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.
The Reverend Margaret Rose, The Episcopal Church’s Deputy for Ecumenical and Interreligious Relations, discusses our denomination’s commitment to relationships with other faith traditions and reflects on how such engagement may both...
Matthew LaBanca discusses his autobiographical play Communion about a Roman Catholic school teacher who is fired for marrying someone of the same gender. Communion is currently playing Off-Broadway at the cell theatre...
Aaron Scott, the Episcopal Church’s Staff Officer for Gender Justice, draws connections between escalating social and policy violence toward transgender and non-binary people and the ascendancy of White Christian Nationalism and discusses...
The makers of the new documentary Defining Moments: The Life and Leadership of Quiet Revolutionary Frances Hesselbein pay tribute to the long-time friend of St. Bart’s who counseled military and business leaders and served as the CEO of the...
The Right Reverend Mark D. W. Edington, Bishop-in-Charge of the Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe, speaks about the presence of the Episcopal Church outside of the United States.
Rabbi Mychal Springer, ACPE, BCC, Manager of Clinical Pastoral Education at NY-Presbyterian Hospital, explains how hospital chaplains are educated and trained.
Robert Klitzman, Professor of Psychiatry and Director of the Masters of Bioethics Program at Columbia University Medical Center, discusses the role that spirituality can play in medical care.
Liz Blackler, MBE, LCSW, Program Manager for the Ethics Committee at Memorial Sloan Kettering, looks at the ethical issues that can arise at the end of a human life.
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...