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, September 21, 2025
A Masterpiece Hiding in Plain Sight: The Triple Portal Entrance to St. Bart’s Church
Carole Bailey French, President of St. Bartholomew’s Conservancy, discusses the majestic Triple Portal entrance to St. Bart's and efforts currently underway to preserve it for future generations
Upcoming Speakers at The Forum
September 28 The Reverend Dr. Duncan Dormor, General Secretary, United Society Partners in the Gospel
October 5 The Reverend Ryan Kuratko, PhD, Chaplain to Canterbury Uptown, and the Reverend Megan Sanders, Chaplain to Canterbury Downtown, The Episcopal Diocese of New York
October 12 Dante Tipiani, Senior Navigator & Community Builder, CaringKind
October 19 The Reverend Frederick A. Davie, Senior Executive Vice President for Public Theology and Civic Engagement, Union Theological Seminary
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...