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, August 24, 2025 Gendered Islamophobia: Deconstructing 30 Rights of Muslim Women
Dr. Daisy Khan, Founder and Executive Director of Women’s Islamic Initiative in Spirituality & Equality (WISE), discusses how Muslim women’s lives can be improved by connecting them to beliefs that affirm human dignity and gender equality at the core of the Islamic faith.Please post your questions in the comments section on Facebook or YouTube, or email the Reverend Meredith Ward at
Upcoming Speakers at The Forum
August 31 Conversation with Clergy: What Did You Do This Summer?
The Forum is on hiatus for Labor Day weekend. In its place, join the clergy for an in person conversation about summer vacations and the fall season ahead.
September 7 Forum with Former Rector Buddy Stallings
The Reverend Buddy Stallings reflects on the decade since he retired as Rector of St. Bart’s and the state of the world today.
Watch or listen to The Forum from previous weeks below.
In an age of information overload and political polarization, how do we discern what truly serves the common good? CUNY Law professor and St. Bart’s parishioner Ally Coll explores the promises and pitfalls of both evidence-based and...
The Reverend Canon Stephanie Spellers, Assisting Priest, draws on the experiences of those at the Church’s periphery in her effort to chart a future for faith itself.
Karla Cornejo Villavicencio, author of The Undocumented Americans, reads from her new novel Catalina and reflects on what immigrants are experiencing in the present American moment.
The clergy of St. James’s Piccadilly, our partner parish in London, talk with the clergy of St. Bart’s about their remarkable community and their link with St. Bart’s.
Flora Ferrara, Keith Reinhard, and the Reverend Meredith Ward speak about recovering from loss and the grief group held under the auspices of St. Bart’s.
Bob Kiely, Ray Vandenberg, and The Reverend Meredith Ward, co-leaders of the St. Bart’s retirement group, discuss retirement as a major life transition.
Julie Ross, Executive Director of Parenting Horizons and author of How to Hug a Porcupine: Negotiating the Prickly Points of the Tween Years, draws on over three decades of experience working with children and families to offer insights about the...