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.
Sunday, June 8, 2025 A Personal Story of Palestine
The Reverend Canon Leyla King, a Palestinian American priest and the author of the forthcoming memoir Daughters of Palestine, provides a way in to the conversation about the current realities in the Holy Land through the lens of her family’s experiences as Palestinian Christians.
Upcoming Speakers at The Forum
June 15 Jon Key, author of Black, Queer & Untold, on art, sexuality, and race
June 22 Jacqueline Goldsby, Professor of African-American Studies and English at Yale University, and Charles Cuykendall Carter, Assistant Curator at New York Public Library, on James Baldwin
June 29 The Reverend Mihee Kim-Kort, co-pastor of First Presbyterian Church in Annapolis, Maryland, on queerness and faith
Watch or listen to The Forum from previous weeks below.
Peter DeMenocal, President and Director of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, discusses efforts currently being made to better understand the mysteries of the ocean and the role that ocean-related solutions can play in the fight against...
Julian Wamble, Assistant Professor of Political Science at George Washington University, discusses the role that the Black electorate plays in American elections.
Nearly two decades after its initial publication, parishioner Steve Ross discusses his graphic novel Marked, a subversive, award winning and genre-defying comic based on the Gospel according to Mark.
The Reverend Peter Thompson presents an overview of the Revised Common Lectionary, the system of assigned readings from the Bible that is used at St. Bart’s and throughout the English-speaking world.
On the day her new book, Living Well: Inspired by the Story behind the Bible, is released, Starr Tomczak reflects on how the Bible can help us make sense of our own lives.
Irwin Leopando, St. Bart’s parishioner and Chair of the English Department at LaGuardia Community College, explores the work of educational philosopher Paulo Freire, paying particular attention to its theological implications. His book on...
Attorney and St. Bart's parishioner Elizabeth Kelley reflects on years of experience helping people with mental disabilities navigate the criminal justice system.