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, October 18, 2026 Lincoln in the Bardo
Composer Missy Mazzoli previews her new opera based on George Saunders’ novel, the first opera by a female composer to receive its world premiere at the Metropolitan Opera.
Upcoming at The Forum
Sunday, October 25 - From Kanuga to Federal Plaza: A Year of Reporting on the Life and Witness of the Episcopal Church
Sunday, November — 1 Paul, Democracy, and the Corinthians Larry Welborn, Professor Emeritus at Fordham University, highlights democratic impulses within the early Church and the New Testament.
Watch or listen to The Forum from previous weeks below.
As the celebration of the Lunar New Year comes to a close with the Lantern Festival, Ying Yen, Executive Director of the New York Chinese Cultural Center, provides background on the multi-week observance and its place within Chinese culture.
Professor Emeritus at Yale Divinity School John Collins, author of the book "What Are Biblical Values?", tells us what the Bible really says about highly debated ethical issues.
Rob Radtke, President & CEO of Episcopal Relief & Development, reflects on his recent sabbatical, during which he walked the famous Camino de Santiago in Spain.
The Reverend Dr. Maurice Wallace, Professor of English at Rutgers, explains how Martin Luther King, Jr.'s voice served as an asset to him in his ministry.
Scott Thumma, Director of the Hartford Institute for Religion Research at Hartford International University, looks at how the church has transformed in the COVID-19 period and contemplates its future.
Simran Jeet Singh, Executive Director of The Aspen Institute’s Religion & Society Program, talks about growing up as Sikh in South Texas and reflects on the lessons he continues to learn from the teachings of his tradition...
Amy-Jill Levine, prolific author and the Rabbi Stanley M. Kessler Distinguished Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies at Hartford International University for Religion and Peace, places Jesus and Paul within their Jewish context and...
David Silverman, Professor of History at George Washington University and author of This Land is Their Land: The Wampanoag Indians, Plymouth County, and the Troubled History of Thanksgiving, offers a true history of the holiday we celebrate...