General Chapter & New Abbot President
Dom Robert Igo OSB Elected President of the English Benedictine Congregation at Historic 100th General Chapter.
Abbot Brendan, Fr Matthew and Fr Alex Echeandia represented the Belmont Community at at the Congregation's 100th General Chapter, which concluded on Thursday, 9 July 2026, at Kylemore Abbey, Co. Galway. At the conclusion of the Chapter Dom Robert Igo OSB, Abbot of Ampleforth Abbey, was elected as its new President.
Dom Robert, who will also continue to serve as Abbot of Ampleforth Abbey, succeeds Abbot Christopher Jamison OSB of Worth Abbey, who completed nine years of dedicated service as President of the Congregation.
Accepting his election, Dom Robert addressed members of the Congregation gathered at Kylemore Abbey and the wider Benedictine communities of the EBC as he began his four-year term. In his address, Dom Robert thanked the General Chapter for the trust that they had placed in him. He expressed his deep love for his own community and for the EBC and promised to serve to the best of his ability. Adding that he felt “monastic life had much to offer to a world hungry for meaning and purpose”.
Paying tribute to his predecessor, the Congregation acknowledged Abbot Christopher Jamison's leadership and service over the past nine years, in particular acknowledging his significant work to help the Congregation grow in mutual understanding and fraternity.
The election marked the conclusion of the landmark 100th General Chapter, during which 40 delegates from the Congregation’s 16 monasteries gathered at Kylemore Abbey to reflect on the life and mission of the Benedictine family. Alongside leadership elections, discussions focused on the future of monastic life, engagement with younger generations, and responding to the challenges presented by declining vocations.
This year's General Chapter was significant for several historic reasons. It was the first time in the English Benedictine Congregation's more than 400-year history that the Chapter was held in Ireland, and the first occasion on which it took place in a women's monastery, the Monastery of the Immaculate Conception at Kylemore Abbey.
Events were hosted in Kylemore Abbey's new monastery, education and retreat centre, which opened in 2024 and marked the establishment of the first new enclosed women's monastery in Ireland in almost 400 years. The milestone gathering highlighted both the rich heritage of the Congregation and its ongoing commitment to discerning its future in a changing world.
