On July 16-19, 2018, the Provincial Custody of St. Francis in Kenya celebrated an Extraordinary Custodial Chapter, led by the Provincial Custos, Friar Kazimierz SZULC. He was joined by friars from the Mother Province of St. Maximilian M. Kolbe in Poland (Gdańsk), namely Friar Jan MACIEJOWSKI Minister Provincial; Friar Leszek ŁUCZKANIN, Provincial Econom; Friar Robert KOZIELSKI, Provincial Secretary for Missions and Friar Tadeusz ŚWIĄTKOWSKI, the Assistant General for the African Federation of Conventual Franciscans (AFCOF).
Invited facilitators at the Chapter included: Friar Jude WINKLER, Assistant General for the Conventual Franciscan Federation (CFF); Friar Wojciech KULIG, General Exactor and Friar Robert LEŻOHUPSKI of the Vatican Penitentiary.
During the four days of focused presentations and debates, the thirty-eight Capitulars thoroughly discussed issues around the possibility of asking the Mother Province to support the Custody in its bid to become a new Province of the Order.
The work of the Chapter was arranged as follows: Using the Chapter hall, the three facilitators made presentations on issues that determine the erection of a Province, such as the spiritual reasons behind it and legal and economic conditions. Later, the friars developed those topics in group work. At the end, a debate took place in the Chapter hall.
As the Chapter came to a close, all of the Capitulars had expressed their will by voting on the motion presented. Their decision was then submitted for debate and being voted on at the Extraordinary Chapter of the Mother Province, to be held in Danzig, Poland, in November of 2018.
The Custody of Kenya was founded in 1984, established as a Delegation in 1989, and erected as a Custody in 2004. Currently, it has seventy-six friars (forty-two solemnly professed, thirty-one temporarily professed, three novices and nineteen postulants. All of initial formation is carried out in other African Jurisdictions, in accordance with a joint agreement made by the AFCOF and confirmed by the Minister General and his Definitory. Three of the friars affiliated to the Custody come from the Province of St. Maximilian M. Kolbe in Poland (Gdańsk). The remaining seventy-three are from Kenya.
Friar Tadeusz ŚWIĄTKOWSKI Assistant General of AFCOF