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.

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.
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.
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.
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.
Values, Vision, and Belonging: How to Reckon with the Climate Emergency Karenna Gore, the Founder and Executive Director of the Center for Earth Ethics at Union Theological Seminary, returns to St. Bart's to discuss the ongoing climate...
4/3 A Rabbi and A Priest in Conversation As Easter and Passover both approach, The Reverend Meredith Ward speaks with Rabbi Sarah Berman, Director of Adult Education at Central Synagogue, about the connections between Christianity and Judaism...
Donald Romanik, St. Bart's parishioner, President of The Episcopal Church Foundation and author of Money Legacies, calls us to recognize and reconsider the ways in which we were taught to think about money as children...
David Banks, in his first few months as chancellor, shares his priorities for NYC Schools.
Whether secular or spiritual, simple or spectacular, remixed or traditional, rituals are powerful tools for deepening the experience of life. And yet they’re widely misunderstood and vastly underutilized, even in our religious institutions...
3/8 Special Edition of The Forum Tuesday, March 8, 6:00 PM War in Ukraine: Understanding the Religious Dimension Aristotle Papanikolaou and George Demacopoulos, Co-Directors of the Orthodox Studies Center at Fordham University, discuss the...
Professor Aristotle Papanikolaou, Professor of Theology and Co-Director of the Orthodox Studies Center at Fordham University, discusses the religious background for the current conflict in Ukraine and shares his perspective on how Christians are...
Brother Curtis Almquist of the Society of St. John the Evangelist introduces the season of Lent, paying particular attention to the practice of fasting and what it might mean to fast in this day and age.
LOVE BADE ME WELCOME: A CLOSE READING OF GEORGE HERBERT'S LOVE (III) George Herbert’s Love (III), with its moving depiction of a generous and forgiving Love, is one of the most cherished poems in the Anglican tradition. Julie...
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...