BY ERIKA ANDERSON

Staff Writer

ATLANTA--The mission of Serra Atlanta is twofold. Members work to foster and promote religious vocations in the archdiocese as well as deepen their own spiritual lives.

Through service, prayer and fellowship, Serrans strive to carry out this mission in their everyday lives.

At a meeting held in early October, Father Kevin Hargaden, parochial vicar at St. Joseph’s Church in Marietta, spoke to members of the three Atlanta Serra Clubs about Pope John Paul II’s call for the Jubilee Year 2000.

Dining on salmon and vegetables at the Atlanta Country Club, Serrans from the Greater Northeast Club and the Metro Club were hosted by the North Metro Club headed by Pat Carden, president.

Father Hargaden began his talk by thanking Serrans personally for their support of his vocation to the priesthood.

“I spent four years in discernment of my vocation and for five years I suffered and enjoyed seminary,” he joked. “The whole time I knew that Serra was behind me and I’ve given a lot of credit to the Serra Club for why I’m standing before you today in black.”

Father Hargaden spoke of the Jubilee Year as a time for giving praise to God.

“We have a lot to celebrate and a lot to rejoice in,” he said. “Our God is with us.”

He explained that the origin of the jubilee year is recorded in the Old Testament Book of Leviticus. Every 50 years a jubilee was called.

“It was a time for making things new and whole that had fallen apart and been unraveled by sin and death,” he explained.

During a year of jubilee, people were called to forgive the debts of others, return ownership of the land to God and break the chains of slavery, he said, although there is no historical evidence that the call was actually lived out faithfully in ancient Israel.

“But it’s that high ideal of the biblical sense of jubilee that our pope is calling us to,” he said.

Father Hargaden told the Serrans how they might be able to carry out the Jubilee Year 2000 in their own lives.

“It’s a chance to bring together those who have grown distant or (who) may have grown completely apart,” he said. “The important part of celebrating the Jubilee is the sense of forgiveness, the sense of mercy and the sense of celebrating that we are one, because we are one in our baptism in Christ.”

“John Paul has called us as our pope, telling us that we need to celebrate the mystery of the Incarnation--a year of Christmas, if you will, because it’s that Incarnation--that coming of Christ in our midst--that makes our humanity so very sacred,” Father Hargaden continued. “In our struggles He’s walking with us, we see His face in the elderly, in the gleam of a smile of a toddler and in our co-workers and families.”

He told the Serrans that Christians are called to be “agents of mercy and redemption.”

“We need to look for those little ways in our hearts that may be broken and make sure that our Jubilee, our wholeness in Christ, is not just a bunch of words spoken by the pope,” he said. “We need to forgive ourselves, forgive others and bring alive the message of the Jubilee.”

Serrans who attended the luncheon believe that opportunities to get together allow them to deepen their own spirituality. Carden said she was impressed with Father Hargaden’s knowledge.

“He’s the youngest priest in the archdiocese and to have this young priest have so much wisdom is wonderful,” she said. “He’s just so wise. He’s really been blessed.”

Carden said that the three Serra groups get together a few times during the year, but that each of the individual clubs meets monthly.

“With all three clubs meeting, we do get the time to talk with one another and that helps us bond, which really strengthens us so we can meet our goals,” she said.

Mary Elkins, another member of the North Metro Club, also believes it is beneficial for members of Serra to get together.

“We do a lot of different work in the diocese and by bringing everyone together it reminds you that you are part of a bigger picture,” she said. “It brings unity to us here in the archdiocese and gives us a better working relationship with each other.”

Joe Krygiel, district governor of Serra Atlanta, said that the luncheons give the Serrans another opportunity to show their commitment to and support for the priests of the archdiocese.

“When we meet like that, we honor the priests,” he said. “The luncheons are a witness of our love for them.”

The website for Serra is www.serraatlanta.org.

SERRANS -- (L-r) Ken Murphy of St. Jude’s Church, Atlanta, Frank O’Connor of Immaculate Heart of Mary Church, Atlanta, and Ed Lucas of Holy Family Church, Marietta, gather for a luncheon meeting of the three Atlanta area Serra Clubs.
Photos by Michael Alexander

LUNCHEON SPEAKER -- Father Kevin Hargaden, parochial vicar at St. Joseph’s Church, Marietta, speaks about the Jubilee Year 2000 to members of three Serra Clubs in the Archdiocese of Atlanta.