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, December 7, 2025
Holy Waiting: Encountering Life's Beginnings and Endings in Advent
St. Bart’s parishioner Vivian Roston reflects on her work as both an OBGYN and end-of-life doula during the Advent season of beginnings and endings.
Upcoming Speakers at The Forum
December 14 My Friends Call Me Mrs: A Chat With a Single Mrs. Claus in the Era of the Trad Wife
Parishioner Ann Votaw talks about claiming the role of Mrs. Claus as a single woman in New York. She invites us to consider how feminist imagination, humor, and Christian community can reshape traditional narratives in this cultural moment.
Watch or listen to The Forum from previous weeks below.
As she launches her new book, Church Tomorrow?, the Reverend Canon Stephanie Spellers speaks again to some of the “nones and dones” she interviewed. A limited number of books will be available for sale through St. Bart's Bookstore.
Bob Kiely, Ray Vandenberg, and The Reverend Meredith Ward, co-leaders of the St. Bart’s retirement group, discuss retirement as a major life transition.
Julie Ross, Executive Director of Parenting Horizons and author of How to Hug a Porcupine: Negotiating the Prickly Points of the Tween Years, draws on over three decades of experience working with children and families to offer insights about the...
Celebrate eight years of transformative ministry and wish Dean and Ellen well as they embark on retirement in Dallas! Dean will speak at The Forum and preside and preach at all four services. A joyous party in honor of Dean and Ellen will be held...
Nathaniel Gumbs, Director of Chapel Music at Yale University, reviews organ music by Black composers, including some pieces he will play at the 11 am service.
Isaac Sharp, Visiting Assistant Professor at Union Theological Seminary and author of The Other Evangelicals, offers insight into contemporary evangelicalism and its effect on the larger religious landscape.
The evangelical understanding of “worship music” has shifted dramatically over the last 50 years. Melanie Ross, Associate Professor of Liturgical Studies at Yale Divinity School, highlights several key historical and theological...
Technical Difficulties: Sound for this video begins at the 20:30 mark. We apologize for the inconvenience. Computer scientist and St. Bart’s parishioner Clay Williams offers insights into how Artificial Intelligence (AI) works and the...
Karuna Mantena, Professor of Political Science at Columbia University, discusses Mahatma Gandhi's influence on the thinking of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the connection they both perceived between social change and...