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 1, 2025 The Renewal of the Church for the Healing of the World: Why the Story of Church Decline is Wrong
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.
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.
What Does the Lord Require?: Bishop Gene Robinson on Faith and JusticeIn 2003, the Right Reverend Gene Robinson made headlines when he was elected the Bishop of New Hampshire, making him the first openly gay person to be elected a bishop in...
The Lessons of the Wilderness (Part 5—The Struggle Continues: Revelation 12)At the present moment, many Christians feel that they are “in the wilderness”: church membership is declining and talk about Christianity is vanishing...
The Lessons of the Wilderness (Part 4—Sojourning in the Wilderness: Perseverance with Confidence)
At the present moment, many Christians feel that they are “in the wilderness”: church membership is declining and talk about...
The Reverend Dr. Dan Matthews, the retired Rector of Trinity Church Wall Street, has served the Episcopal Church with distinction for decades. What is so great about our denomination? Hear the perspective of someone who knows it very well.
The Lessons of the WildernessPart 2—Jesus in the Wilderness: Responding to God’s Call At the present moment, many Christians feel that they are “in the wilderness”: church membership is declining and talk about...
The Lessons of the WildernessPart 1: The Wilderness Generation: Disenthralling Ourselves from IdolatryAt the present moment, many Christians feel that they are “in the wilderness”: church membership is declining and talk about...