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...
Finding God’s Hope in the Midst of Fear, Loss, and COVID-19, with Jan Holton, Associate Professor of the Practice of Pastoral Theology and Care, Duke University. Click the filmstrip image to view the recorded Forum.
“Anxiety and Isolation in the Age of COVID-19: What can we do?” Mary Ragan, PhD, LCSW, Executive Director of the Psychotherapy and Spirituality Institute, discusses how to navigate daily life in this strange, new time in which we find...
Matters of Life and Death: Religion, Politics and the Contentious Moral Debates of Our TimeAt the intersection of religion and politics, few topics are as contentious as those that bookend a life—from abortion and stem cells to the death...
Christianity, the Color Line, and Contemporary AmericaAmerican Christians are as cognizant as ever of the pervasiveness of racial injustice, yet racial divisions persist, both within and outside of the Church. How do race, religion and politics...
God in the White House: Faith and the PresidencyThough the Constitution attempts to draw some boundaries between religion and the government, religion clearly has influenced— and continues to influence—our elected officials, including...
The Priest as Politician: Social Engagement as a ClergypersonOver a nearly three decade long career, our Rector, Bishop Dean Wolfe, has spoken out on a number of different political issues. How has he thought about tricky political dilemmas and...
Religion is Always in the Room: Liz Kineke on Religion, Politics, and UnderstandingLiz Kineke served for over fourteen years as the producer of CBS’ award-winning Religion and Culture series. As she revisits her transition to religion...
A More Beautiful and Terrible History: The Uses and Misuses of Civil Rights HistoryWe think we know the story of the Civil Rights Movement: the United States was segregated; Martin Luther King, Jr. fixed it through love and nonviolence; he...
The Not-So-Separation of Church and State: Emma Green on the Intersection of Religion and PoliticsEmma Green, a staff writer at the Atlantic and one of the best journalists working at the intersection of these two hot-button issues, reflects with...
Fresh, clean water in sufficient quantity for daily living is transforming in many parts of the world. Nowhere is this more true than in Africa. Eleven years ago the Parish of St. Bartholomew’s Church initiated the funding for a water...
