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.
Transforming Lives, Transforming the Church, Transforming the World: The State of St. Bart’s 2019
On Celebration Sunday, as our program year begins, Bishop Dean Wolfe offers an overview of where St. Bart’s is and where it will be...
Pilgrimage Then and Now: Paul’s Journey to Ephesus, and MineIn the Acts of the Apostles, Paul travels to the Greek city of Ephesus, spreading the Good News of Jesus, baptizing new believers and healing the sick. He also came into conflict...
Let my People Go: Liberation in the Bible
The Israelites escape from Egypt; the sick are healed; Jesus triumphs over death and sin: throughout the Bible, people experience liberation -- freedom from all that oppresses them and holds them back...
There's Something About John: What's Different in the Fourth Gospel?
The Reverend John Wirenius, Deacon, discusses the unique way in which John tells the story of Jesus' life and outlines the main differences between John's outlook and the...
Luke-Acts as Sweeping Epic: Jesus’ Ministry and the Early Church
Many churchgoers are not aware that both the Gospel according to Luke and the Acts of the Apostles were written by the same author, who likely intended them to be read...
Blessed Are You: The Ethics of the Sermon on the Mount
In the Gospel of Matthew, most of Jesus’ ethical teaching is concentrated in chapters 5 through 7, which compromise what is often called the “Sermon on the Mount.” The...
The Sacrifice of Isaac: Reading the Same Story Two WaysThe sacrifice of Isaac (Genesis 22:1–19) is one of the most striking stories in all of Scripture and has inspired a great deal of theological and philosophical thinking, including Soren...
How can an ancient library of books speak to modern challenges and concerns? Is the Bible still relevant in a twenty-first century world? Join Associate Rector for Formation & Liturgy Peter Thompson for a viewing of a talk by Yale Divinity...
Ordained by Angels: The Life and Ministry of an AIDS ChaplainThe Reverend Canon Jerry Anderson was an openly gay Episcopal priest serving in Washington, DC when the AIDS crisis struck in the early 1980s. As his partner and countless friends died...