About Us

Paul J. Hartt attended New York University and earned a B. A. in Philosophy.  He next attended the "Great Books" program at the Graduate Institute at Saint John's College in Annapolis, Maryland, and worked in admissions at NYU.  While there, he married his wife Jeffrey, and they have been married thirteen years.  After discerning a call to the priesthood, Paul went on to receive a Master of Divinity degree from Berkeley Divinity School at Yale, and his son, Samuel, was born in New Haven.  Paul served as curate at St. Mark's Episcopal Church in Mystic, Connecticut, and came to St. Peter's after serving six years as Rector of St. John's, Delhi, and Priest-in-Charge at St. Peter's, Hobart.  He currently serves as president of the Standing Committee of the Diocese of Albany.

The Rev. Dr. Nicolás Hernández, Jr., candidate to the Priesthood, Diocese of Albany, holds a PhD in Hispanic Literatures from the   Field of Romance Studies at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, with specializations in 19th & 20th Century Peninsular literature and Spanish American literature since modernism, his minor field is Comparative Literature. Deacon Hernandez earned an MA in Hispanic Literatures incidental to his doctoral work at Cornell. As an undergraduate at  Iona College, New Rochelle, NY, he earned a BA with majors in French and Spanish. Prior to taking the Episcopal Church General Ordination Exams, he had graduated from St. Bernard’s School of Theology and Ministry, Rochester, NY, with the degree of Master of Arts in Theology. Deacon Nicolas Hernandez and his wife Edmée Palén-Hernández met in graduate school, where they married in 1978. Edmée, a  librarian, is also an alumna of the Field of Romance Studies. She   then earned the MLS at the School of Library and Information   Science, University at Albany. They have an adult daughter, Edmée Sofía Hernández. Previous to his assignment to St. Peter’s, he and Edmée were   communicants of the Cathedral of All Saints for six years, where  they were active in lay ministry. For over 12 years, he has served as on-call hospital chaplain in the Capital District.