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, January 25, 2026
The Wonder Church of My Research Laboratory (Great Hall)
Dr. James Ferrara, Ward-Coleman Chair in Cancer Medicine at Mt. Sinai School of Medicine and longtime member of St. Bart’s, speaks about his vocation as a physician-scientist.
Upcoming Speakers at The Forum
February 1: Edward Button of the acclaimed British vocal group The King's Singers reflects on his career in music. February 8: Annual Meeting of the Parish February 15: Melanie Holcomb, Ph.D., Curator, Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Nancy Thebaut, Ph.D., Associate Professor of the History of Art, University of Oxford February 22: Michael Zuch, LCSW, Clinical Social Worker and Ph.D. student at Rutgers University School of Social Work
Watch or listen to The Forum from previous weeks below.
The Reverend Gabby Cudjoe Wilkes, D.Min., and the Reverend Andrew Wilkes, Ph.D., Co-Pastors of Double Love Experience Church in Brooklyn, lead a conversation on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s critique of the “triple evils” of...
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...
The Reverend Canon Stephanie Spellers, Canon to the Presiding Bishop of The Episcopal Church and Assisting Priest at St. Bart’s, who wrote Radical Welcome: Embracing God, the Other, and the Spirit of Transformation fifteen years ago, takes...
Author Sophfronia Scott shares her deep dive into the private journals of the famous Trappist monk, and the connection she found in his pages that led to her book The Seeker and the Monk: Everyday Conversations with Thomas...
Directly before a liturgical performance of Duruflé’s Requiem by St. Bartholomew’s Choir, Paul Machlin, Arnold Bernhard Professor of Arts and Humanities Emeritus at Colby College, examines the much beloved work, its connection...
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.
Christianity’s Complicated Origins: Implications for Christian-Jewish Relations Today
Jesus himself was Jewish, as were his disciples and the earliest Christians, and yet Christians have often downplayed their Jewish origins. Mary C...
As we recognize St. Luke’s Day and honor all healthcare providers, St. Bart’s members who work in the healthcare field offer their reflections on the past eighteen months and what comes next. (As this session of the Forum is...