acts as Sweeping Epic: Jesus’ Ministry and the Early Church Many churchgoers are not aware that both the Gospel according to Luke and the Acts of the Apostles were written by the same author, who likely intended them to be read...
Ethics of the Sermon on the Mount - Kris Lewis-Theerman
08.04.19 | Articles | The Forum
Blessed Are You: The Ethics of the Sermon on the Mount In the Gospel of Matthew, most of Jesus’ ethical teaching is concentrated in chapters 5 through 7, which compromise what is often called the “Sermon on the Mount.” The...
Everything I Need to Know about Faith I Learned from Ephesians - Stephanie Spellers
07.28.19 | Articles | The Forum
Reading the Same Story Two Ways - Clayton Crawley
07.21.19 | Articles | The Forum
The Sacrifice of Isaac: Reading the Same Story Two WaysThe sacrifice of Isaac (Genesis 22:1–19) is one of the most striking stories in all of Scripture and has inspired a great deal of theological and philosophical thinking, including Soren...
Sacred Scripture in Changing Times - Joel Baden
07.07.19 | Articles | The Forum
How can an ancient library of books speak to modern challenges and concerns? Is the Bible still relevant in a twenty-first century world? Join Associate Rector for Formation & Liturgy Peter Thompson for a viewing of a talk by Yale Divinity...
The Life and Ministry of an AIDS Chaplain - The Reverend Canon Jerry Anderson
06.30.19 | Articles | The Forum
Ordained by Angels: The Life and Ministry of an AIDS ChaplainThe Reverend Canon Jerry Anderson was an openly gay Episcopal priest serving in Washington, DC when the AIDS crisis struck in the early 1980s. As his partner and countless friends died...
Beyond the Binary - Olive Daddi and Nicole Teyuca
06.23.19 | Articles | The Forum
Beyond the Binary: Understanding Trans and Gender Nonconforming Identities There have been dramatic advances in LGBTQ+ equality over the past few decades, but not all LGBTQ+ people have experienced that progress to the same extent. Trans and...
Stonewall after 50 Years - Jason Baumann
06.16.19 | Articles | The Forum
Love and Resistance—Stonewall After 50 YearsThe 2019 World Pride celebration in New York City marks the fiftieth anniversary of the Stonewall riots, the demonstrations in Greenwich Village that paved the way for more recent advances in...
Wellspring: An Artist's Conversation with Sukey Bryan
06.09.19 | Articles | The Forum
On the final day of the Wellspring installation at St. Bart’s, its creator, Sukey Bryan, discusses the origins of the water-focused work, her continued commitment to artistically exploring the natural world, and the role art can play in the...
St. Bart’s and the Rooftop of the Waldorf-Astoria: Leslie Day
06.02.19 | Articles | The Forum
St. Bart’s and the Rooftop of the Waldorf-Astoria: Leslie Day Before it closed for renovations in March 2017, the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel boasted an impressive rooftop garden that provided food for the hotel’s daily culinary offerings...