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, April 27 The Clergy of St. James’s Piccadilly: Ministry Across the Atlantic
The clergy of St. James’s Piccadilly, our partner parish in London, talk with the clergy of St. Bart’s about their remarkable community and their link with St. Bart’s.
Upcoming Speakers at The Forum
May 4Reading the Bible With Your Feet: The Place of Scripture in 21st Century Life
The Reverend Lucy Winkett, Rector of St. James’s Piccadilly in London, reflects on the ongoing relevance of the Bible in modern times.
May 11 Karla Cornejo Villavicencio, author of The Undocumented Americans, on the immigrant experience
May 18 David Blankenhorn, co-founder of Braver Angels, on political polarization
May 25 The Reverend Canon Stephanie Spellers, Assisting Priest, on a non-religious generation and the future of faith
June 1 The Right Reverend Matthew F. Heyd, Bishop of New York on this moment of transition for St. Bart's
June 8 The Reverend Canon Leyla King, Canon for Mission in Small Congregations, Episcopal Diocese of West Texas, on war in Gaza
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 Social Dilemma: Confronting the Perils of Social Media
Vickie Curtis, a screenwriter for the acclaimed Netflix documentary The Social Dilemma, looks at the terrifying ways in which social media has impacted our lives.
Decolonizing Christianity
The Reverend Dr. Miguel de la Torre, Professor of Social Ethics and Latinx Studies at Iliff School of Theology in Denver, explains why it is important to de-couple Christianity and whiteness. Professor de la...
The Reverend Canon Stephanie Spellers, Canon to the Presiding Bishop for Evangelism, Reconciliation, and Creation, and a frequent guest of St. Bart’s, reflects on the COVID-19 pandemic, a racial reckoning, and the immense transformations...
What can recent scientific thinking about space and time teach us about what we commonly call “the afterlife”? Popular writer, retreat leader, and Episcopal priest Barbara Cawthorne Crafton offers a timely meditation for the Second...
Author and scholar Diana Butler Bass discusses her new book Freeing Jesus: Rediscovering Jesus as Friend, Teacher, Savior, Lord, Way and Presence about the many dimensions of Jesus.
Duke professor Norman Wirzba examines the relationship between what we eat and what we believe. Norman Wirzba is Gilbert T. Rowe Distinguished Professor of Christian Theology and Senior Fellow at the Kenan Institute of Ethics at Duke...
Lauren R. Kerby, who has studied white evangelicals’ relationship with Washington, DC, sheds light on the capitol insurrection we witnessed in January. Dr. Kerby is a lecturer at Harvard Divinity School and the author of Saving History: How...
The Reverend Peter Thompson and Dr. Paolo Bordignon talk with Dr. David Hurd, one of the leading musicians in the Episcopal Church, about his career and compositional work. Dr. Hurd is Organist and Music Director at The Church of St. Mary the...