The 7th General Conference is directed towards the East. Sri Lanka provided the entry for the Marist Brothers into Asia. Today the whole Institute is invited to look towards the enormous fields that have still to be evangelised in Asia. We are all summoned to raise the vitality of the charism and the Marist mission today.

The Provincials and District Superiors have been invited to familiarise themselves with some of the realities in this part of the world before meeting up with their Brothers in Negobono (Sri Lanka).

The number of members forecast for the seventh General conference is a total of thirty-nine: the Brother Superior General, the Brother Vicar General and the General Councillors who form a group of eight. To them must be added the Brothers Provincial of twenty-six Provinces. This number is completed by the five District Superiors who have the right to participate due to the status of their District as a District.

The number of people invited by the Superior General to the 7th General Conference as observers will be Brother Benito Arbués, former Superior General and Father Joaquín Fernández, former Superior General of the Marist Fathers who will act as chaplain. Also the Brothers Secretaries of the five commissions created at the XX General Chapter: Juan Miguel Anaya (Mission and Government), Michael Flanigan (Laity), and Ernesto Sánchez (Vocations and Religious Life). Also present will be Brother Secretary General, Jean Ronzon; Brother Econome General, Antonio Martínez Fernández; Director of BIS, Dominick Pujia; Postulator, Giovanni Bigotto and the Superior of the Sector of India, brother to Rope Hirudayasamy.

A group of Brothers will dedicate their efforts to supporting the participants in the General Conference as translators: John Allen, Francisco Castellano, José María Ferre, Réal Fournier, Fabricio Galiana, José Luis Grande and Fernando Santamaría. In charge of secretarial services will be Brother Santiago Fernández; communications will be looked after by Brother Antonio Martínez Estaún; general services will be the responsibility of Brother Mervyn Perera. Brother Don Neary will also be present at the General Conference to continue carrying out his habitual duties as Secretary to the Superior General.