The Rev. Aidan Stoddart-Williams
Associate
Father Aidan was born in Worcester, Massachusetts and spent most of his childhood in Charlottesville, Virginia. He cannot decide whether he’s more of a southerner or a northerner. On the one hand, he loves oysters. On the other hand, he regularly uses the word “y’all.”
Aidan attended college in the Boston area, where he became connected to the Society of St. John the Evangelist, an Anglican monastic community whose contemplative spirituality informs his own. He continues to visit SSJE regularly for retreats and will happily talk to anyone about the rich heritage of monastic prayer.
He prepared for priestly ordination at Berkeley Divinity School at Yale, where he met his wife, Mother Peyton Stoddart-Williams. She serves here in New York at the Church of the Heavenly Rest. Aidan and Peyton live on the Upper West Side of Manhattan with a large dog named Henley and a large cat named Thomas Merton.
When Aidan isn’t busy leading worship, managing ministries to newcomers, or directing education programs at the parish, you can usually find him snuggling with his animals, exploring a park with Peyton, reading a fantasy novel, or rambling passionately about the genius of J.R.R. Tolkien.