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.
Computer scientist and St. Bart’s parishioner Clay Williams offers insights into how Artificial Intelligence (AI) works and the challenges it presents around consciousness, morality, and spirituality. Please post your questions in the comments section on Facebook or YouTube, or email the Reverend Peter Thompson at
February 2
Yale Divinity School and Institute of Sacred Music Professor Melanie Ross on the connection between liturgy and everyday life
February 9
Author and academic Isaac Sharp on the changing landscape of American evangelicalism
Watch or listen to The Forum from previous weeks below.
Karuna Mantena, Professor of Political Science at Columbia University, discusses Mahatma Gandhi's influence on the thinking of Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the connection they both perceived between social change and...
The Right Reverend Mark D. W. Edington, Bishop-in-Charge of the Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe, speaks about the presence of the Episcopal Church outside of the United States.
Rabbi Mychal Springer, ACPE, BCC, Manager of Clinical Pastoral Education at NY-Presbyterian Hospital, explains how hospital chaplains are educated and trained.
Robert Klitzman, Professor of Psychiatry and Director of the Masters of Bioethics Program at Columbia University Medical Center, discusses the role that spirituality can play in medical care.
Liz Blackler, MBE, LCSW, Program Manager for the Ethics Committee at Memorial Sloan Kettering, looks at the ethical issues that can arise at the end of a human life.
Peter DeMenocal, President and Director of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, discusses efforts currently being made to better understand the mysteries of the ocean and the role that ocean-related solutions can play in the fight against...
Julian Wamble, Assistant Professor of Political Science at George Washington University, discusses the role that the Black electorate plays in American elections.
Nearly two decades after its initial publication, parishioner Steve Ross discusses his graphic novel Marked, a subversive, award winning and genre-defying comic based on the Gospel according to Mark.
The Clergy of St. Bart’s answer your questions about . . . absolutely anything.
The Reverend Peter Thompson presents an overview of the Revised Common Lectionary, the system of assigned readings from the Bible that is used at St. Bart’s and throughout the English-speaking world.
On the day her new book, Living Well: Inspired by the Story behind the Bible, is released, Starr Tomczak reflects on how the Bible can help us make sense of our own lives.
