Father, daughter ordained together

ZELIENOPLE, Pa., Sept. 11 (UPI) -- A father and daughter were ordained together as Presbyterian ministers in a ceremony in western Pennsylvania.

Stephen Cramer was inspired to enter seminary partly because of his daughter's decision to enter the ministry, originally planning to get a Master's degree that would not have prepared him for ordination, the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported. He ended up entering two years before Eliza Cramer and graduating a year earlier.

"This is an answer to prayer," Cramer said after the ordination Saturday at Calvin Presbyterian Church in Zelienople, their family church.

Cramer is to be pastor of Cross Roads Presbyterian Church in Pine, Pa. Eliza Cramer is assistant pastor at John Calvin Presbyterian Church in Pine.

For Cramer, 56, the road to seminary was a long one. He dropped out of college after his freshman year and then received a degree in 2000 after years of part-time study.

Eliza Cramer began feeling a pull to the ministry while she was in college.

While they were in seminary, father and daughter critiqued each other's papers, a habit they still keep up.

"I don't preach a sermon until I have my dad read it," Eliza Cramer said.