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, February 22, 2026
U.S Immigration Enforcement and Child Abuse
Over the past two decades, and especially in recent months, escalating use of federal immigration enforcement tactics has raised concerns about the impacts on immigrant children and their families. Michael Zuch, licensed clinical social worker and a doctoral student at Rutgers University, examines how these federal actions affect children and explores the question of whether they can be considered a form of child abuse.
Upcoming at The Forum
Sunday, February 29
The State of the Clergy
In a changing Church and a challenging world, how are our clergy holding up? The Reverend Dr. Craig Barnes, President Emeritus of Princeton Theological Seminary and Director of the Theologies for Pastoral Ministry project, outlines findings from recent research.
Watch or listen to The Forum from previous weeks below.
Co-curators Melanie Holcomb and Nancy Thebaut discuss how concepts of gender, sexuality, and love are portrayed in medieval art through this exhibition currently on view at The Cloisters at The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The Reverend Keith Anderson, author of The Digital Cathedral: Networked Ministry in a Wireless World, talks with Professor J. Patrick Hornbeck II of Fordham University about the future of the Church beyond 2020.
Indigenous People, The Doctrine of Discovery, and the Episcopal Church: On the eve of Indigenous Peoples’ Day, The Episcopal Church’s Indigenous Missioner, The Reverend Dr. Bradley Hauff, examines the Church’s problematic...
David Clough, Professor of Theological Ethics at the University of Chester (UK) and the co-founder of https://www.becreaturekind.org/, outlines the responsibilities Christians have to protect and care for non-human animals.
Cole Arthur Riley, the creator of the Instagram account @blackliturgies, shares some of her beautiful prayers and speaks to the importance of amplifying Black voices in the liturgical life of the Church. https://www.instagram.com/blackliturgies/
After an initial overview of COVID-19 in June, Dr. Jamie Ferrara and Dr. Jim Marion return to discuss progress being made towards a vaccine. Dr. Ferrara and Dr. Marion suggest reviewing this article in Foreign Policy for background on the topic.
On Labor Day weekend, the Reverend John Wirenius, Deacon of St. Bart's and the Chair of the New York State Public Employment Relations Board, discusses the importance of securing labor rights as part of our effort to build a just society. Read a...
As we celebrate the 100th anniversary of the ratification of 19th amendment, Lee Ann Banaszak, Professor of Political Science and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the Pennsylvania State University, reflects on the past, present...
Lauren Smith, a PhD student in Religious Studies at Brown University, examines the close connections between the experience of reading great literature and the experience of conversion. Please email your questions for our speaker to the...
Robert P. Jones (CEO and founder of the Public Religion Research Institute) reflects on his new book, which outlines the long and unfortunate connection between white supremacy and Christianity in America.