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 15, 2025 Black, Queer, & Untold
Acclaimed designer and artist Jon Key, author of Black, Queer, & Untold, brings to light the lives and legacies of Black and Queer creatives from the 1800s to the present.
Please post your questions in the comments section on Facebook or YouTube, or email the Reverend Zack Nyein at
Upcoming Speakers at The Forum
June 22Born Again Queer: Evangelical Gay Activism and the Making of Antigay Christianity
William Stell, Faculty Fellow at New York University and author of the upcoming book Born Again Queer, uncovers the hidden history of gay evangelicals and the opposition they faced within the evangelical movement.
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.
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...
Claudio Lomnitz, Professor of Anthropology at Columbia University and author of Death and The Idea of Mexico, provides an overview of the beloved Mexican tradition.
The Reverend Dr. Randall Balmer, John Phillips Professor in Religion at Dartmouth College, discusses his new book about the intimate–and often unexamined–connections between religion and sports.
The Reverend Dr. Robert Willis, the recently retired Dean of Canterbury Cathedral in England, looks back at over two decades of distinguished service. During his time in Canterbury, Dean Willis not only hosted an important Lambeth Conference...
Akash Mehta, Editor-in-Chief of journalism start-up New York Focus, reflects on the fight for criminal justice reform, the implementation of a new climate law, and other issues facing our city and our state.
How did Jesus and the earliest Christians approach issues of economic justice? Miguel Escobar, Executive Director of Episcopal Divinity School at Union Theological Seminary, provides an overview based on his new book.
At this key moment in the life of The Episcopal Church, St. Bart’s parishioner Mary Kate Wold, CEO & President of the Church Pension Group, shares basic facts about our denomination and the clergy who serve it.
Dr. James Cone, the Medical Director of the World Trade Center Health Registry, shares insights from his work investigating the connections between 9/11 and physical and mental health.
Leaders from the Anglican Church in Ukraine and the Anglican Church in Poland join The Reverend Peter Thompson and The Reverend Zack Nyein virtually to discuss the ways in which they are responding to the ongoing war.