It’s not every day that a Romanian is ordained, so when a Romanian was recently ordained at the Philadelphia District Assembly on April 22, it was a time of celebration.
Paula (Cini) Creely grew up in Sighisoara, Romania, where she started attending the Church of the Nazarene as a teenager and became very active in the life of the church. After graduating high school, she attended European Nazarene College in Büsingen, Germany. She then moved to the United States and continued her studies for ordination.
Paula is married to Gary Creely. Together they pastor the Macungie, Pennsylvania, Church of the Nazarene. When they arrived in Macungie, there were no children in the church. Paula has been active in developing a thriving children’s ministry and in helping the church to double in size in three years. Paula and Gary have a five year old son named Everett.
Two people influential in Paula’s life were able to travel from Romania to attend the ordination service. Paula’s mother, Magda Cini, who pastors the Tigmandru Church of the Nazarene, and Roberta Bustin, Mission Corps missionary who served as pastor of the Sighisoara Church of the Nazarene while Paula was growing up there.
Roberta has known Paula for almost 16 years and when asked to describe her feelings about the ordination she said, “I was very excited … I was also thinking about how proud I was of her that she persevered to finish her course of study even when it was not easy (studying in a language which was not her first language, studying after she had a family and church responsibilities, etc.)”
There are 3 ordained Romanians in the Church of the Nazarene – notably all women: Magdalena Balaban in Romania, Simona Berdowski in Poland, and Paula Creely.
“Paula’s passion is to be doing ministry,” Bustin said, “She is a natural leader [and] I see her continuing in ministry, thinking of new ways to do things, developing new ministries and being faithful to God’s call.”
