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 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 to God’s presence and help us show up in courageous ways. Please post your questions in the comments section on Facebook or YouTube, or email the Reverend Peter Thompson at
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.
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.
William Stell, Faculty Fellow at New York University and author of the upcoming book Born Again Queer, uncovers the hidden history of gay evangelicals and the opposition they faced within the evangelical movement.
Dr. Rob Radtke, president of Episcopal Relief and Development and a St. Bart's parishioner, reflects on two years of responding to an historic pandemic.
Two Friends, Two Prophets: Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel and Martin Luther King, Jr. We continue our look at The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.’s interfaith partnerships with Susannah Heschel, the Eli M. Black Distinguished Professor...
As we celebrate The Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday, The Right Reverend Marc Andrus, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of California, offers an inside look at King's friendship with the Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh. Bishop Andrus...
Art, faith, and science converge in the landscape paintings of 19th-century American artists. The Reverend Meredith Ward explores how artists sought to educate and morally elevate their audience with their artistic skill, until, at a certain...
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...
