Wake Up Grateful: The Transformative Practice of Taking Nothing for Granted
On Thanksgiving Day weekend, author Kristi Nelson helps us explore how we can better appreciate each moment as a precious gift.
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.
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Sunday, December 3: The Spectacular
Author Fiona Davis delves into the history of the Radio City Rockettes and their famous Christmas Spectacular, now in its ninetieth year, as she introduces her novel The Spectacular.
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Upcoming Forums
December 10: With Sighs Too Deep for Words: Grace and Depression
The Right Reverend A. Robert Hirschfeld, Bishop of New Hampshire, reflects on the current mental health crisis and how the Christian faith can provide support to those who are struggling.
December 17: The Sermon That Hit the Church Like a Thunderclap: Leighton Parks’s 1923 Observations on the Virgin Birth Doctrine
Percy Preston, Jr., Archivist and Honorary Warden of St. Bart's, marks the centenary of a momentous and highly controversial sermon that was featured on the front page of The New York Times.
Watch or listen to The Forum from previous weeks below.
Featured
Brothers in Beloved Community: The Friendship of Thich Nhat Hanh and Martin Luther King Jr.
01.16.22 | Articles | The Forum
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...
Picturing Creation: Art, Faith, and Science in 19th Century American Painting
01.09.22 | Articles | The Forum
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
01.02.22 | Articles | The Forum
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.
Magnificat: The Song of Mary Through the Centuries
12.19.21 | Articles | The Forum
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
12.12.21 | Articles | The Forum
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...
Exploring Dimensions of Spirituality and Dementia
12.05.21 | Articles | The Forum
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...
Radical Welcome 2021: Updating a Classic, Recommitting to the Dream
11.21.21 | Articles | The Forum
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...
Seeking Everyday Faith with Thomas Merton
11.14.21 | Articles | The Forum
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...
Dona Eis Requiem: Maurice Duruflé’s Masterpiece and the Act of Remembering the Dead
11.07.21 | Articles | The Forum
Directly before a liturgical performance of Duruflé’s Requiem by St. Bartholomew’s Choir, Paul Machlin, Arnold Bernhard Professor of Arts and Humanities Emeritus at Colby College, examines the much beloved work, its connection...
Día de los Muertos
10.31.21 | Articles | The Forum
Claudio Lomnitz, Professor of Anthropology at Columbia University and author of Death and The Idea of Mexico, provides an overview of the beloved Mexican tradition.