The Justice and Peace Commission of the United States Lieutenants of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem established a national office in the nation's capital on August 1, 1999. The broad purpose of the national office is to assist the Lieutenants in their roles as members of the Commission in coordinating the work of the Knights and Ladies of the United States for the promotion of justice and peace in the Holy Land. The establishment of the national office is the result of considerable effort on the part of the leadership of the Order in the United States, Archbishop Renata Martino, KC*HS, and Monsignor Robert L. Stern, KC*HS.

Traditionally, members of the Order in the Lieutenancies of the United States are exemplary in their personal religious practices and most generous in their financial assistance to the Church of the Holy Land, whether indirectly through the good offices of the Grand Magisterium of the Order or directly to institutions, projects and persons in the Holy Land itself.

As a matter of practice, however, the Knights and Ladies of the United States are relatively uninvolved in concerns for justice and peace in the Holy Land, perhaps because of a misunderstanding of the United States principle of separation of church and state. As a special group of well-educated and potentially influential citizens, they are in a unique position to influence the formation of United States public policy concering the Middle East, a determining factor in the achievement of justice and peace in the Holy Land.