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.
Transition is a familiar theme for people of faith. As St. Bart’s embarks on a leadership transition, speakers from our community explore the ways in which transition can stimulate self-reflection, improve one’s relationship with God, and foster growth.
Bob Kiely, Ray Vandenberg, and the Reverend Meredith Ward, co-leaders of the St. Bart’s retirement group, discuss retirement as a major life transition.
Flora Ferrara, Keith Reinhard, and the Reverend Meredith Ward speak about recovering from loss and the grief group held under the auspices of St. Bart’s.
Watch or listen to The Forum from previous weeks below.
Julie Ross, Executive Director of Parenting Horizons and author of How to Hug a Porcupine: Negotiating the Prickly Points of the Tween Years, draws on over three decades of experience working with children and families to offer insights about the...
Liz Reiner Platt, Director of the Law, Rights, and Religion Project at Columbia Law School, discusses current legal trends in religious liberty law, especially from a progressive perspective. Though “religious freedom” most commonly...
University of Michigan musicologist Mark Clague, author of the book O Say Can You Hear? A Cultural Biography of “The Star-Spangled Banner,” discusses Americans’ changing relationship with their national anthem.
The Right Reverend Deon Johnson, Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Missouri, reflects on his experience as the first openly gay Black bishop in The Episcopal Church and the ways in which the Church is still working towards the full inclusion of...
Film Director Yuval David and Executive Producer Mark McDermott discuss their new documentary, Wonderfully Made, which explores the challenges of LGBTQ+ Roman Catholics. The film is accompanied by an art project, which aims to expand the viewers...
The Reverend Robbie Pennoyer, Head of Lower Manhattan’s Grace Church School, reflects on the state of our young people and the role that faith can play in their lives.
Roxanne Stone and Katelyn Beaty, co-hosts of the podcast Saved by the City, both grew up in white evangelical America and now live in New York City. Together they examine Christianity, evangelicalism, and other religious topics from the...
Evangeline Warren, who grew up at St. Bart’s, talks about the emerging role of young adults within the Episcopal Church. Eva, the daughter of Mary Abraham and Rob Radtke, is currently working towards her Ph.D. in sociology at Ohio State...
The Reverend Canon Faiz Basheer Jerjes, the priest of St. George’s Church in Baghdad, speaks about conditions on the ground in Iraq and the difficult work of serving as a Christian leader there. Thank you to Stand With Iraqi Christians for...
My Name is Pauli Murray Betsy West, co-director, and Dana DiCarlo, co-executive producer of the documentary My Name is Pauli Murray, talk about the beloved Episcopal priest, lawyer, scholar, poet, and civil rights activist who once attended...
As the United Kingdom prepares for its first coronation in nearly seventy years, Maya Jasanoff, the Coolidge Professor of History at Harvard University, reflects on the role that the British monarchy has played over the past few centuries and...
