The Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, has announced the names of the people who will sit on a commission set up to tackle the crisis over homosexuality in the Anglican Communion.
The body, created following this month's summit of the Anglican primates at Lambeth Palace, will be chaired by the Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland Dr Robin Eames.
It includes conservative and liberal figures within the Anglican Communion and will start work in the New Year with a deadline of reporting to Dr Williams by the end of September 2004.
The expected consecration on Sunday of Canon Gene Robinson, an openly gay man who has a long term male partner, as Bishop of New Hampshire in the US will be studied by the commission.
The body will also examine the authorisation of same sex blessings in the Diocese of New Westminster, Canada.
Dr Williams said that the commission's main task would be to offer advice on finding a way through the situation, which is threatening to divide the communion.
Dr Eames said he was deeply conscious of the challenge.
The membership includes conservative figures such as Archbishop Drexel Gomez, primate of the West Indies and the Primate of Wales, Archbishop Barry Morgan, who takes a liberal stance on the issue of gays.
The commission membership includes Professor Norman Doe, director of the centre for law and religion at Cardiff University, Wales; Ms Anne McGavin, advocate, and former legal adviser to the College of Bishops of the Scottish Episcopal Church; and the Bishop of Durham, Dr Tom Wright.
Dr Wright earlier this year accused liberals within the Church of England of being motivated by racial superiority in their criticisms of conservative clerics such as the Archbishop of Nigeria, Peter Akinola.