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...
Four members of the St. Bart's community exploring a possible call to ordained ministry (Kate DiTullio, Nathan Peace, Bailey Regan, and Teagan Sage) reflect on how they hear the Spirit's call.
Monique Rainford, Assistant Professor of Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences at Yale School of Medicine and author of Pregnant While Black, commemorates Mother’s Day by reflecting on how we as a society can better protect...
Christopher Evans, Professor of History of Christianity and Methodist Studies at Boston University, discusses the late 19th and early 20th century movement of American Christianity commonly called the Social Gospel and how it continues to animate...
On the occasion of our annual bishop’s visitation, the Right Reverend Allen Shin reflects on the mission of the Church as it faces the challenges and opportunities of the present moment.
Candida Moss, the Cadbury Professor of Theology at the University of Birmingham (UK), discusses her new book about the role of enslaved people in the making of Christianity and its scriptures.
Yale choral conducting professors Jeffrey Douma and Felicia Barber provide an overview of Benjamin Britten’s highly acclaimed War Requiem, written as a response to World War II. The Yale Camerata, Yale Glee Club, and Yale...
Many Episcopalians are surprised to learn that their Church offers personal confession. The Rt. Rev. Andrew St. John, Bishop-in-Residence at St. Thomas Fifth Avenue, provides an overview of the rite as it is used within our own tradition.
Catherine Conybeare, Leslie Clark Professor in the Humanities at Bryn Mawr College, reviews the Confessions of St. Augustine of Hippo, exploring the importance of questions for Augustine's thought.