Our Priests
Bp Paul Creaner O.S O.C.A.C
Bishop Paul Creaner serves with The Oratory in Belfast, a small Christian community rooted in the Catholic and apostolic tradition.
The Oratory has a particular concern for people who have felt pushed out of church life, hurt by religion, or unsure whether there is still a place for them in the Church.
Paul was ordained priest by the late Bishop Pat Buckley on 28 January 2018. Since then, he has served The Oratory through regular worship, pastoral care, preaching, conversation, and the quiet work of helping to gather a community around the Eucharist.
On 6 June 2026, Paul was consecrated bishop by The Rt Revd Adrian S. Glover, Mar Trimlett, Patriarch of the Old Catholic Apostolic Church Worldwide.
He continues to serve within The Oratory Society and the Old Catholic Apostolic Church, alongside his colleagues in Belfast.
The life of The Oratory is simple. We gather for Mass. We pray. We listen to Scripture. We try to care for one another. We try to be honest before God.
The Eucharist is at the centre of that life. It is not there as decoration, or as a religious performance, but as the place where we meet Christ, receive grace, and are sent back into the world.
For Paul, tradition matters. Not because everything in the past was perfect, but because the faith has been handed on to us, and we have a responsibility to receive it carefully and live it faithfully. The Oratory tries to hold together a serious love for the faith of the Church with real attentiveness to the lives, questions, wounds, and hopes of the people who come through its doors.
At the heart of the community is a simple conviction: Christ is still calling people, still healing people, and still making room for those who thought there was no room left for them.
The worship is Catholic in shape and sacramental in heart, but the welcome is broad. Some people come with strong faith. Some come uncertain. Some come after painful experiences of church. Each person is received with respect.
The Oratory remains small, but there is life in it. Week by week, through Mass, prayer, preaching, pastoral care, and friendship, Paul and his colleagues continue the work of building a community that is faithful to the Gospel and attentive to the world around it.
The aim is not to build something impressive for its own sake. It is to nurture something real: a Christian community where people can come before God without pretence, and find that the Church still has room, mercy, and grace enough for them.
Fr Stefan Craig O.S O.C.A.C
Fr. Stefan has served as a priest of The Oratory since his ordination at The Oratory of St. Brigid, Larne, on 21st July 2024.
From the beginning of his ministry, he has understood priesthood as a calling to create spaces of welcome, compassion, and belonging for all people.
Alongside his fellow clergy within The Oratory, Fr. Stefan is committed to building communities where everyone can encounter Christ freely and authentically, regardless of background, life experience, identity, or past experiences of church.
His ministry is grounded in the belief that the love of God is open to all, and that the Church should reflect the radical welcome shown by Jesus throughout the Gospel.
Through worship, pastoral care, prayer, and community life, Fr. Stefan seeks to help people rediscover hope, dignity, healing, and spiritual connection. He is passionate about creating spaces where people feel safe to ask questions, to grow in faith, and to know they are valued and loved exactly as they are.
At the heart of his ministry is the conviction that no one should feel excluded from the presence of God or from the life of the Church. The Oratory seeks to be a community rooted in compassion, inclusivity, sacramental worship, and authentic human connection — a place where all are welcome, all are loved, and all belong
Bro John Callaghan O.S
Brother John Callaghan
Bro John Callaghan is a priest of the Oratory Society. He was ordained by Bishop Pat Buckley on Sunday, 28 April 2024, just nineteen days before Bishop Pat’s death on Friday, 17 May 2024.
He was the last man to be ordained by Bishop Pat.
Before his ordination, John had been received into the Oratory by Bishop Pat and the congregation as a man seeking to live a life shaped by prayer, simplicity, and the spirit of the hermit tradition.
In making his solemn promise before the Oratory community, he committed himself to a life of prayer for the world, following the ancient pattern of those who step back from the noise of the world in order to hold the world more deeply before God.
His ordination stands as one of Bishop Pat’s final acts of ministry, and as a deeply significant moment in the continuing life of the Oratory Society.
