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...
Alexandra Petri of the Washington Post will speak on her new book satirizing American history, US History: Important American Documents (I Made Up).
Minette Norman, author of the new book, The Boldly Inclusive Leader, explores how to foster inclusion in our workplaces, communities, and everyday lives.
Denise Mazzei, Associate Professor of Business Management, Culinary Institute of America will explore the nature and importance of hospitality. How might a professional perspective of hospitality enlighten the welcome we extend to others?
The Reverend Mark Fowler, Chief Executive Officer of the Tanenbaum Center for Interreligious Understanding will share tools to negotiate issues involving religion effectively and with respect in workplaces and schools.
Fordham University professor Larry Welborn, who has taught popular classes at St. Bart’s for several years, introduces his new class on the role that women played in the first few centuries of the Jesus movement, brought to light by a...
John Cassel, Treasurer and Board Vice Chair, reviews the remarkable story of the Seraj Library Project’s efforts to bring libraries and library programs to Palestinian communities in the Occupied Territories. The Seraj Libraries provide...
The Reverend Kevin Van Hook II, the Executive Director of Episcopal Charities of New York, discusses the ways in which our Diocese is caring for migrants and others in need.
The Right Reverend Dean E. Wolfe and other members of St. Bart’s who traveled to the Holy Land in May reflect on their experience.
Architectural historian Kathleen Skolnik, who teaches at Roosevelt University in Chicago, pays homage to the prominent twentieth century muralist Hildreth Meière and discusses the works she created for Rockefeller Center, Temple Emanu-el...
Alexander Pattavina, Director of St. Bartholomew's Choristers, and friends discuss the impact that singing can have on a young person's life.
