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 Forum is on hiatus for Independence Day weekend. In its place, join the clergy of St. Bart's for an in-person conversation about what it means to love our country in times like these. A virtual version of the conversation will be held on Zoom after the 11 am service. If you can't join us in person, please register for the Zoom call below.
Please post your questions in the comments section on Facebook or YouTube, or email the Reverend Peter Thompson at
Ethnomusicologist and St. Bart's parishioner Margaret Farrell reflects on how music can lift spirits in difficult times.
Watch or listen to The Forum from previous weeks below.
The Reverend Dr. Mihee Kim-Kort, co-pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Annapolis, Maryland and author of Outside the Lines: How Embracing Queerness will Transform Your Faith, reflects on how practices of reading and listening might open us up...
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.
Malik Saafir, GreenFaith’s Arkansas Organizer and a long-time racial justice activist, will speak about these interconnections and how faith communities can make a difference. Please email your questions for our speaker to the Reverend...
J. Chester Johnson discusses his latest book, Damaged Heritage, the account of his discovery of his beloved grandfather’s participation in the worst race massacre in our country’s history; his meeting of Sheila L. Walker, a descendant...
Filmmaker Julian Marshall reflects on the passionate protests that erupted in the wake of George Floyd’s murder and the constructive steps we can take to move forward now.
Responding to COVID-19 Across the Anglican Communion Robert Radtke, President & CEO of Episcopal Relief and Development, discusses the steps his organization is taking to mitigate the effects of COVID-19 within the United States and around...
Adding to Your Theological Toolbox: Resources for Living with the Realities of Suffering and GriefThe Reverend Molly James, PhD offers guidance on how to cope with the painful episodes that we experience in our lives. James is a theologian...
David Blight, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Frederick Douglass: Prophet of Freedom and Director of the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance and Abolition at Yale, reflects on Frederick Douglass’ landmark Fourth...
Playwright Matthew Lopez talks about his award-winning Broadway play The Inheritance and how the struggles of the AIDS crisis remain relevant today. Click the red filmstrip icon to view the Forum video
