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...
John Cassel, Treasurer and Board Vice Chair, reviews the remarkable story of the Seraj Library Project’s efforts to bring libraries and library programs to Palestinian communities in the Occupied Territories. The Seraj Libraries provide...
The Reverend Kevin Van Hook II, the Executive Director of Episcopal Charities of New York, discusses the ways in which our Diocese is caring for migrants and others in need.
Architectural historian Kathleen Skolnik, who teaches at Roosevelt University in Chicago, pays homage to the prominent twentieth century muralist Hildreth Meière and discusses the works she created for Rockefeller Center, Temple Emanu-el...
The Reverend Jarel Robinson-Brown, Curate of St. Botolph-without-Aldgate in London, talks about why our body and God's body matter to our spiritual life and journey into wholeness.
The Reverend Canon Stephanie Spellers and the Reverend Zack Nyein reflect on the Episcopal Church's four day “festival for the Jesus movement” held recently in Baltimore.
Liz Reiner Platt, Director of the Law, Rights, and Religion Project at Columbia Law School, discusses current legal trends in religious liberty law, especially from a progressive perspective. Though “religious freedom” most commonly...
University of Michigan musicologist Mark Clague, author of the book O Say Can You Hear? A Cultural Biography of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” discusses Americans’ changing relationship with their national anthem.
The Right Reverend Deon Johnson, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Missouri, reflects on his experience as the first openly gay Black bishop in The Episcopal Church and the ways in which the Church is still working towards the full inclusion of...