It's not unusual for a child to follow a parent into Protestant ministry, but a rare twist on that occurred Saturday in Zelienople, when a father and daughter were ordained together for the Presbyterian ministry.

"This is an answer to prayer," said the Rev. Stephen Cramer, 56, the new pastor of Cross Roads Presbyterian Church in Pine. His daughter, Eliza Cramer, 27, is now associate pastor of John Calvin Presbyterian Church in San Antonio.

They were ordained in Calvin Presbyterian Church, where the Rev. Cramer had long been an active member and elder and where his daughter had worshipped her whole life. Both had sought guidance from the Rev. Graham Standish, Calvin's pastor.

"It was clear to me that, not only were they called to ministry, but both will be really good pastors," the Rev. Standish said.

They said they both felt a call to ministry the same weekend in 2003, although Mr. Cramer didn't mention this to his daughter when she called home during her junior year at the College of Wooster to tell him of her own thoughts. But when he went to Pittsburgh Theological Seminary to pick up some information for her, it was he who applied while she continued to ponder for more than a year.

"I grew up in the church. It always felt like home," she said. "I knew that God was important."

An English major in college, she planned to pursue journalism until editing her college newspaper convinced her that career would not give her the time or space to explore topics in the depth that she wanted. That was when she began to think about seminary and called her father. But it wasn't until after graduation, when she volunteered as an adviser on a youth retreat, that a pastor urged her to consider ministry.

"I always had a heart to serve people and show God's light to them, but I didn't really get it until somebody else pointed it out to me," she said. Eventually she would enroll in Princeton Theological Seminary.

Mr. Cramer said he had been resisting a sense of call to ministry for most of his adult life. For a long time, he told God it was impossible because he lacked the college degree required to enter seminary. He also pointed out that he had a wife and family to care for, and couldn't give up a good career as a salesman for heavy equipment used in stone and gravel quarries.

He had enrolled in college in 1970 but dropped out a year later for financial reasons. At the time, the job market for college graduates wasn't good, so, after working for a time, he enrolled in a technical school to study auto and diesel mechanics. Before his 1977 graduation he married his wife, Karen, a teacher. Over the course of their marriage he took one or two college classes a year, finally graduating with a degree in social sciences from Pitt in 2000.

In 2003 the call to ministry felt stronger than ever, and then his daughter's call sent him to the seminary admissions office. He filled out an application for the Master of Arts in Religion program, which doesn't lead to ordination, thinking he would use it as a stepping stone to a doctorate that would allow him to teach religious studies at a college. He was still trying to dodge his true calling, he said.

"I knew from talking to pastors that you deal with many difficult situations. You see people at their most joyful and their most sorrowful times. It's a job that demands a lot of a person. Even though I felt a call, I didn't want to do it," he said.

As he considered whether he could really pursue the degree, he lost his job due to a downturn in the quarry industry.

"I like to think of it as God clearing the way for my eventual call," he said.

A few days later he was notified that he had received a scholarship to Pittsburgh Theological Seminary.

After completing all the requirements for his Master of Arts degree, he realized that it wasn't what he should be doing. He asked Calvin Presbyterian Church and Beaver-Butler Presbytery to accept him as a candidate for ordination and stayed in seminary to pursue his Master of Divinity degree.

Some idealistic students enroll in seminary only to be discouraged when they encounter theological controversies. That did not happen to Mr. Cramer.

"Going to seminary has strengthened my faith and given me a new appreciation for the organized church and the way things are done," he said.

In 2005 his daughter enrolled at Princeton.

"We read each other's papers and talked about them," said Ms. Cramer, who started her duties at the Texas church in June. "I don't preach a sermon until I have my dad read it."

Initially it seemed unlikely that they could be ordained together. Mr. Cramer had started seminary two years before his daughter, though his change of degree meant he would graduate just one year before her. But ordination in the Presbyterian Church (USA) requires more than a degree. The candidate must have a call from a church. A call was slow in coming for Mr. Cramer.

While he waited, Ms. Cramer finished her degree -- and received a call even before her graduation. It then appeared that she would be the first ordained. But on Aug. 10, Cross Roads Presbyterian Church issued a call to Mr. Cramer. No one was happier than his daughter.

"We've been on a journey together, and the fact that we are being ordained together is amazing," she said.