Over 200 Serrans gathered in Indianapolis last week for Serra’s 83rd International convention! Over the course of three days at the Hyatt Regency in Downtown Indianapolis, Serrans enjoyed leadership training, education, inspiring talks, daily Mass, Eucharistic Adoration, and fellowship with friends old and new.
Like all Serra conventions, this one featured truly excellent speakers. Fr. Eric Augenstein, Vocations Director for the Archdiocese of Indianapolis (pictured above), was a standout presenter, discussing how to create a culture of vocations among the current, digital device-obsessed, Tik Tok generation.
At the Delegates Meeting that capped off the official business aspect of the convention, Serra International installed and welcomed its new President, Margo Geddie, of the Serra Club of Houston, Texas, USA. A senior vice president in wealth management at Morgan Stanley, Margo is also an avid traveler and has been instrumental in starting Serra Clubs around the world. Most recently, her pioneering efforts bore fruit in new Serra Clubs in Cologne, Germany, and as of July 2026, Dubai, U. A. E.
A major development from the convention is the adoption of the vocation of ordained permanent deacons to the official Serra objectives and purposes in our constitution, which now read:
The objectives and purposes of SERRA INTERNATIONAL are:
- to foster and promote vocations to the ministerial priesthood in the Catholic Church as a particular vocation to service, and to support priests in their sacred ministry;
- to encourage and affirm vocations to the ministry of the permanent diaconate in the Catholic Church;
- to encourage and affirm vocations to consecrated religious life in the Catholic Church; and
- to assist its members to recognize and respond in their own lives to God’s call to holiness in Jesus Christ and through the Holy Spirit.
Recognizing the essential support provided by permanent deacons to our priests and Catholic Church, the Serra membership voted to include their ordained vocation as rightfully a part of our mission. Stay tuned for the upcoming The Serran magazine featuring words and pictures from the event.
