The Rev. Bruce Forbes
HONORARY ASSOCIATE
The Rev. Bruce W. Forbes has been on the clergy staff of St. Bartholomew’s since 1964, undoubtedly a record of sorts.
Bruce was born in the far reaches of western New York, where he went to the same public school for twelve years. Then on to the University of Michigan, where he received his bachelor's degree in French. He then continued his education at Harvard, where he received a master's degree in Romance Languages.
Almost immediately thereafter he joined the Foreign Service and was sent to Palermo, where he perfected his Italian for five years. A short stint in Prague followed. Bruce found himself among the expendables when the Communist government ordered a drastic cut in U.S. personnel. He drove on into Paris and offered his services at the Consulate. He then began eight years in that city, the latter part of which was spent as an employee of the American Express.
It was during this period that he received a call to enter the priesthood of the Episcopal Church. He had been involved in various ministries at our cathedral church in Paris, then a hurried trip back to the states to meet with the Bishop of Western New York, who accepted him as a postulant. He enrolled at the General Theological Seminary and entered the three-year program, emerging with a master's degree in divinity.
His bishop assigned Bruce as curate at St. Luke’s Church in Jamestown, New York. Ordination to the priesthood followed after six months. After 2 1/2 years he was called to St. Bartholomew’s by the then rector Terence J. Finlay.
Thus Bruce’s odyssey to St. Bartholomew’s. After various ministries he has become chiefly involved in pastoral work among the elder members of the parish and those in the hospitals. He has baptized the children of those at whose marriage he has officiated and perhaps even has prepared for confirmation. Email: