Sanctuary
Eugene Nam, Chief Counsel of the Interfaith Center of New York, discusses the ongoing challenges faced by immigrant communities, as well as how we can help.

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.
Dr. Clay Williams, a St. Bart’s parishioner who completed his dissertation on artificial intelligence, contemplates the impact that AI is making on our efforts to understand ourselves.
The Reverend Dr. Ayla Lepine, Associate Rector of St. James’s Piccadilly, introduces her new book which lies at the intersection of feminism, art, and theology.
September 27 Christian Nationalism in the UK
The Reverend Lucy Winkett, Rector of St. James’s Piccadilly, looks at Christian nationalism within the United Kingdom, contending that it represents both a political problem and a theological one.
October 4 Flood
Filmmaker Katy Scoggin tells a very personal story about dialogue across difference ahead of a screening of her new documentary.
October 11 Eleanor Roosevelt’s Nightly Prayer: The Religious Life of the First Lady of the World
Author Donn Mitchell examines the ways in which Eleanor Roosevelt’s faith informed her work and her life.
October 25 Caleb Maglaya Galaraga, journalist, The Living Church
November 1 Paul, Democracy, and the Corinthians
Larry Welborn, Professor Emeritus at Fordham University, highlights democratic impulses within the early Church and the New Testament.
Watch or listen to The Forum from previous weeks below.
Eugene Nam, Chief Counsel of the Interfaith Center of New York, discusses the ongoing challenges faced by immigrant communities, as well as how we can help.
Decolonizing Christianity The Reverend Dr. Miguel de la Torre, Professor of Social Ethics and Latinx Studies at Iliff School of Theology in Denver, explains why it is important to de-couple Christianity and whiteness. Professor de la...
The Reverend Canon Stephanie Spellers, Canon to the Presiding Bishop for Evangelism, Reconciliation, and Creation, and a frequent guest of St. Bart’s, reflects on the COVID-19 pandemic, a racial reckoning, and the immense transformations...
What can recent scientific thinking about space and time teach us about what we commonly call “the afterlife”? Popular writer, retreat leader, and Episcopal priest Barbara Cawthorne Crafton offers a timely meditation for the Second...
The Clergy of St. Bart’s reflect on what it means to say, “Alleluia! Christ is risen!” after a year of COVID-1
As we mark Palm Sunday, Yale faculty member Felicity Harley-McGowan looks at artistic depictions of Jesus’ crucifixion in early Christianity.
Author and scholar Diana Butler Bass discusses her new book Freeing Jesus: Rediscovering Jesus as Friend, Teacher, Savior, Lord, Way and Presence about the many dimensions of Jesus.
Duke professor Norman Wirzba examines the relationship between what we eat and what we believe. Norman Wirzba is Gilbert T. Rowe Distinguished Professor of Christian Theology and Senior Fellow at the Kenan Institute of Ethics at Duke...
Lauren R. Kerby, who has studied white evangelicals’ relationship with Washington, DC, sheds light on the capitol insurrection we witnessed in January. Dr. Kerby is a lecturer at Harvard Divinity School and the author of Saving History: How...
The Reverend Peter Thompson and Dr. Paolo Bordignon talk with Dr. David Hurd, one of the leading musicians in the Episcopal Church, about his career and compositional work. Dr. Hurd is Organist and Music Director at The Church of St. Mary the...
Renowned historian Stephanie Coontz (https://www.stephaniecoontz.com/) answers questions on how romantic partnerships and family structures continue to evolve. Stephanie Coontz is Professor of History and Family Studies at The Evergreen...