Meet Milton Gilder

Greetings, Saint Paul's,

I am Milton Gilder, and I look forward to joining Saint Paul's Norwalk as a curate and assistant priest for the next two years! I am grateful and excited that this community has welcomed me with open arms to walk with you all in your good and divine work of ministry in Norwalk. Let's see what holy mischief God might have us to be and to do!

I am originally from Long Beach, California. I grew up around parents and grandparents and great-grandparents who were active in their local communities and churches as ushers, choir members, food pantry volunteers, interfaith and community organizers, and lent their construction talents to help rebuild the church after two catastrophic fires.

It's no surprise that my career and extracurriculars from childhood to now as an adult have always centered around the church and community. As a teenager, I served on a youth philanthropy board that gave grants to youth-led programs and volunteered at the library as a data analyst, tabulating numbers and creating charts on the library's reading programs. As a young college student at Duke University, I would quickly get involved in my college paper as a photographer and in a campus ministry, serving on the community events, prayer, and prison ministry teams. In my post-college years, I have lived in several Christian intentional communities, sharing what we had in common with our neighbors, committing to daily prayer and regular retreats. 

Before moving to Connecticut for divinity school, I chiefly worked in diverse functions in education, youth development, and ministry. Immediately prior to Yale, I worked at Teachers Pay Teachers, an education technology company, working with internal stakeholders on sales and product marketing strategy. Before transitioning to education technology, I  spent several years in secondary education and Christian youth leadership development. Most recently at Duke Divinity School, I directed the Duke Youth Academy, a year-long ecumenical youth leadership and service learning program that expanded young people’s imagination and service in the church and beyond. I was the last Director and was responsible for facilitating its closure in my final year there. Previously, I launched a career and college readiness program at a Christian parachurch organization in Walltown - a historic Black and Brown neighborhood in Durham, North Carolina. 

At Berkeley Divinity School at Yale, I explored my passions for sustaining institutions and communities by serving on various student boards and clubs, including but not limited to the Divinnovation Club, a faith and innovation club; Pennington Legacy Project, a group of students organizing at Yale for James Pennington to receive a posthumous degree to rewrite the wrongs of the past; the Yale Presidential Search Student Advisory Council; and the Yale Divinity Student Government. 

This past summer, I was recently ordained to the diaconate in The Episcopal Church in the Episcopal Church in Connecticut. I anticipate ordination, God willing and people consenting, to the priesthood in January 2027.

I come to Saint Paul's with a rich background, having befriended, lived, and worked amongst the diversity of the Christian tradition and faith communities, and served a myriad of functions and roles across diverse organizations. I look forward to being among you and serving together so that Norwalk might receive Jesus Christ's radical welcome.

Milton