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...
Our rector, Bishop Dean Wolfe, explores goals, visions and dreams for St. Bart’s in this new year.
Our Advent Forum series concludes with guided prayer, reflection, and small group time. St. Bart's clergy led us in exploring how our Advent Sunday readings offer a path to live the way of love as individuals, as families and friends, as a...
Our Advent Forum series continues with guided prayer, reflection, and small group time. St. Bart's clergy lead us in exploring how our Advent Sunday readings offer a path to live the way of love as individuals, as families and friends, as a...
Journeying the Way of LoveSt. Bart’s clergy offers a 4-week Advent series of guided prayer, reflection, and small group time. Together we explore how our Advent Sunday readings offer a path to live the way of love as individuals, as...
We were delighted to welcome as our special Forum guest the Reverend Buddy Stallings, Twelfth Rector of St. Bartholomew's Church, who retired in May, 2015. Buddy, in his inimitable way, shared his thoughts on post-retirement life, and life...
“The Church and the Ballot Box,” Part 3 of 3: What (Just) Happened?In this final session, we considered the results of the midterm elections in light of what we will have learned. Led by Dr. Patrick Hornbeck, St. Bart’s...
“The Church and the Ballot Box,” Part 2 of 3: An interactive discussion about the relationship between faith and our national politics in the current moment. Led by Dr. Patrick Hornbeck, St. Bart’s parishioner, popular and...
“The Church and the Ballot Box,” Part 1 of 3: Models and Rules of EngagementView slide presentation here In this first session, we searched church history to identify a series of ways in which the church has engaged with political...
Today’s guest speaker was Alan Yarborough, Communication Coordinator and Office Manager for The Episcopal Church’s Office of Government Relations (OGR), and former young adult missionary in Haiti. Alan shared how the OGR lifts up the...
Today’s Forum featured a conversation with an authentic and groundbreaking leader of the church, The Very Reverend Kelly Brown Douglas, inaugural Dean of Episcopal Divinity School at Union Theological Seminary; and Professor of...
