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.
Nathaniel Gumbs, Director of Chapel Music at Yale University, reviews organ music by Black composers, including some pieces he will play at the 11 am service. Please post your questions in the comments section on Facebook or YouTube, or email the Reverend Peter Thompson at
Watch or listen to The Forum from previous weeks below.
Isaac Sharp, Visiting Assistant Professor at Union Theological Seminary and author of The Other Evangelicals, offers insight into contemporary evangelicalism and its effect on the larger religious landscape.
“Faith and Science”Today we welcomed Dr. Jamie Ferrara, professor of Pediatrics and Oncological Sciences at Mt. Sinai Hospital, and Dr. Peter deMenocal, Dean of Science at Columbia University, who explored the living link between the...
“Welcoming the Stranger” Dr. Larry Welborn, Professor of the New Testament at Fordham University, guided us on a lively survey through the Gospels and their teaching on hospitality and welcome to all people, providing his expert...
Celebrating Difference: Beyond the Melting Pot Our Minister for Children, Youth, and Family Formation, Lucy Breidenthal Bernardin, led us in conversation around matters of diversity and our common life as a parish. What does it mean to celebrate...
Today we welcomed author Rick Hamlin, who spoke about his newly published work, Pray for Me: Finding Faith in a Crisis.
“Blue Christmas”—The clergy of St. Bart’s in the Great Hall discussed the shadow side of the cheerful season. As nostalgia reminds us of how things used to be, the clergy shared thoughts on how to guard and nourish our...
At today’s Forum, Dr. Patrick Hornbeck, a St. Bart’s member and Chair of the Theology department at Fordham University, built on and expanded from our most recent evening adult class, “The End of White Christian...
Today we welcomed J. Chester Johnson, author of Auden, the Psalms, and Me, and learned about his work with the great poet W. H. Auden, as well as his story of their committee's re-translation of the Psalms contained in the current Book of...
Parishioner Nick Stuart talked about one of his latest documentaries, Milwaukee 53206, which addresses the issue of mass incarceration in the United States. The film, shown at Congress last year, is now at the heart of a campaign designed to help...
In today’s Forum. Matthew Moretz introduced the spectacular sequence of sixteen capitals carved by the Piccirilli Brothers in our church and discussed these works of art in close-up detail, each their own dramatic sequence featuring vital...
Today we welcomed Dr. Sarah Ruden for a lively discussion on her recent scholarly work. Dr. Ruden is the author of The Face of Water: A Translator on Beauty and Meaning in the Bible, and the translator of a new version of Augustine’s...
