What is a Chapter and what is its purpose…

Every three years, the Friars Minor of the Custody of the Holy Land prepare to live and celebrate the Custody Chapter. A representative body of friars, chosen according to the regulations of the Custody and coming from many parts of the world, will meet between the 4th and the 15th of July in the Curia and the Monastery of St. Saviour’s in Jerusalem.

The first task will be to elect those who will support and advise the Custos of the Holy Land in his service to the Custody: 1) his Vicar, who will assist him during his mandate and 2) the Discreets (advisers), for a term of three years, one for each of the six language groups that characterize the internationality of the Custody of the Holy Land.

The theme chosen for this Chapter is “You will be my witnesses” (Acts 1,8). Bearers of the gift of the Gospel in the Holy Land. Inspired and guided by the Word of God they will search to understand and actualize God’s will in this special Land.

With an Instrumentum Laboris prepared ad hoc, and other Reports (beginning with the Chapter Visitator and President, followed by the Custos and continuing with the other various sectors), the Chapter members will draft the guidelines that will form the basis of the life and the mission of the Custody for the coming three years. From the guidelines, they will deal with issues that are more technical and specific in order to accomplish them.

In a kind of “itinerancy”, there will be moments of prayer in the main sanctuaries of the Holy City: the opening of the Chapter will be in Dominus Flevit; a penitential moment in the Basilica of Gethsemane; a celebration in the Cenacle – the first headquarters of the Franciscan friars in the Holy Land and a time of Eucharistic adoration in the Convent of the Poor Clares.

Besides the work of the Chapter, its members will also have the possibility of meeting the Apostolic Nuncio, His Excellency Msgr. Antonio Franco and the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, His Beatitude Msgr. Fouad Twal and at the end of the Chapter the Minister General of the Order, Fra José Rodríguez Carballo will pay a visit. The Chapter will conclude on the 15th of July with the Concelebration of the Holy Sepulchre for the Solemnity of the Dedication of the Basilica.
Translated by Sinéad Martin