Make a Joyful Noise: The Power of Music in Difficult Times
Ethnomusicologist and St. Bart's parishioner Margaret Farrell reflects on how music can lift spirits in difficult times.
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.
The Reverend Peter Thompson fact checks quotations purported to derive from famous Christian figures, including St. Francis of Assisi, St. Teresa of Avila, Martin Luther, and John Wesley. Please post your questions in the comments section on Facebook or YouTube, or email the Reverend Peter Thompson at
Author Nikkya Hargrove discusses her memoir about her unconventional journey to motherhood.
Attorney Jeffrey Grant, founder of White Collar Support Group, explains how expunging criminal records can benefit those who have already served their sentences and the society-at-large.
Watch or listen to The Forum from previous weeks below.
Ethnomusicologist and St. Bart's parishioner Margaret Farrell reflects on how music can lift spirits in difficult times.
RADICAL WELCOME, RADICAL WORSHIP: REIMAGINING LITURGY IN THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH The newest member of our clergy staff, the Reverend Zack Nyein, Senior Associate Rector, looks at the many ways in which worship is being reimagined within...
Absalom Jones, America’s First Black Priest: What does it mean to tell his story? The Reverend Dr. Mark Bozzuti-Jones, Director of Spiritual Formation at Trinity Retreat Center in West Cornwall, Connecticut and a former member of the...
Dr. Rob Radtke, president of Episcopal Relief and Development and a St. Bart's parishioner, reflects on two years of responding to an historic pandemic.
Two Friends, Two Prophets: Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel and Martin Luther King, Jr. We continue our look at The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s interfaith partnerships with Susannah Heschel, the Eli M. Black Distinguished Professor...
As we celebrate The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday, The Right Reverend Marc Andrus, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of California, offers an inside look at King's friendship with the Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh. Bishop Andrus...
Art, faith, and science converge in the landscape paintings of 19th-century American artists. The Reverend Meredith Ward explores how artists sought to educate and morally elevate their audience with their artistic skill, until, at a certain...
Reflection, Renewal, and New Year's Resolutions Dr. Patricia Tidwell, PhD, LCSW, a psychotherapist and St. Bart's parishioner, returns to The Forum to talk about healthy ways of approaching a New Year.
For over a thousand years, the song that a pregnant Mary sings while visiting her relative Elizabeth has played a central role in Christian liturgy. Knox Sutterfield, Director of the Florilegium Chamber Choir on the Upper West Side and the...
An Advent Reflection on the Logos Hymn The Logos Hymn in the Gospel of John professes Jesus to be the Divine Word who created the world and in time came into it as the light shines in the darkness. Why did the Divine Word become incarnate and...
Sunday, December 5, 2021 Exploring Dimensions of Spirituality and Dementia The Reverend Lynn Casteel Harper, the Minister of Older Adults at The Riverside Church and author of On Vanishing: Mortality, Dementia, and What It Means to...