When the Anglican Communion’s standing committee completed five days of closed-door sessions in London, members emerged claiming greater transparency about process and a renewed commitment to mission.

The standing committee heard reports of three new Communion-wide projects: an evangelism and church growth initiative, launch of a new Anglican relief, development and advocacy alliance, and a health insurance pilot project in Tanzania, promoted by the Communion’s official health network.

On the first day the committee had to negotiate sensitive issues about its membership, as this was the first meeting under a new constitution [PDF]. A plan to replace a laywoman from South Africa with a member of the clergy would have been out of order under the old constitution. The Rev. Canon Janet Trisk sat outside the meeting until told the way was clear for her to take part.

There were questions about the eligibility of the recently consecrated Bishop of Connecticut, the Rt. Rev. Ian T. Douglas, to continue on the committee because he was originally elected as a priest. In both instances critics remain unconvinced that the constitutional requirements were met.

Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori acknowledged that her continued service on the standing committee depends on whether she is re-elected during the next Primates’ Meeting in early 2011.

“I don’t know if I will be returning to this group or not,” she told Episcopal News Service, “but I must say that it has been a privilege to serve the Communion in this way.”

Lurking too were questions about the action by the Archbishop of Canterbury to suspend some provinces from representation on international ecumenical bodies. Archbishop Rowan Williams and the Secretary General, the Rev. Canon Kenneth Kearon, told the committee the archbishop’s action was not unilateral. Nor was it punitive in intention, but had been taken following breaking of agreed moratoria. There were indications that more action might be taken over the actions of other provinces.

Reports confirm that debate was intense at times. The committee rejected a motion by Dato’ Stanley Isaacs, a lay lawyer from Malaysia, to suspend the Episcopal Church from the Communion.

The next Anglican Consultative Council will debate a recommendation to increase the number of primates on the standing committee to eight, to equal ACC representatives. Some ACC members are wary of increasing the role of the primates.

Skirmishes over details are relatively minor compared to constitutional issues now beginning to emerge.

Ahead of the meeting the Anglican Communion Office announced that the old, unincorporated constitution had been replaced by new ACC articles of association following registration with the U.K. Charity Commission.

This change poses a raft of new questions. Is it right for a key instrument of the Anglican Communion to be enshrined in U.K. law in this way? Are there latent conflicts with the proposed Anglican Covenant, the role of the Lambeth Conference and the Primates’ Meeting? Does the new arrangement partly disenfranchise ordinary ACC members?

As he has done before, Archbishop Williams questioned whether the Communion’s structures are adequate for the 21st century. He pressed for further review, “So when it comes to looking at the complex questions of the Communion we have a better foundation upon which to build.”

Transparency has always been an issue in the operation of Anglican Communion machinery. Some meetings of the Episcopal Church’s bodies, such as Executive Council or the House of Bishops, are open to journalists, although both bodies also declare executive sessions regularly. The standing committee adheres more closely to a British model of closed meetings.

Up to now the communications pattern was to distribute draft minutes to a just a few officials among member churches and to publish completed minutes later. This may have served in the distant past when the instruments of Communion rarely attracted scrutiny. Those days are gone.

In absence of adequate briefings, journalists and bloggers relied on informal sources and often resorted to guesswork. Nor was there any system for rebutting inaccuracies or misinformation.

Appointment of a new director of communication at the Anglican Communion office, Jan Butter, and publication of daily briefings represents a new attitude.

The next meeting of the Anglican Consultative Council will be asked to review issues of structures and their operation in more depth.

The ACC will hold its next meeting at Auckland Cathedral, New Zealand, with the Most Rev. John Paterson, former primate and ACC chairman, taking charge of local arrangements. Dates are yet to be announced.

John Martin, in London